3DPrinting

So, a few days ago I've written about a then work-in-progress configurable calendar model and now we're ready to roll!

Features

• The days are always correct - uses an algorithm to calculate the correct day for any date. So if you want to print a calendar for 2077, rest assured that the model will calculate the correct day for the 1st of January (it's Friday, btw).
• Generate only select months - the full model measures 240x240 mm, which might be quite large for some smaller printers. You can generate only months 1-6 and then separately months 7-12 and voilá, it fits.
• Choose how many months are on each row - what would it help cutting the calendar in half by only selecting half of the months if you couldn't fit 3 columns on your print bed? Well, just change the amount of columns, of course! Set it to 2 and the model fits again.
• Custom holidays - every country has different holidays and here you can put them all easily!
• No AMS or MMU? No problem! - supports printing both with AMS/MMU and without. With a simple toggle you can switch between multi material mode and a mode where each colored part has different height for manual color switching
• Are Saturdays worth celebrating? - you decide! A simple toggle to toggle whether Saturdays have that holiday/Sunday color or not
• Magnet or hook holes? - or both? You can configure the diameter, width, height and whatnot of either or both.
• What the f…ont! - choose your font, choose your font size.
• No hablo English? - just translate the calendar to your language! Title, month names and day names are all translatable.

I read through the Orca Slicer manual on github, but I don't understand how the retraction test works. I have no idea how I'm suppose to distinguish the results. Would anyone like to explain in layman's terms what it is I'm looking for?

Abstract
Sanitation effectiveness of 3D-printed parts for food and medical applications has been established in a 4-month lab study and controlled tests. The present study examined the continued use of sanitation techniques across 3 more months of testing and experimentation in household kitchens. Multiple specimens of the most common thermoplastics for Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), were printed with a range of settings to test for pathogen contamination, biofilm production, bacteria, or other pathogens masking (hiding) in the layer lines, gaps, and other imperfections of said prints. This study investigates methods of sanitation and cleaning to reduce or eliminate pathogens along with its biofilms from the defects and interstitial spaces that naturally occur in FFF printing. Results from various testing methods used in hospitals and FDA approved microbial surface testing, indicate that 3D printed parts of PLA/PLA+ (Polylactic Acid), and PETG (Polyethylene terephthalate glycol) can be cleaned to safe levels using warm water (120 °F), and non-concentrated dish soap. Examination and verification of cleanliness were completed via Petri dish preparations, and protein residue testing. It was found that Colony Forming Units (CFU) and Plaque Forming Units (PFU) had been reduced by 90%. Experimental results indicate that using 2g of baking soda, when used with soapy water, eliminates biofilms by chemical and physical action, neutralizes acidic bacteria, and removes mucus. It is recommended and tested by surgical technicians, that a 2-minute room temperature bleach water soak (200ppm), after washing and rinsing should be done to ensure pathogens are at safe levels. Acetic acid from vinegar was tested as well via petri dish for CFU reduction and can effectively eradicate biofilms due to the ability to penetrate the biofilm matrix and the cell membrane. It is noted to the reader that sanitation in this context refers to the method of bringing a surface or object to safe levels of cleanliness for food or medical preparation and storage. Furthermore, mass spectrometry readings indicate that no contamination from heavy metals, or other toxins are present in PLA+, and PETG before and after printing. Lastly, filaments made from a pull-trusion method from recycled soda or water bottles has been tested as well. When using 3D-printed items for liquids, it is highly recommended to coat the 3D-printed parts in resin. This is a simple, fast, safe, and very effective way to smooth parts to ensure easy cleaning.

So, I'm making a fully customizable calendar in OpenSCAD with the following features:

• correct columns for every date - uses an algorithm to calculate the correct day of the week for any date, you just change the year and the calendar is correct
• fully translatable
• supports custom holidays
• supports both MMU/AMS and single extruder (with the help of M600 or similar)

Planned features:

• configurable holes for magnets or holes for hanging the calendar
• configurable first day of the week

I can share the SCAD file, though beware it's a work in progress and I haven't test printed it yet.

Some screenshots:

What do you think?

I have a huge bag of filament waste. Where should I send this? I know it is only commercially recyclable in like very specific cases so stuff like PLA will almost never be recycled. However, I do hear of companies accepting filament and they sell back the rolls and stuff. I'm not looking to make a profit or anything, just gotta get this off of me and I want the most sustainable way to do so.

So I wanted a small, and thin friction hing for another project, and I couldn't find the metal ones that they use for the iPad's Magic Keyboard case. So I design my own the parts I had on my desk.

