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Tips/Techniques What are you printing today?

Tips/Techniques
Translucent PETG. It's been sitting in the AMS for a couple weeks now after initial drying, so I'm sure I could clear it up a bit by drying it some more. Surprisingly strong though. Very flexible, and It survived my halfass attempt to break it. I wanted to see how tough it was, but I didn't really want to break it, so I didn't test it to failure lol
 
Mason Jar... Mason Condo...


Since spring is here, the mason bees will get a new home this year:
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This is a three piece condo for 21 nests. It uses those commercial cardboard tubes.

The back screws to the fence post; the centre block is removable; the bird guard keeps weather and birds out.

I made these from PETG-HF which has proven to be quite weather tolerant so far. Every year, fresh tubes are used. Last year's tubes and pupae are removed and put in a place which is dry with sunshine to warm them up and begin the hatch. After a few days pollinating, the solitary bees go looking for a nest site. Hopefully they will like this one. The colours and shape of the new nest site are imprinted in their microbrain (amazing!) and they will identify the specific hole they use and return there for each egg. What a great way to use up all those short bits of odd-coloured filament.

In previous years, birds have pulled out the tubes, and there have been lots of dead pupae due to mites and fungus. So lessons learned and I'll replace all the previous condos made from drilled 4x4s or the commercial versions that get soggy.

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pdentrem said:
Holds a standard nut and to be used to make it quick install and removal of the side supports that I printed a few posts before.
Click to expand...

Can a print be stopped, a nut inserted in a cavity, and then the print resumed knowing the cavity was filled, so that the nut gets buried?
 
Susquatch said:
Can a print be stopped, a nut inserted in a cavity, and then the print resumed knowing the cavity was filled, so that the nut gets buried?
Click to expand...
Yes, with some caveats. The first layer on top of the nut will be unsupported - this is known as bridging. The filament does not bond to the nut at all. When bridging small gaps - say up to 5mm, the filaments can span the gap effectively without too much sag. Beyond that, the bridging will break down when the cooling filaments shrink and warp slightly. So yes it can be done but don't expect wonders with larger nuts.
This is a very useful technique when embedding small magnets too.
🙂
 
Susquatch said:
Can a print be stopped, a nut inserted in a cavity, and then the print resumed knowing the cavity was filled, so that the nut gets buried?
Click to expand...
Yes pause at height in your slicer. Slice your part. Then using the slider go down to the height you want and set a pause. Then when printing the printer will pause at that height you can add the nut and then un pause. I have done it my self. Used Square nuts at one point. Regular nuts tend to turn in the plastic if they take to much torque. Now I use threaded inserts. Cage nuts can be used but I have not tried them Just found the threaded inserts are easy to install using a soldering iron. Mostly used pause at height to make raised lettering prints with different colors. Now most slicers have a manual color change function.
 
Dan Dubeau said:
Translucent PETG. It's been sitting in the AMS for a couple weeks now after initial drying, so I'm sure I could clear it up a bit by drying it some more. Surprisingly strong though. Very flexible, and It survived my halfass attempt to break it. I wanted to see how tough it was, but I didn't really want to break it, so I didn't test it to failure lol
Click to expand...
I read somewhere that using a thicker layer height will make it more translucent as it is the space between the layers that causes the opacity. I've done a lot of PC but never adjusted the layer height.
 
Doggggboy said:
I read somewhere that using a thicker layer height will make it more translucent as it is the space between the layers that causes the opacity. I've done a lot of PC but never adjusted the layer height.
Click to expand...
Im going to try with a .8 nozzle and thicker layer heights next time I do it. That plus drying it more should help clarity.

I can't really think of many practical applications for it, but its fun to play around with it.
 
failed to stop myself from starting a new project. Going to give a go at building the Pulse EDM by Ben Fleming. Needed a way to hold some big 35mm diameter caps to make the high voltage power supply so cobbled this up in CAD.

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Turned out ok, if I were to do it again, I'd add side slots to help with cooling, but I don't expect to run this thing too hard. It does have holes in the bottom to allow pushing the caps out, and a center hole to allow bolting down.
 
I stumbled upon this design while doomscrolling instagram a while ago and printed a couple for the kids with some leftover Silk PLA. They came out great, so I decided to try some multicolour PLA and ordered some Elegoo rolls to try out. Being mini 250g rolls I needed to make an adaptor to fit the AMS so I designed and printed one from PETG because I didn't like any existing designs. I went with a simple separate sleeve for the inner dia because I read different mini spools are different sizes, so it will save me from printing an entire new adaptor if I run into this again. I did make a measurement miscalculation on the width, so it's wider than I wanted it to be (std bambu spool width), but still fits the AMS and functions just fine, but so far I'm resisting the urge to redesign and print it again........
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Works pretty good. I've printed 4 eggs out of the RGB so far, and just switched to the pink/black. Goal is to print a Dozen in various colours/dinos as gifts for my nephews and tell them our chickens laid some weird easter eggs for them.....I think they'll have fun cracking them open and rescuing the baby dinos from them.
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The colour change effect is pretty cool. The surface finish above looks rough because it's fuzzy skin.
 
Golem Pens said:
Haha amazing. I have a small part that I'm interested in possibly modelling (which I have started) and prototyping. If you're ever bored and take on a small commissions let me know....
Click to expand...
DM and I can have a look. I am fairly reasonable with helping out other nerds. . . especially if you draft it up yourself! 'I draw for a living' so charge the most for that. . .
 
Golem Pens said:
Anyone here doing resin printing?
Click to expand...
I have an original Elegoo mars, But have not touched it in at least 3 years. No particular reason other than the projects I got involved in didn't really need it, and theres only so many hours in a day. I don't even know if the bottles of resin I have are any good anymore, or what kind of shelf life they have.

The last time I used mine I was having difficulties with temperature control in my cold basement and was experimenting (unsuccessfully) with making vat/enclosure heaters to control the variables and deal with constant print failures. New printers have evolved leaps and bounds since then, with things like vat heating and tilt etc. The new Saturn 4 looks pretty awesome and solves many of the issues I was having, so I'm pretty tempted to just forget the old mars, and buy a new one. My FDM experience improved greatly with the purchase of the P2s, so I'm guessing it'll be a similar leap with a new generation resin printer.
 
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