A Day in the Life of 3D Printing

This is not a typical day. A typical day for me is simply printing. Print, remove parts, change filament, clean bed, print some more. It works great. I get lots of stuff done.

However..

There are those days when that doesn't happen. I have an entire bin of spare parts just in case something goes south. I haven't yet printed a spare set of printer parts (yes, you can do that) but it's on the list.

Today was one of those days when it didn't happen.

The overnight prints finished just fine. I took those off the printers and was my normal less-than-graceful self. I hit the shelf that stores about twelve rolls of filament. Twelve rolls at one kilo each. Turns out I hadn't secured the shelf brackets properly and the whole thing came down.

My head got a bit of a bump from the shelf but nothing serious. Because I was leaning over the shelf mostly fell on my back to little effect. But now let's take stock of the damage.

• The power supply for one of the print servers was broken
• One side of a filament holder was broken
• The metal tin holding small tools and nozzles was dented beyond repair
• The other printer had a part broken
• One side of the cover of a print server was knocked off
• A metal mesh cup for various tools was squashed a bit

Overall this doesn't sound too bad, right? A broken part is probably the worst but the rest is minor or can be replaced?

It took both printers out of commission. The one without the broken part needed to be fully calibrated again (note - I replaced a screw that had fallen out of the bed frame so that may have messed with the alignment too) and I couldn't print the replacement part until then.

After FIRMLY hammering the shelf brackets into place and putting the filament back I assessed the damage and decided I didn't want to deal with it at the moment. I needed a new power supply anyway so it was off to the computer store. That would be a nice break. I got that and some replacement filament I had been considering anyway.

When I got home I took advantage of the situation to more properly deal with the power cords. I have a UPS but it was just sitting on the floor as a temporary measure. I decided to wall mount it. I measured several times. I put the wall anchors and screws in. I had them in the wrong place. The UPS fits nicely sitting behind the printers, across the tables. So that's where it is.

Again taking advantage of the situation I did some minor repairs I had been putting off. One of the cable bundles wasn't quite secured well enough so I redid that. And the screws for print server case that had gotten bopped weren't long enough, which is why the cover fell off so easily. Longer screws were used.

I used a replacement for the broken filament holder and got that in place. Note - print another replacement. Then I went through the four step process of calibrating the printer again. It takes some time and by the last step you're dealing in fractions of millimeters. But it's done.

Now I'm printing the parts I need to fix the other printer. Once that's done I'll run the four step calibration on that since I'm sure at least one roll of filament bounced off that print bed. When that's done I'll have both printers running again.

What's left? Reprinting the filament holder piece I pulled from spares. And that's about it. Overall it could have been much, much worse. I was very lucky that more of the rolls of filament didn't hit the printers. Bent rods and broken controller boards could have happened. But they didn't and it's a series of minor but necessary steps to get them both working again.

This is the side of 3D printing that a lot of people don't understand. It's not a matter of plugging it in, running a wizard, and printing. There's a lot of futzing that goes with getting the printer ready to go and then keeping it running. I'm not one of those people who tears down their printer and rebuilds it in a different color just for fun. Yes. There are people like that. But there's still more or less constant tweaking to be done, improvements to be made, and generally wondering if you're going to get a print or have the hot end encased in a blob of hardened plastic.

Technically I lost a day of printing because of this. Not even technically. I lost a day's worth of time I could have been printing. I'm not under any hard deadlines so this day isn't going to cost me anything. But I realized how much I dislike having the printers sit idle. There's always something I could be printing and not being able to do it rather than not doing it by choice is very frustrating.

More Printing! Always More Printing...

I really need to work on the rest of the game stuff but it's so easy to focus on the 3D printers when I've been sitting next to them while I work from home for a while.

These are my printers. They're affectionately known as The 3D Printer and The Other 3D Printer. Or 1 and 2 if I'm using the print servers. They were printing a request for a friend at the time I took the picture. They're not complicated and they don't take long so I wanted to get them finished and to him in a reasonable amount of time. And I'm using up filament in some less-than-useful colors.

When I get a new roll of filament (new being defined as 'new color for a brand') I always do a test print and label it so I know what it looks like. When you start getting multiple colors it makes it much easier to find the color I want. And I can compare them to see which one best suits the project if I'm not painting it.

