Washington Post Highlights the Rockledge Ornament!

WashPostScreenshot

I had the honor of 3D Modeling and 3D Printing another ornament to represent the Town of Occoquan for the holidays at the Virginia Executive Mansion.

An article about the ornament appeared in the Prince William section of the Washington Post today.  You can read the full article at https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/occoquan-artist-trims-the-governors-tree-with-a-little-festive-3-d-history/2016/12/02/04ebb97c-b80c-11e6-a677-b608fbb3aaf6_story.html

Slides for 3D Printing and Crafts Presentation

Last Thursday night, I had the delight of participating in a Meetup with the Delaware 3D Printing Group. The event was hosted by Printed Solid. The group was kind enough to let me yammer on about my 3D Printed Crafts. 🙂 I very much enjoyed chatting with other printing enthusiasts and left the event invigorated. I should make it a point to do an event like this every November when the fatigue that accompanies Cyber Week looms in my brain. 🙂

For those who missed it, I do have all my slides up on SlideShare.

Using Inkscape and Tinkercad to Customize Halloween Pendants

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

My very first Thingiverse upload was glowing pumpkin pendants/pins for kids.  This video hits briefly on how I print these via Multi-processes in Simplify3D (Spoiler alert – they are three separate prints).  It will also show you how you can import in the pendant template into TinkerCAD and quickly make your own customizations.  Finally, have a drawing you want to use?  I’ll go over using Inkscape to make a SVG file from a black and white image/photo/scan that you can also pull into TinkerCAD to “carve” your pumpkin.
All the pumpkin models, including the template are up on Thingiverse at:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1074202
Need help with Simplify3D Multiple Processes?  I learned from THIS Joel Telling video:
https://youtu.be/ZHe2_h1nQG4
TinkerCAD is free with nothing to install– http://www.tinkercad.com
Finally, Inkscape is also free and can be downloaded at http://www.inkscape.org.
The Starting and Stopping Points of My Processes
0 – 1.5mm – Black or Green
1.5 – 2mm – GlowFill
2mm – rest – Orange

A Companion Piece for the Spinning PokeStop

Yeah, yeah.  I’m slow at making my own videos.  Luckily there are content creators out there who are on their A-game.  Such is the case of Michael Phelps.  He not only printed my Spinning PokeStop.  He not only made a video on the model… but he also modeled and printed a companion piece for it.  He designed a stand to make my PokeStop ornament into an actual PokeStop.  Please check out his video!

Z Endstop Hack for the MakerGear M2

As some background information, the way the MakerGear M2 Homes its Z axis is it has a bolt on the platform that raises and lowers your bed.

Above it, just beneath the X-axis rail, is a switch that triggers when there is contact.

When the printer is homing its Z axis, it raises the bed until the bolt triggers that switch. At that point, the printer considers itself a Z-Home.

MakerGear has some great videos for the maintenance and setup of your machine, including how to do your Z Endstop calibration! Basically you raise your bed until a business card can just fit under the nozzle and then you raise the bolt to ensure it trips the switch at that exact height.

Disclaimer– I love my MakerGear M2 profusely and I will continue to love it profusely. That said, I find the bolt awkward and tough to raise.

One day I needed to update my Z Endstop application and I struggled getting that bolt to do my bidding.

“If only…if only I had something to stick on top of this bolt to make it taller.” I thought.

It turns out I did have something, something that was already a part of my 3D Printing arsensal– Painter’s Tape!

I cut out little squares of painters tape, made a tower, put it on top of my bolt. I fine tuned the tower’s height until my nozzle was a business card height above my bed. BAM! ZEndstop calibration!

Honestly, I never expected this solution to have the staying power it has, but I continue to use it to this day! I was worried about the repeatability of the Z-Home, that there would be variances in run to run in how the painter’s tape compresses, but it has proven to be consistent and reliable. I have also been shocked (SHOCKED) that it weathers travel well.

I have found this painter’s tape hack to help speed up my process of switching nozzles. When I switch to my 0.5mm nozzle for woodFill, I just have to add or remove squares of painter’s tape and I am ready to print.

Not For You?
If my painter’s tape hack is not for you, there are other options in calibration your Z Endstop for the MakerGear M2. This video by MakerGear shows you how to do it the “right” way. In addition, you can print a tool to make that bolt adjustment less awkward.

Fun with Gyro Cubes!

I recently uploaded my remix Gyro Cube to Thingiverse! That’s up at http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1722631 It includes three files:

  1. A “Print in Place” version where all the spheres print in position and work as soon as you remove support material.
  2. A “Snap in Place” version where all the spheres print directly on the bed and you snap them into position after printing.
  3. All the OpenSCAD code for future remixes.

My version is a remix of smorloc’s Big Nippled Parametric Gyro Cube (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:40760) which in turn is a remix of whosawhatsis’s Parametric Gyro Cube (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:19304). A remix of a remix!This video hits on a bunch of things:
1) Using Simplify3D’s Mesh-Separate Connected Surfaces to preview and get a feel for the connections of the existing Gyro Cube models.

  1. My modifications to the Big Nippled Gyro Cube , my thought process behind my new connections, and printing the spheres in place.
  2. Using Simplify3D’s Cross Section View to determine good stopping points for embedding the spheres within each other and
    using Multiple Processes to achieve a five color Gyro Cube on my single extruder machine.
  3. Since my family is completely in love with Pokémon Go, I also go over using Multiple Processes and the Print-in-Place version of in Simplify3D to make a Pokeball Gyro Cube.
  4. Passing on a tip from TimeFramed from the Big Thick Gyro Cube V2 (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:165424) and incorporating a vertical lift to my retractions.

