Printing with the Printrbot Play

Last week I purchased the Printrbot Play as an experiment to get back into 3D printing after such a long hiatus (I know!).

After printing a calibration cube, I decided I needed to print something more utilitarian...here comes the Simple Toothpaste Squeezer (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:867811).  The Printrbot Play is an awesome starter printer, much more so than my original Printrbot Simple (wooden version).  This printer is all metal, has belts instead of string and a metal bed, which surprised me the most.

If you ever wanted to dabble into 3D printing, I highly recommend the Printrbot Play.  It's a steal for the price!

Please watch the video below and be sure to give it a like!

Thank you for reading today's blog post!

-802 Printer

Minecraft Creeper - Part II and III with Assembly

This is a continuation of the Minecraft Creeper project, with the printing of the body and the clip, which joins the head and body together.

Overall the final two prints came out decent, however there was warping of the body near the legs.  The last and final "oops" moment, was while I was putting the Minecraft Creeper together, and I broke the clip, while inserting it into the head.

In hindsight, I should have examined the body and head closely and noticed there were a small "cross beam" inside each chamber, to which the clip notches fit perfect.  My biggest tip to you, the reader, is to carefully examine this as well, so your 3D printed Minecraft Creeper comes out perfectly.

Below are the time lapse videos of both the body and the clip, along with final assembly (where you can see my mistake).

Part II - Printing the body:

Part III - Printing the clip, with Assembly:

As always, thank you very much for watching my YouTube content.  Please like, share and subscribe for more 3D printed videos!

Minecraft Creeper Print Series - Part I

Today I printed the Minecraft Creeper and was able to film all three parts with the GoPro Hero 4 Black.  Unfortunately due to the length of time for the Creeper's head and body, I elected to split the video up, into three parts, so the video did not become boring or monotonous.

Time lapse video of the Minecraft Creeper's head:

As always thank you for watching, and if you would like to suggest a Thingiverse item to be printed, be sure to hit up the comments under the YouTube video, or message me on Twitter!

3D printing the Fallout 4 Keychain

Earlier this week, I found a Fallout 4 keychain, and with the game coming out in a few months, I wanted to add this to my keychain with my car keys.  As mentioned in previous posts, using the MatterControl Touch, I quickly sliced and printed this object in about an hour.

Overall the print came out very well, however there was some stringing of PLA in between each letter, and along the letter "L"s.  Using the Octave 3D printing tool kit, I was able to quickly remove the stringing and clean up the lettering.

Some slicing/printing information:
Print time:  1h18m

Filament: 1.75mm PLA (Natural color)

Filament Needed: 1223mm

Quality: 0.1mm

Print Speed: 40mm/s

Outer Perimeter Speed: 28mm/s

Infill Speed: 40mm/s

Infill: 80%

Shell Thickness: 0.8mm

Temperatures: (Hotend) 180C, (Bed) 60C

Printed on:  SeeMeCNC Orion Delta

If you are interested in watching the time lapse of the SeeMeCNC Orion Delta printing this Thing, check out my YouTube video here:

Thank you very much for reading this blog entry.  Please continue to follow me on YouTube and subscribe for future 3D printing videos, every Saturday.

Printing the "Nonlethal" Door Stop Multitool

For the last week we have had very windy conditions, and with the windows open, we had a few doors slam shut and generally disturbing the peace.  With that in mind, I found this Thing on Thingiverse and proceeded to print it rapidly.

Using the MatterControl Touch and printing at 30% infill, my SeeMeCNC Orion Delta proceeded to print.  Overall, there were no curling or lifting of any of the "teeth" of the Thing or even the "bumps" along the top of the multi-tool.

After a few test drives and trials, the door stop multitool work like a charm.  I am in the process of printing a few more for the kitchen, office and even the bedrooms.  If you are looking for another Thing to print, I highly recommend printing this.

Time Lapse YouTube video of the entire print:

Some pictures of the print, post cleaning and test uses:

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Work Log | Printing the Coin Cup Holder

Hello everyone,

This week I printed a Coin Cup Holder to help organize my change after the work week.

Using the MatterControl Touch, I downloaded the STL, and using the built-in slicing software, the MatterControl Touch quickly sent the GCode to my SeeMeCNC Orion Delta and off to the races the printer went.

Unfortunately I did not realize I had set the infill to 40% at the time, however after about six hours, I checked in and saw my printer was no where near finished.  Per the MatterControl Touch, the print still had another six hours to finish, and it was not far off.  At roughly 11 hours and 31 minutes, this Thing is the second longest item I have ever printed.


Clean up wasn't too excessive with this Thing, thanks to the very few "points" where the hotend has to go from one far point in the X-axis, to another point in the X-axis.  There was very little need for sanding or filing of the edges.  When it came to actually adding the coins to to each individual chamber (there are segregated chambers for US pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and dollar coins), I was able to add them with no issues.  Each chamber can hold up to 50 coins (confirmed with pennies and nickels), so you can easily sort and count them before you roll the coins into a coin roll.

Overall I would highly recommend printing this for organizing your coins, and reduce the amount of clutter in your change jar.

Additional media:

Time Lapse video of the 3D print:




Photos:

Latest addition to the 3D printing equipment

Recently I have been looking at improving my 3D prints, and after some searches around, SeeMeCNC (the manufacturer of my longest running 3D printers), was selling this Android-based tablet called MatterControl Touch.  Based on the literature on the website (http://seemecnc.com/products/mattercontrol-touch-tablet) the ease of use and relatively fast process of starting a new print was an appealing factor in my decision to purchase the MatterControl Touch earlier this week.

Based off of the software of the same name, the tablet takes over the role of downloading, slicing/repairing the .STL files and ultimately the handling of the GCode to the printer.  After some initial trial and error, I printed the default test print (a square object roughly 1cm3).  The initial test print had a warping issue on one of the corners, which I later determined was from the printer set too fast of a print speed.

Since then I have successfully printed eight different objects;  Five (5) coasters from the NES 8bit Coaster Set (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:104371), a tablet holder (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:303952) and the latest print (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:403031), all came out extremely well with little sanding required.  Below is one of the prints at extremely close up.

Since I received my unit on Wednesday, I have been very impressed with the ease of use of the software, as well as the speed of which I can find a new item on Thingiverse, download it, slice/repair the STL, generate the GCode, and finally start printing within 10 minutes.

As I do more of YouTube videos of each unique Thingiverse item, the speed of which I can start a new print, will easy pay for itself in no time.

If you are new to 3D printing, and you have never used Slic3r or Cura, I highly recommend using this tablet, as a starting block.

If you would like to see more content regarding the MatterControl Touch, be sure to leave a comment here!