The smallest nut that I had was 4mm wide which really limited how thick the design can be. The result is this

It folds flat at measure at a maximum thickness of about 10mm

It works a lot better than I thought it would, especially since this is my first prototype print. Need to figure out some things, like to stiffen the arms and to prevent/reduce twisting.

But as a basis to start from this works nicely. I think if I add a TPU washer on the back end, I might be able to get it stiffer and more consistent feeling. But I'll do that at another time.

The SV08 is marketed as a mass-produced Voron 2.4, with a much lower price and a very quick setup. They even say they donate a small amount to the Voron project for each sale.

Has anyone here bought/tested it? What are your thoughts about it?

Are there some limitations/downsides compared to a Voron?

Is it possible to upgrade it Voron-style (Stealthburner, enclosure etc)?

Currently, Prusa is doing a terrible job with the Printables competition, to the point where they could be in legal trouble if someone were to push for it.

A few examples to prove this statement (5th is in my opinion the worst):

1. insect hotel -> canceled due to security concerns. Great work, but why not look into it before you start and provide a design guideline? https://www.printables.com/contest/436-insect-hotels

2. Bathtub toys -> Mentioned explicitly: "Safety is our top priority, so make sure your creations are child-friendly, [...]". As these are bath toys, one might assume that they mean safety standards for young children. https://www.printables.com/contest/428-bathtub-toys

Great. Safety is a top priority. So let's see how they moderate it. They haven't... If you scroll through the valid submissions, there are dozens that aren't safe for children. Prusa is EU, so I would expect them to be familiar with the basic EU regulations for children's toys when they say we want safety first. There are very strict test requirements that a toy has to meet. The simplest one is a bin/cylinder that a part cannot fit into (choking hazard). Does every design meet this very basic design rule? No. Next comes impact resistance and the like. Does the design meet these requirements? no.

You could say that it's just not feasible to review every submission, so let's take a look at the winning entries that they definitely looked at: Rubber Band Submarine. I'm not a toy designer, but I'm pretty sure that an exposed rubber band is not safe for small children, who are the target audience for bath toys.

3. fish tank tweaks: Recommending PLA for prints that are permanently submerged ("It is usually recommended to use ABS or specific food-safe PLA..."). Seriously???? These days they are PLA under these conditions is rubbish within a year. Discoloration and expansion destroy some PLA blends/filaments.

4. soldering aid: Seeing this design as a winning soldering aid raises serious questions as to whether the person involved has any practical experience in assembling electronics. Placing a PCB 2cm in the air with sharp objects around the mounting holes is the opposite of ergonomic and comfortable SMD soldering: https://www.printables.com/model/740818-parametric-stackable-pcb-standoffs-m2-m14-holes

****5. This contest had questionable practices and here's where things get wild. Now we're not just talking about knowledge gaps, we're talking about breaking your own rules, which could be a legal problem. One of the contest rules states: "A valid entry may change its slope, altitude or distance." Simple. Right? Not for Prusa: https://www.printables.com/model/837104-the-rig-r11-diy-helper-stand-for-testing-electroni

This is a winning entry that can't do any of those things, and would probably qualify as a generic holder (also not a valid entry).

Another winning entry that wouldn't be a valid entry if Prusa followed the contest rules: "Skip the organisers: We love a tidy workplace, but today we're focusing on ergonomic improvements": https://www.printables.com/model/808502-heat-insert-press

Want a third from the same competition? Here it is: https://www.printables.com/model/808502-heat-insert-press "Specific adaptability: Designs must provide flexibility in the user's interaction with the tool or aid (height, tilt, distance or orientation adjustments). Simply accommodating different sizes of objects doesn't quite fit the bill".

To recapitulate, Prusa broke the rules not once, not twice, but three times within this competition (which, being EU, has some legal requirements on how you can and can't run competitions) by awarding prizes with monetary value and talking them away from other competitions that followed the rules.

There is more wrong with how this was organized/done, but I think this is damning enough. Never assume evil, so I would kindly call it Prusa being utterly incompetent.****

6. The current XPR challenge. Design a part for a robotics kit. Sounds exciting. First bummer, it's $115 + tax, but that wouldn't be noteworthy enough to write this:

6.1 To design for it a.) either buy it (providing a $35 discount if you do so) or b.) try to work with whatever this is: https://www.printables.com/model/576581-xrp-robot-part-of-the-experiential-consortia/files the picture shows a complete model with PCB and sensors (some connectors and wiring are missing) but would be workable. What do they actually deliver? The frame with no electronics or components. Good luck working with that.

