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Nice 3D printing project using wood filament brackets to hang a shelf on my brick wall. I dont like drilling into our Brick walls,so I use Brick Clips to hang things when I can. Normally they are just hooks to hang pictures and stuff. I came up with a nice project to add a shelf to one of our brick walls:

I designed up this bracket in FreeCAD to print out of LAYWOO-D3 filament. I sliced using Simplify 3D. Shelf was ~$9 from Lowe's. Brick Clamps are about $8/pair and I used probably about $20 of wood filament to print these two brackets. All total about $40 project.

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Latest and greatest prints on 3D Hubs. Yes I have had the KitTAZ printing all weekend non-stop.  I will have completed 4 orders by the end of the night from 3DHubs, for a total of ~$128 earned!!! sweet!!!!

I have actually had a ton of fun doing it, and I have learned some at the same time! I even have some upgrades planned for the printer too!

Here is my link again: https://www.3dhubs.com/ann-arbor/hubs/kosmopi

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So, a LOT has happened since the last time posted.  I joined 3Dhubs and you can order from me anytime you want: https://www.3dhubs.com/ann-arbor/hubs/kosmopi 

at first it was quiet, then I got an order for a wierd plastic waffle iron (the last picture is a piece of it).  At first the print wasnt slicing right, and the customer had modeled it in sketchup. it has a lot of fine details, so I thought it was the slicer messing up, so I re-modeled it in Solid Edge. The new model seemed to slice fine, and I needed to print it slow because of the fine details. In the middle of a 6-8 hour print, the hot end cooled down on me and the print clogged.  I noticed after about 10 min, and stopped it without too much damage. It turns out the heater resistor in the hot end blew up (first picture).  It makes me realize that a heater cartridge may be a better design ( I am looking at the new lulzbot all metal hot end).  

Anyway, I worked with lulzbot support and they sent me a new one (took a week or so to hash the details and diagnose then ship to me).  I installed the new one today (it was easy). Then I got back into it and printed another robot as a test, then started printing the waffle iron again.  In this week’s time that I have been down, I have had 4 seriously interested customers on 3DHubs. Kinda poot timing, but I dont want to complain!  We will see how it goes. I am still tweaking and calibrating before I get too much into it.  If I have more orders I will need to invest in a pi camera so I can set up Octoprint!

I am excited about the 3DHubs jobs, as even if I dont make any money, I am still putting my printer to work and having fun and getting good practical printing experience.

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Classic Vase! Full size no problem for the KITTAZ

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Showcase prints! Here are some of most recent prints. The owl is a classic.  The maritan keychain is to set up my account on 3dhubs.com  You can request prints from me there soon under my Hub: KosmoPi 

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ROBOT ARMY!  Seriously though. I have been using Make's Robot as a test print since i first started. I have made about ten of them in the last year. My latest is my best thanks to my Lulzbot KITTAZ printer and switching to Simplify3D.  The robot on the left is with my old Slic3r settings (basically using Lulzbot's own set PLA profiles) and the one on the right is merely changing software to Simplify3D.  It makes a HUGE difference!  I didnt know before this that the robot has the word Make on its back (and Ive printed this thing like 10 times!).  

More to come soon, I have made some AWESOME prints!

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3d printed the Lulzbot Roctopus, turned out well after tweaking my bed leveling screws. Merry Christmas everyone.

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So, I decided to upgrade my 3D printer, and put together the KITTAZ from Lulzbot. It is a sweet machine, and this was my first print over the weekend. It took 8 hours, 49 minutes.  

I am very pleased how easy the KITTAZ was to build, how easy it should be to maintain and the LCD interface is so nice, it is well worth the upgrade!

props to: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:151081

This bunny is printed with Lulzbot green 3mm PLA, on their standard PEI sheet with glue stick spread on the surface.  It was pretty difficult to come off the bed, but this print does have a huge surface to grab to, so I just took it off with my bare hand (lots of force!). I used the standard Lulzbot slic3r profile which was really great (it is so high of detail though, I will probably increase the layer height and fiddle with the fan settings). 

More posts to come, as its super easy to print with this thing.

