#3d printing problems

[kaxen]

"I should take a break on my day off!"

finishing up commissions

cleaned 75 gallon fish tank

spent an hour squatting over a 3D printer. WHY IS LEVELING FILAMENT PRINTERS SO MUCH HARDER THAN RESIN PRINTERS. TOO MANY KNOBS. AND THE GANTRY WAS LOPSIDED THE WHOLE TIME. ((now the bed is 25% less lopsided I guess?????))

[24-7-testing]

03.08.18

Well, Spring Break is almost over. I've made some progress, but not as much as I had hoped. There were some unforeseen complications that occurred that have (once again) put me behind schedule. Wheatley will be finished soon, just not as soon as I had hoped.

Let's start with the positive. Today my artistically talented neighbor Hydee painted the faceplate and eyelids. She helped me paint my first Wheatley and graciously volunteered to paint this one too. All I can say is "WOW!" I absolutely LOVE how it turned out! It's amazing what a skilled artist and a couple coats of paint can do! 

There’s also a lot more to read under the cut, so check it out if you feel up to it.

More Details Here

I also trimmed down the plastic lens I acquired for Wheatley's optic. Last year I had wanted to find something with the hexagonal texture similar to Wheatley's optic, that way it would be easy to use decals to make it actually look like it. After a long search, I found a security light at Home Depot that had just the right pattern. It came with a bunch of other electronic parts inside, so I think it was worth the $30-something I paid for it. I broke one of my favorite pairs of cutters in the process of trimming, but other than that it went pretty smoothly.

Now, on to the setbacks. Four years ago, it was very easy to find transparent printable sticker paper at Walmart. Today, not even the office supply stores around me carry it. I got really frustrated and couldn't think of what to do until I remembered that Amazon Prime is a thing I have. I found the sticker paper and ordered it, but I have to wait for it to come on Saturday. Since I want to make sure Wheatley's optic looks good before I secure it into his faceplate, this means that everything else waits until Saturday too.

Another setback that frustrated me was the Sides and Handles. I mentioned last week that I would have to rebuild the Handle connections on the Sides (I had tried to drill them out previously and the drill bit broke pieces off on every connection point). I finished rebuilding them Tuesday afternoon and, what to my surprise, the Handles didn't fit any more. I have become very tired of fighting with parts this far into the project, so I had the Sides and Handles reprinted. This time they include all of the corrections and updates I've added while I've been working on the project, so there shouldn't be any functional problems. It just means that I have to sand. Everything. AGAIN.

There aren't any scheduled days off until the end of Spring Semester, so I'm not sure if Wheatley will be finished until then. He will absolutely be done once Summer hits, because I will have a bunch of free time then.

Progress marches onward!

[mistressmaker]

I haven't been 3d printing lately due to the fact I have to fix the printer. It started printing sideways along the x axis last time so I have tightened up the belt hoping that is all it is. I've tested some other possible issues that the people of the internet have suggested and I do not think it is any of those things. The only suggestion I found that it could be related to is filament grinding - I leveled the bed and cleaned off the extruder nozzles (which you can see in the last picture all the crud from my nozzles). If neither of these things fix it, I'll be buying new belts. *wallet screams off in the distance* If anyone has suggestions for fixing leaning prints, please send them my way!

[24-7-testing]

01.20.18

I mentioned in a video quite a while ago that one of my original design goals for Animatronic Wheatley v2.0 was to have him done before my cousin Alisha came home from her religious mission. Well, she comes home in 4 days, there’s only 11 days left of the month, college is keeping me extra busy, and I haven’t made any more progress since the last update. I’m almost positive that Wheatley will not be finished by the end of January. He’s really close though! My next goal is to have him finished by March 9th, which is the end of Spring Break for me.

I’m so excited to have him finished, I just wish I had mote time to do everything. To those who are following this project, thanks for your patience!

[24-7-testing]

01.19.17

Mishap!

Carlos informed me today that something bumped the printer off-track while it was printing the bottom of the Inner Socket. Not to fear, however. He says that he can cut the misprinted segments apart, realign them, and fuse them together properly. Other than this, everything is moving along quite nicely! I hope the fused parts turn out ok...

More Details Here

[kaxen]

Fired up the 3D printers for the first time in a month and forgot to screw down the build plate oTL

[kaxen]

I swear to god, every time I think I can finally trust my filament printer, something will go wrong. =_= This was supposed to be a 46hour large single piece.

Printing the head now.

But at least I did the math right and my doll looks okay on it. He isn't a super big doll but his noodle proportions caused some difficulties.

[kaxen]

Observations over the past day or so:

Dousing a resin print in boiling water is a lot better than hacking at the print raft with a putty knife for ten minutes

I really need to stop being full of hubris and assuming the plate is still level after I have been hitting it like an angry monkey.

I haven't decided upon the perfect bottom exposure for when the print bed is very full because sometimes it peels a little and sometimes it doesn't. The fact it is cold as balls at night but warm during the day probably affects it too since printing resin prefers a rather limited range of temperature.