6.2 While this may or may not go in the direction of predatory, there is more: "Photo quality - Well lit, in focus and clear photos will help showcase your work and help us choose the best designs." Quick questions: How do I take good and compelling photos without the $115 robot kit? | Prusa: "This also means that you don't need to own a 3D printer to enter". Question: "How do you make photos without a 3D print to show of? the wording is very clear that they mean photos and not computer 3d-Render. Just by looking at these two aspects, this thing has a $115 + tax ticket to improve the "chance" of winning.

6.3 Moral issues: This work is unpaid to begin with. Does Prusa really expect people to spend tens of manhours working on a good design, printing it, taking pictures, writing instructions and text, when they have absolutely no use for it themselves, since this kit has probably only been sold a handful of times to end users. There is only a small chance of wining something (remember exhibit 5 where they didn't even follow their own rules)?

Last but not least: "Popularity – Share your model to increase its popularity, and prove that users appreciate such a model." This is fairly common for some events and I always dislike it as this asking for free advertisement. Prusa at least limits it to the model itself while others use a broader approach where it is for the entire project/organization. Regardless such terms always have a negative impact. Just remember all the MakerWorld spam everywhere after they launched with high rewards.

I love in Colorado, which is a pretty dry state, so while I had heard of "wet filament", I never considered it to be a problem that I would have to worry about. I had seen people creating dry storage bins for their filament, but figured that must just be for people in humid climates.

When I first bought my 3D printer a few years ago, I did what most people probably do - I bought a 10 pack of different filament colors. Everything printed great for a while, but eventually, my prints just started to kind of suck. I made a few upgrades to my printer, but still couldn't pinpoint what was going on. What was frustrating, is that some times my prints would be great - but other times I couldn't even print the most simple prints without problems.

I eventually noticed that my great prints were from newer filament that I had recently purchased, but my bad prints were coming from spools I've had sitting out for a while. So I purchased a $40 filament dryer on Amazon and it instantly fixed all the problems I'd been having.

I feel dumb, because I had gone through three different extruders, new hot ends, new nozzles, tubing, and spent tons of time cleaning and tightening stuff on my printer. I had left my printer untouched for months because it was just so frustrating. Something as simple as old filament left out never occurred to me until much later.

TLDR; If your prints have started to suck after a while, you might want to try drying your filament.

It’s just this design, lightly sanded and painted.

Hi everyone, a week ago my printer (heavily modified Neptune 3) started randomly shutting down in the middle of prints. I come back to a print with the "Klipper reports: SHUTDOWN / Lost communication with MCU 'mcu'" error message.

The printer has been "under construction" for the last couple of weeks, but it has been in varying states of "working" for most of the time - working well enough for me to print the parts I needed to get it back to "fully operational". During this time, the printer never shut down like it is now.

Only once I started making little cosmetic changes did the problem present itself. I was running a known-good print, and I got the above error twice (first time after ~2 hours, second time after ~1 hour) before I got a successful print off of it. This was last week.

After this successful print, I continued other prints with no issues. After a day or two with no problems, an hour long print threw the error at me four consecutive times between 10-45 minutes into the print. This is when I started looking into my klippy log and found some relevant articles citing things like EMF interference, bad power supplies, faulty cables etc. I realized that one of the changes I had made rerouted the printer USB cable right around the Z-stepper, so I rerouted it to how it was originally and immediately managed a successful print. This was 5 days ago.

After moving that cable I had no issues with printing several-hour long prints... until last night. I had been printing all day, then the problem came back. After one print finished, I queued up another print with a plate full of parts, it failed after 1.5 hours. Tried the same print again, failed in 30 minutes. I re-sliced to only a handful of parts to see if I could get those to print before the error occurs, and it's failing 15 minutes into the print.

The printer power supply is the unit that came with the Neptune, and it isn't powering anything besides stock hardware (exception being the SKR mini board), so I don't think it's that. The pi is on a quality unit. The USB cable has been working for a long time so I also don't suspect that, but I'm probably going to buy a new one today just to be sure. I adjusted my enclosure setup so that the Pi and SKR are able to get cool air (at one point had a personal fan pointing at the open electronics box, still failed).

Here is a link to my most recent klippy log (abridged to the start of the last failed print). I'm not very familiar with reading through this and finding oddities, but I do think it's strange that it seemed to load my preheat script in the middle of printing right before the EOF error. (It should be noted that this preheat script was made 1 or 2 failed prints before this most recent one, so it isn't the source of the error as prints were failing before the script was made). If there's anything I'm missing or something else I can try, please let me know!