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Boom. After some months off, and some time creating a sweet display case/shelter for the 3d printer, and some tweaking, I present a print that I am super proud of

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So over the past month I have done a fair amount of work calibrating.  While I have learned a lot, I cant say that I am producing high-quality prints yet.  I can definitely produce functional prints:

For instance: I wanted to put a power switch on my reprap. (For whatever reason, the reprappro kit doesnt come with a on/off switch, they just want you to unplug, which is a little lame).  So I bought a 12V toggle switch off amazon, then designed a switch housing from scratch. I modeled it in Solid Edge, which is a CAD software I have learned for my day job, that since I am a student still, I have gotten for free for a year.  So I designed it and printed it, and it worked first time!  My RepRap now has an on/off switch. 

I also installed the fan that I discussed last post. 

Then I have been printing small little calibration objects, but to be honest, everything that I have seen that says 'Calibration Guide' is a load of crap as far as instructions go.  I am basically winging it.  

Things I have learned: 

1. Kapton tape worked perfectly for me compared to blue tape. When applying it, avoid bubbles.  My parts now come off easily after I am done printing, and I have not yet replaced the tape. I wipe it with ammonia based window cleaner and print the next part!  No exacto-knife prying necessary.  

2. wall thickness and perimiter settings are important, but I cant tell what settings I need to tweak in slic3r to get them right. 

3. bridging and overhangs are tough! the fan I just mounted probably isnt enough oomph. 

4. I like printing the maker robot, but its not highest quality yet.

5. I now know how to add sets of parts to the print tray.  (Its super easy in slic3r).  I think its easiest/best to slice things in slicer then load the file into pronterface rather than just load and slice in pronterface. 

6. unspooled plastic is a pain in the rear, so I printed this assembly of a spool, but none of the parts fit together without a little sanding. (i will do in the near future).

New projects: 

1. I bought the tricolor enhancement kit, so when things are all working, I will have 3 extruders!  I want to focus on calibration for now on the 1 extruder though.  

2. I want to design an enclosure for the reprap that sits on the table. Design in progress, pictures to come.

3. Once I am done with this unspooled plastic, I will need spool wheels, so that my spools of plastic can freely spin.  I am going to make one of these:  http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:46016

4. I really want to print a chess set, and then a board game, and then... LOTS OF STUFF

5. I need to get a few things to make tensioning the belts and leveling the bed easier.

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So Its been a fun few weeks.  I have learned that it isnt so easy to pry off PLA parts of blue tape, but the best tool for the job is this exacto knife spatula type end.  I bought an exacto knife type hobby kit for ~$10 on amazon.  I also bought 3 brushes to clean the hot end with, (it needs to be cleaned occasionaly before/after prints, and its ~200 C so that means DONT TOUCH IT. This bronze brush works the best, and I bought a 3 pack of a nylon brush, a bronze brush, and a stainless steel brush for a total of $4 at home depot.  

In order to improve bridging capabilities, I am using a regular desk fan, which is not ideal, as its just me manually turning it on and off (which often disrupts the serial communication between the printer and the computer, which isnt a problem because I always print off the SD card, but its still annoying as it temporarily stops me from monitoring the temps).  To get rid of the desk fan, i bought this small 40mm x 10mm fan (exactly like the one that is on the hot end) and I found this mount on thingiverse (cant find the link at the moment).  I printed the mount, now I need a few more metric screws (M3's )  to mount up and wire up the new fan.  Slicr/Pronterface already allows for control of an external fan ( remember the RepRapPro Melzi comes with an external fan control).  I am excited to already be improving my printer.  

One of these pictures is a comparison of a part that requires a bridge, (one with the fan and one without).  Its important to have fast cooling to improve bridging.  

Another picture is everything I have printed so far.  A few calibration objects (I am still trying to figure out how to change the flow speed in Slicr) and the fan mount pieces.  

At the moment I am wasting a little bit too much blue tape.  I need to run kapton tape experiments.  

Cheers!