For the test print I use a low polygon cat. It's scaled down to be 50mm tall and prints in less than an hour. It shows flat surfaces, some curves, and the angles. I then put a label underneath with brand/color/line (if there's more than one line by the brand). I don't put down the plastic type unless it's different than the one I use almost exclusively. That's a waste of space.

You can see where color starts to matter by the two purple cats. They're not as close as the two white cats but they're still ones I can pick up and consider rather than digging out the rolls and not knowing exactly how they'll look when printed. What's on the spool isn't always what is in the finished product when it comes to finish.

I have a small army of these on my windowsill now. I belong to a monthly subscription for 3D printing. I get at least two kilos of filament either in a theme or random. I also get some 3D printing related things and promotional items from the vendor. Overall it's not a bad deal and it's slightly less than buying two rolls individually. This is something for me to think about. The next box is going to help my thinking.

I was doing a LOT of printing to make the dungeon for my game. The convention is next month so I had to push myself. Having one printer down while waiting for a replacement part wasn't helping. But I did get everything printed and a bunch of decor to break up the grey.

That's currently the pile on my desk. I haven't put them away yet nor have I broken out those little tabs in the connection slots. While the printers can technically bridge that gap easily (bridge means just what you think, crossing an empty space while pushing out plastic) if they don't or there's some other issue it's going to be tough to clean up so the clips work. It's better all around to have them there. Even if it means breaking them out. I also want to run a sanding block lightly over the floors and tops of the walls. When the print head lifts it leaves a little point of plastic. Those suckers are sharp. A quick sanding gets rid of the 'ow' factor.

I won't have time to paint it before the convention. I have a lot of other things to do for the game (that hopefully I will be running) but I really want to paint it. I will paint it. After the convention.

I Airbrushed! (No Pictures)

I finally used my darn airbrush. I only used one and I used it to prime the minis for my dungeon crawl. I did this long after I should have done so.

I expected this to be good practice and it was. I learned that it's another tool that I need to learn to use better. Priming is great for practice because it doesn't matter what it looks like in the middle - it's going to be a solid coat at the end.

I'll be on my third photo tent enclosure when it arrives. I went from 60x60x60cm to 40x40x40cm to 30x30x30cm. I can't really go smaller than that. I didn't really measure the area well and I don't know what I'm going to do with the extra photo tents but I'll figure something out. Or not.

I did find that wearing a mask is A Good Idea. I also hope the fan I'm getting is powerful enough to pull the overspray into the filter. If not I may have to do some surgery on it to get a better fan in place. I'm hoping with practice there will be less of that but from what I read from my friends there's always paint flying about.

I'm debating about trying the airbrush on the minis for actual painting, even if just doing some base coats. I do need to learn but I also need to get these painted. It's a tossup. Plus I've got appointments after work pretty much all week so that limits my time overall.

The good news is that I used the airbrush, I understood how to use it, I realized that I'm going to need practice, I'm OK with needing practice, and that I cleaned it with a minimum of effort. All those are good because they're steps forward.

Which is why I'm tempted to use it for actual painting. But it's probably smarter to hold off and practice with ink and paper when I have more time. That means breaking out the brushes for the minis. Although those base coats are tempting me...

3D Printer = Frustration

When they work they're great. When they don't work then it's almost complete frustration because of all the things it could be.

My latest upgraded printer (The 3D Printer) is working just fine except for the fact it won't keep a constant temperature at the nozzle. This could be one of several things even though the actual heating process is simple.

The heating cartridge could be loose or bad.
The heating cartridge wires could be loose or bad.
The thermisor (temperature sensor) could be loose or bad.
The thermistor wires could be loose or bad.
Something else could be wrong.

Luckily the plastic I prefer is very forgiving. I could still get a pair of large floor tiles done. But then I put it through a torture test print (Note 1) and still got the temperature issues.

First round of testing!

Tighten the screws. Yup. Just tighten them. But not too much on the thermistor or you can crush it.

First round results? Temperature fluctuations when I move the wires.

Second round of testing!

Heat it up and tighten the screws some more.

Second round results? Temperature fluctuations when I move the wires.

Verdict?

I looked at how I bundled the cables and the connector for the thermistor isn't really well secured. So it's moving when the print head moves. That moves the thermistor wires. That's not good.

Wrapping the cables again so that wire and connector were firmly held got the temperature rock solid stable. I made a post with screen shots of the temperature differences for others to see if they're having problems.

Welcome to the glamorous world of 3D printing.

