My 3D Printing Tool Kit

What's currently in my 3D printing tool kit:

First of all lets frame this right:  My kit is for when I go traveling with my 3D printer which I do almost ever day.

Hobby Tool Box:  I got this from Solutions but I'm not sure if they sell it any more.  It basically expands when you open it, has 2 levels and I'm able to fit almost everything inside.

In the Tool Box:

1. Hex wrenches and screwdriver that came with the Flashforge Finder
2. Elmer's Washable Gluestick (always have a spare)
3. 3D printed Ring Sizers (test people's ring sizes before you build the ring)
4. Work Gloves (wear the one that holds the part you are trying to scrape off.  This is so that my scraper does not jab my hand since I don't want to bleed all over my 3d print!)
5. Sandpaper

 In the tool case (from right to left in the picture)

1. Husky Paint Scraper from Home Depot
2. Plastic paint scraper from Walmart 
3. Metal eating utensil knife (before I got the scrapers...don't use this as much now)
4. Tweezers
5. Long needlenose plyers
6. Wire clippers
7. Elmer's Washable Gluestick
8. Husky Utility Knife (great for cutting painter's tape)
9. Blue Painter's Tape (get the widest one you can!)
10. Scissors
11. File (for smoothing out rough printed edges)

  Other Items:

1. Vacuum seal bags with dessicant bags (I save them from various things and use them here to help stop the stored filament from absorbing any moisture)
2. Spare build plates and build plate sheets (I like a faster turnover)
3. Digital caliper (for measuring part accuracy.  Got a cheapy one from Amazon)
4. Measuring tape

Speed Experiments

So it's time for me mess with some of the speed settings to see what they'll actually do.

I've been having some trouble with bed adhesion and I was hoping changing the speed would affect it, but also looking at how the quality would change.

Here's a comparison of time with Peridot at 80mm/s (default) and 40mm/s on "Higher" resolution.

You'll note a few things:

• 67 minutes vs 128 minutes
• 2.80m vs 3.20m
• 474 layers vs 609 layers

Comparing the two prints they look the same from a distance but there you could figure out which one was done with the higher detail by taking a closer look at the layering and edges.  Either way, the normal speed one does fine for what we wanted.

So the effect is noticeable but the questions is: is it really worth the time?

Oddish Planter

Oddish Planter

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:738011

265min/16.31m/$1.24

This looked like a fun present for an Anime friend.

It printed out well.  I added supports and there were a lot between the legs, but they all came off really well!  It is a fun design and was easy to print, although it took over 4 hours.

 Lots of supports under neath the Oddish:

 Supports everywhere!

 But they come off easy.

Eclipse Board Game Cube Tray

Eclipse Board Game Cube Tray

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:500632

37min/2.41m/$0.18

I thought I'd save a bunch of time and print a set of Blue Lantern rings AND 2 Eclipse game trays.  The rings came out fine but the trays warped because the painter's tape did not stick to the brand new build plate surface (new build plate)!

 So I reprinted just the tray this time and just did it on top of a fresh build plate, no tape, no glue.  It worked great!  No lifting!

Here it is with cubes and on the game board.  Eclipse is an awesome game.  Takes forever to play, but still awesome and I can guarantee I'll probably not even play once this year.

Looking at the fit of the cubes, I measured the holes in the plate and cubes themselves.

Holes = 8.85mm

Cubes = 8.40mm

Very good tolerance and makes for an easy fit for the cubes!

Print Surface Replacement

If you screw up a lot like I do, you're going to need some replacement print surfaces for your build plate. I got these from Digitmakers.ca this week and they will help a lot.

You may recall a few posts ago my extruder crashed into the build plate and started melting it.  So that's what the build plate sheets will be replacing.  At about $8 each, it's a fair deal since normally I wouldn't replace them. I bought 4 because I foresee more screw ups in the future.

To increase my output, I got some spare build plates also.  This will allow me to print some more stuff while I am cleaning and prepping the other build plate.  I have 2 extra or one for each machine.

 This is the build surface I am replacing .  This one got screwed up on Finder #1 when I was trying to make a batch of crates and barrels.  You can see the scars in circles and squares cut into it.

 The replacement build sheet has the 3M sticker backing.  The surface is exactly like the original and has that rough texture that is good for a few prints but not in the long run.

 First I had to remove the sticker off of the old plate.  This was done by prying up a corner and then peeling it off with a lot of force.  That thing is SUPER stuck on there!  There will be glue residue left over that we can remove later.

 Here's the old, wrecked build plate surface.

 And here's the build plate with the glass off.  To get rid of the glue residue on the glass I used this stuff from Home Depot called Goo Gone although I think my bottle looks different: https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.tough-task-remover-spray-gel---12-ounce.1000685344.html

You can remove the glass plate by pushing back on the two tabs at the top of the build plate and popping the glass out.

Yay clean glass and build plate!

And with the new build surface installed.  I couldn't take a pic of me putting it on but basically you want to peel the entire 3M backing off and then lean the sheet from the top of the build plate and late it down as slow as you can while squeezing air out.  It will slap down if you're not careful.  Actually this happened to me and there was a tiny bubble trapped inside that I have to push downward.  It's probably still in there.  You can use something flat and heavy to try and push the bubble to the side or out.

Sometimes a fresh build plate surface works better than glue and blue painter's tape as you will see in a future post!

Owl Statue

Owl Statue
171min/12.04m/$0.91
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:18218/#files

So I've been having troubles with birds building nests in the back porch roof and recently I had to evict a robin's freshly made nest twice.  I thought about building anti-bird spikes but then I remembered that most birds stay away from owls or predatory birds.

So I found this design on Thingiverse by Cushwa and it is an amazing model.

It is bigger than the Finder's 14cm printable box so you'll have to scale it down.  I went to 90% and it fit.

What's interesting to note is the discrepancy between what FlashPrint says something will take versus the actual time.  Flashprint said 171min.  Actual was 197.  That's about 15% more time than quoted.  I'll keep track of this and post how much it is always off but it is something I noticed before.

The print came out really well and I was quite pleased with it.  I used rafts and supports, plus played with Flashprint to make the inside hollow by setting the fill density to 0% as shown below.

There weren't any problems with it except maybe some little bits of singed filament on the insid e as it was printing.  The raft this time came off surprisingly easily as I have had much trouble with rafts in the past  I think it's because it was such a large object.

To make it a bit more menacing, I took a sharpie and colored in the eyes and outlined a few of the features like feathers, wings, and eyebrows.  I took some duct tape and secured it right next to where the nests were being made.  No lets see what happens!  If I remember I'll post an update here later on this year!