Edit: While typing this post, I was running the same failed print without filament and both heaters turned off. It ran for about 45 minutes (most recent failure occurred at 12 minutes) so I cancelled the print and started it again with heaters turned on, still without filament. It again ran for about 45 minutes, so I again cancelled it and started the print again, this time with filament loaded. It failed in 5 minutes.

Edit 2: A test print with heaters on and no filament failed after 1h8m. So it isn't an issue with extruding filament.

Edit 3: New cable with the 5v leads taped off per @[email protected]'s advice. Ran the print without filament until completion. Reloaded the same file with filament, print ran without issue until the 1h14m mark, at which point I tapped my Klipperscreen device to wake up the screen, and as soon as it displayed the status, the printer errored out. This can't be a coincidence, can it? Whenever the print goes unmonitored for a long time, it fails as soon as I do something (load mainsail, turn on the klipperscreen) to check the status of it.

Would be so kind as to suggest a printer for me? I have no experience at all with 3D printers or 3D modeling. But I am super interested and have electronics and coding knowledge. I would like to print things like brackets, enclosures for custom circuit boards, organizers, keyboard plates, etc. Ideally I would like to spend around $300USD, but I am open to going as high as $500USD if it would save me headaches and make the experience more enjoyable and streamlined.

Please suggest something for me and let me know if I didn’t provide enough information. One final note, I live in range of a microcenter if that is a factor.

Edit 2: I purchased the Bambu A1 mini. If I regret it, there will be more chances in later years. Haha. Maybe by then I can work with resin and make the really fun minis. Thank everyone who responded for your advice and help.

Edit: I am leaning against resin printing due to the lack of sufficient ventilation in my current work space and the potential for injuring my cats. I also do not plan to do exclusively miniatures; they were just the thing I was most excited for when making this post.

I looked around for a pinned thread or purchase wiki type thing, but didn't see one. I apologize if this is the wrong place.

After visiting a family member, I have decided that 3D printing has finally gotten affordable enough for me to maybe add to my list of hobbies. My primary use cases would be making miniatures (no particular scale necessary, as I just like to paint them at the moment), making parts for other hobbies (including cross stitch), and just generally making gifts and fun knick nacks. My budget is no more than $250 for the machine itself. I have not-insignificant computer experience, and some training in CAD programs.

Several seem to be on sale in the US for Father's Day (today), and I was wondering if anybody had some advice or suggestions on some specific ones.

• Creality Ender-3 V2 is what my family member has had for a while now and enjoyed, and less than $200 is very nice. It does seem to be dated at this point, and Creality support seems to be lacking.
• There's also the Neo of the above for the same price, but I am honestly having a hard time pinpointing the difference.
• Sovol SV06 seems to be a common recommendation for the price range, but I've heard similarly negative things about their support, especially on Amazon (although I no longer trust Amazon reviews very much).
• Flashforge Adventurer 5M appears to be on a significant sale on their official eBay (240 USD), but I have only really seen it recommended in almost spammy manners, which seems like either excitement for the sale or an ad campaign.

Any help you can give is greatly appreciated, even if it's just not getting into the hobby at this price point.

Update: TL;DR: I cleaned the z-axis, replaced the nofep, installed the latest Chitubox (2.1) and cleaned up my profile to get it working

Hello, I hope someone will see this and be able to at least point me in the tight direction. As at this point I’m becoming desperate.

My Epax E10 4k is acting up, and I do not know why.

Part of the print is fine (see images) and then other parts are just stopped at a certain layer, with the rest stuck to the noFep.

I tried different prints, to make sure it wasn’t a layering problem, but alas… each single print suffered from the issue. The larger prints would ‘hang’ over non-printed layers…

I recalibrated my printer, changed the fep…

The one difference from before is the resin. I used to buy epax hard and tough, but my regular resin dealer doesn’t sell them anymore, heck it seems it is no longer available in europe. So I switched to the next best thing on the Epax compatibility list: eSun hard and tough.

Anybody have any clever idea?

I upgraded to this guy from the neo v2, and he is a beast in comparison. There isn't a premade profile on prusa for it though, so I made one using the neo as a base. Currently have the speed set to 150 mm/s and 1800 mm/s accel but was wondering what kind of speeds y'all are getting while still having consistent quality

I mostly loved my K1 Max but could not get the x-axis dialed in properly, so any time I tried to print anything with a circle it would come out a bit lumpy. I'd sold my CR-10 and upgraded because I was tired of the constant tinkering and just wanted a tool that, while it will need maintenance and the like, would mostly just do what I wanted. Also my BIL got a P1S and I was hugely envious of the AMS system haha.