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So after 2 or 3 weeks of calibration/troubleshooting (read previous posts) I finally printed our first part!  Its a vertex of the reprap itself (ITS ALREADY REPLICATING).  The first two pics are some examples of failed/aborted attempts, and from there on is the working printer.  I need to tweak some settings and make some improvements.  I had a hard time removing the part from the bed (it was stuck!).  Ultimately I read online to try using a blow dryer, but that was a bad idea as the plastic softened.  So finally i just pryed it up with my exacto.  I will try some more to see what I find is the best method.  From reading about it online its different for everyone.  I also warped the part a bit when I used the blow dryer, but in general the part is very good.  I am pleased with the finish on the side walls and on most parts of the top. The bridging across the two hex holes was iffy, but eventually worked out.  I can tweak some settings there.  (The blue is stuck on blue tape).  

Anyway, YAHOOO.  It took from end of May to beginning of August.  What a great summer project.  I will update as I keep printing!  Any requests? lol....

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TROUBLESHOOTING WITH A SURPRISE!

Not quite fully printing, but the first layer is at least very close to resembling the directed shape. 

Here are some problems that I know I have made better:

1) oozebane: my temperature was too high, its a fine line. If you have the temp too high then your plastic can ooze out on its own (without extruding). This will cause a jam at the nozzle or a blob on the bed. Both are bad.  It is obvious that I want the plastic molten, but to stay in the nozzle until it is extruded. For now my settled PLA value is 190 C.  

2) z height: it just wasn't right, It needed to squish the plastic more on the first layer.

3) I added blue painter's tape to the glass bed, this started to help stick.  Didn't fix all the problems by itself though.

4) wiped the heated bed down with isopropyl alcohol while it was at full temp.  Smells good! 

5) I noticed that after the printer started its first layer, the temperature on the nozzle started to go down somewhat rapidly.  I had to command it in pronterface to go back up to target.  I am not sure why, but I have some ideas on what to investigate it. 

SURPRISE, I wrote this post while I was waiting for slicr to slice my print.  When it was done, I tried printing, and GREAT SUCCESSS.

PROOF IS IN THE PICTURES. LOOK FOR A FOLLOW UP POST

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Calibration amd Troubleshooting.

So alas printing did not work the first or second time.  Its frustrating but only because i dont have the time or the right tools at the moment to work on it.  Ive got plenty of things i can tweak.  I need to tighten the belts already and i will re zip tie the wire from the heat bed. Most importantly i need to clean and tighten the nozzle. Also i need to kapton tape the bed.  Sleepy

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WOOOOOOO!

IT MOVES AND COMMUNICATES AND THE ENDSTOPS WORK. WOOOOOOOOOOO!  CALIBRATION BEGINS THIS WEEKEND.  FIRST PRINTS ARE IMMINENT! 

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Wiring Up phase is complete!  These steps are easy, but time consuming because I wanted it to go well, and sometimes the wire lengths are a bit too short, making you have to make some choices (no big deal in the end).  Unfortunately, once I was all connected up to the computer, Pronterface read that the bed thermistor was reading as an open circuit.  After dismantling the bed a bit, the thermistor had a severed lead.  I ordered a replacement which will be here in a few days (the new one will have thicker leads and shouldnt break so easily).  I cant wait to start to calibrate!

The next photos you see should be our first prints, calibration or otherwise. 

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Here is the hot end!  This is a trickier step, especially since the soldering and crimping is very small.  I was cheap, so i didnt spend the $30 on the crimp tool, which made it MUCH harder than it needed to be.  I eventually acidentally melted one of the 3 pin connectors (the plastic things that the female crimps clamp in).  I melted it while I was using a heatgun on some heatshrink.  If you dont have the crimp tool, I would suggest just abandoning the plastic things and heatshrink around the female ends (sort of like the instructions tell you to do for the thermistor itself). I ended up with 6 pins and 6 seperate heatshrinked female mates, and I wrapped some electrical tape around the junctions.  It sounds like this wasnt the best approach since it is suggested that the hot end needs to be disconnected a lot to clean it and do maitenence.  I am sure I will fix it once I need to.  Anyway, either buy the crimp tool or be frustrated.