Custom GCode Scripts for Embedded Spheres
=====================================
Ending
G91; relative mode
G1 Z100; lift 100mm

Starting
G90; absolute mode

Processes for Embedded Spheres
(From smallest to largest)
===================================
Sphere 1
-One process for the whole thing

Sphere 2
-0 – 40 mms
-Insert Sphere 1
-40mms on

Sphere 3
-0 – 50 mms
-Insert Sphere 2
-50mms on

Sphere 4
-0 – 60 mms
-Insert Sphere 3
-60mms on

Sphere 5
– 0 – 71 mms
– Insert Sphere 4
– 71 mms on

Custom GCode Scripts for Pokémon Go
=====================================
(When starting I add calls to purge the nozzle due to color changes)

Ending
G91; relative mode
G1 Z100; lift 100mm

Starting
G90 ; absolute mode
G92 E0 ; zero extruder
G1 E25 F225 ; purge nozzle
G92 E0 ; zero extruder

Processes for Pokémon Go
=====================================
– 0 – 35mm – White
– 35mm – 45mm – Black
– 45mm – 80mm – Red

What in the World Has Vicky Been Up To?!!?

I’m back with 3D Printings after a bit of a hiatus and I have a lot to catch you up on!

Printed Solid Grand Opening!
A freaking wonderful, invigorating event. Joel Telling’s overview of the event can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnZqMnokjpw

What does TGAW stand for? That is answered in Joel’s interview with me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REvIWbER_Gc

Anglerfish
Blog post with more details on the creation of my bronzeFill/GlowFill Anglerfish. I do have one more if you happen to covet one. 😉
http://tgaw.com/wp/?p=307

Bow Ties!
I’ll work on a video about their design in Blender and the attachment design in OpenSCAD. It’ll use words like “Texture”, “Baking”, “Displacement Maps” and “Boolean Intersection”. In the meantime, I do have some listed on Etsy at https://www.etsy.com/shop/VickyTGAW

Land’s End Gazebo
The real live gazebo in Sayville, NY can be found here http://www.landsendweddings.com/

Geocoin
Check out the AMAZING family I am designing for. You couldn’t get better inspiration than that!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znnSSlJF79w

Make Your Empty Filament Spools into a Shelf
As promised, the model is up on Thingiverse as well as the original OpenSCAD code.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1677024

Print in Place Gyro Cube!
Wanna beta test my version of the Gyro Cube on YOUR printer? Lemme know!

Thanks for watching! Happy Printing!

Princess Vicky Does a Cold Pull [on the MakerGear M2]

I’ve led a bit of a charmed 3D Printing life.  I’ve had my bobbles and frustrations, but overall, I have been floating by with relatively few worries, a happy little 3D Printing Princess without a care in the world.  La la la la la.

And so it happens I have never ever done a cold-pull.  Well, until recently.

I purchased a bag of used extruder/hot ends from another MakerGear owner.  They arrived with eSUN Cleaner Filament in them and a note to do a cold pull when I was ready to use them.

Now, I know roughly what a cold pull is… and the term is a little self explanatory.  Though one could also argue the term “sweet tea”  is self explanatory as well and I thoroughly baffled a waitress in upper Michigan once with that beverage order.

When it was time to use my “new” nozzles, vaguely knowing the concept of a cold pull wasn’t going to cut it.  I needed some specifics.

For that, Google and this comment from user insta on the MakerGear User Forum helped guide my way.   Here are my steps on the MakerGear M2:

  1. I unplugged the power to everything on the extruder I wanted to remove– my thermistor, the heating block, my 40mm fan, my 50mm fan.
  2. I got out my Allen wrench and removed the fans and the filament drive.
  3. I plugged in the thermistor and the heating block of the new nozzle.  Holding it by the groove mount (I couldn’t get it in the Filament Drive until I removed the eSun filament), I used Simplify3D to heat the nozzle to 240 degrees.
  4. Once there, I pushed the eSun filament with my hand and confirmed it was coming out of the nozzle.
  5. Then I turned off the heat and watched the stats in Simplify3D.
  6. I watched, waited (and regretted not having a better way to hold the nozzle) until the temperature hit 90 and then I tried to pull the filament out by hand.  I actually did not succeed until the temperature hit 80 and I had some help with pliers.  Then the filament pulled out and was the most lovely little, clean whisker.
  7. Once the nozzle finished cooling, I slipped the groove mount into the filament drive and assembled everything back together (Being careful to make sure the 50mm fan goes into Fan 0 and the 40 mm fan goes into Fan 2)
  8. And after that I checked my Z-End Stop calibration by Homing the Z-Axis and checking with a business card.

What I’ll Do Differently Next Time

So…. I had the foresight to grab a pair of needle nosed plyers with the intent of holding my hot end by the groove mount while it was hot.  Know what I didn’t do?  Test those plyers to make sure they’d be able to get a good grip on that rounded surface.  So I ended up holding that thing with my bare hands.  It was do-able.. but did get uncomfortable at times.  Next time I will be better prepared.  If not better plyers, then gloves.  : )

 

 

 

Blogging the trials and successes of 3D Modeling, 3D Printing…and trying to make a business out of the whole thing. : )