Luckily a buddy was looking to upgrade as well and is buying my K1M off me so I ordered a P1S and just got it set up today and.....it's just working and I'm so happy. Benchys between the two look about the same, although the textured build plate gives a nice bottom layer, but I printed a couple trinkets my wife likes to hand out at Disneyland and it's just night and day better quality.

I'm sure I got a bit unlucky with the K1M and lucky with the P1S but it was amazing just printing stuff and it came out fine the first time.

I made a configurable Task planner that you can easily edit using OpenSCAD customizer (or various compatible customizers like the one on Makerworld).

I've posted this here once already some time ago, so here's what's changed:

• tasks can now be provided as a comma-separated items
• font can be changed in customizer (added due to a request for Korean language support)

This seemed neat!

Quick question to the community, does anyone have some good tools to sculpt stls or step files?

Context, I'm working on some decorative keychains and have a vector image and text I want to add to the base object. I've used aolidworks for both in the past with alright results but I've switched over to freecad this year, haven't had a lot of luck adding in there, vector image is a tracing of a dog that I was provided, it's simplified but still has a lot of components.

I did look into blender but be honest I'm totally lost using it and have no clue what I'm doing coming from parametric modeling, I'm not an artist at all, my comfort zone is functional parts usually, but was approached by a friend. I did do some mockups in prusa/superslicer where I've added my image and text as negative volumes and merged into a single part. It works but it feels like a really hacky workaround (relevant XKCD) and would prefer to do it right. Any suggestions or resources would be appreciated!

If interested, here's the mockup that I've done a few test prints on, found I needed to change the line width of my vector a few times and made some features exaggerated so they'd come out more. I've (poorly) covered some identifying text on the back, left the rest as to get a feel for what I'm trying to do, did do some rough sanding on the below pictures. There's a pocket on the top edge that accepts a keyring, it's kinda chunky, about the size of a pog slammer or a thicker poker chip.

My MissChanger project is a Stealth Burner tool-changer system for Voron 2.4 and Trident.

And it is going along great 😚

"You need to buy this special heater pad to break the screen adhesive!"

No, I think you will find that in fact I don't.

No banana for scale, but let's say that it's not too big and not too small. The dimensions are 295mm tall, 270mm wide, and 240mm deep. If I had to do it again, I would be tempted to go a bit wider and touch less deep. It's probably better to be large in one of these dimensions as opposed to both of them.

Here's the top. It has a jack for charging, a connector to program the DSP, a switch to turn it on and off, and a battery gauge.

The speaker also has a built in handle that's way chunkier than it appears, but is still particle.

The big BOM pieces are a Dayton Audio LBB-5Sv2 for the BMS (battery management system), a Dayton Audio KABD-250 2 x 50W for DPS, amplification, and Bluetooth, a Peerless by Tymphany BC25SC08 tweeter, and an Italian-but-made-in-India woofer (a Coral PRF 165).

The print itself is three pieces: the bottom bit (black), the middle bit (white, blue, and white again thanks to not having enough white left to do it all in white), and the black top. Here's a CAD view that more clearly shows the three pieces:

the three pieces are held together with heat-sets and m3 bolts. There's also a tong and groove like joint to help the enclosure leak less air. I haven't noticed any evidence of air leaks while listening.

The amplifier and battery board mount to the bottom like so:

The middle was printed with some supports for the driver overhangs, but the ports and everything else were designed to print in place without supports.

This is certainly not meant to be audiophile build, but it's surprisingly decent. This isn't my first blue-tooth speaker, or even my first printed loudspeaker enclosure, but it is the first that was somewhat intentionally designed to have OK bass response while also being reasonably compact.

It measures fairly well. Frequency response, along with harmonic distortion, is pretty good. There's zero windowing or smoothing on this plot. I suspect the distortion spikes at 1 kHz, 2 kHz, etc are induced by the Bluetooth stack the board is running since they've shown up in multiple different enclosures and with multiple different drivers.

There's no nasty ringing, caused by either the drivers or the enclosure, so life is pretty good:

Hey guys I got the bambu P1S a couple months ago because it was recommended. I'm super new to 3d printing. This is my first one. I'm not new to electronics or computers. I ran a few of the built in prints, a dinosaur puzzle and this scraping tool but both came out fuzzy and in poor build shape. What can cause this? Shaky table? Cold temps (the printer is in my insulated garage getting around 65 degrees at the moment inside)? Is the stock bed bad? The filament it came with bad?

Thanks for any advice.