Note 1 - A 'torture test' print file is one that is meant to test the limits of what a printer can do. It tries to do overhangs, bridges, small details, specifically measured parts, etc. It's a test of how well you've dialed in your machine. With this one I can't get an unsupported print to go more than 60 degrees without the bottom layer sagging. That's actually pretty good since 45 degrees is the recognized standard for when things start to need support.

The Way of the 3D Printer

It's not some kind of philosophy. It's more like a continual series of headdesk moments with an occasional facepalm for good measure. Welcome to the future?

I did get the replacement board for my first printer I was upgrading. Note - it may have been as simple as a crossed wire but I wasn't going to take it apart again to find out. And I had already put the new sticker on it with the board serial number. So there.

I got it all connected again and the cables neatly wrapped. Which is required for putting it all back together. There was some cursing but not much since I've done this way too many times now.

I dragged it into the office where I put it on the stand where it will live.

Problem 1

The stands are too close together. I'm using TV carts without the wheels so they're low and small but still large enough for the printers and some work space. On top of that is neoprene shelf liner. And on top of that are concrete paving stones. The combination of concrete and neoprene is to reduce noise and vibration. It works.

I placed the pavers so they're on all the solid edges of the cart shells. That way the concrete is supported and vibrations are transmitted down the boards rather that resonating in the open space. Mostly I did it for the support of the solid edges. Concrete is heavy and these things are pressboard.

I can deal with it for the moment but I'll have to move them farther apart. That will take up more room than I wanted but only a few inches. Measure twice, do whatever once I guess.

Problem 2

I started up the self test on the upgrade (known as The 3D Printer, as opposed to The Other 3D Printer) and this time the fan spun. Yay! But it has the same problem as the other one with finding the X axis end stop. That's the sideways one. The new, better fan that keeps the heater from getting too hot is wider than the original and that leaves a gap between the body and the switch.

I had printed a shim for the other one. It worked fine. I can print a shim for this one. It will work fine. Except that The Other 3D Printer is into a long print job and will be working on it for another twenty one hours.

Therefore my adventures with the printer upgrade are at an end for the evening.

Summary

One more day won't hurt. It's been a while anyway. And I can calibrate it up tomorrow after I get that shim glued in place. There's more to do once it goes through the self test and I still haven't quite figured out how to get the print server to store files where I want them rather than where it thinks they should go.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. 3D printers are not plug and play. They're not for people who can't stand to tinker with things and won't accept that sometimes there's going to be delays and problems. Patience is required when caring for and feeding the beasts.

Once they're both in place I'll get a picture to share. The light and camera setup won't be in place but at least you can see these things that I'm going on about.

All Right Then

Airbrush

I have the compressor, the moisture trap/pressure regulator, the AIR HOSE, and all the air brushes where I can find them. The compressor et al is also set up where I think it's going to be when I'm using it.

The space for the booth has a piece of foamcore on it as a base for the photo tent/spray booth when it arrives. The turntable for inside the booth is sitting in a box but I can find it easily enough.

I haven't done any airbrushing because:

1 - It's been too freaking cold.
2 - Housework was needed.
3 - 3D printing.

That will change this week since the temperature is going up and the housework is getting done. About the 3D printing...

3D Printing

I was completely sick of printing grey and printing dungeon pieces. Printing grey dungeon pieces was excruciating. Therefore I took the holiday to print some stuff that wasn't grey and wasn't dungeon pieces.

I properly labeled all the test prints (low poly cats) with the brand and color of each one. I have the start of a filament cat army on the windowsill.

I also printed up useful stuff like a grip for painting miniatures, a clipper for filament (it has to be cut at an angle to be loaded), and a new case for the Raspberry Pi media server. I printed in colors! Pretty, pretty colors.

I also put up the last long shelf on the adjustable spacers and filled it with .. filament! That got the worst of it out of double rows under the printers. I also lowered the short shelf one notch so it fits all the types of boxes I have. That helps. A little.

3D Printer Repair

Absolutely nothing was done on this since the board is still in transit. It got to spend new year's eve in Germany but now it's on it's way here. It's still showing tomorrow as the delivery date but we'll see if that happens.

Since the order is a decent amount I need to sign for it. I certainly hope it shows up early because I was kind of planning on going to the post office and to the craft store after work. But if I'm waiting on the delivery that gets postponed.

Once the board is here I can restart the upgrade process and hopefully have it running by the weekend. That will be more grey dungeon pieces being printed but for a shorter period of time. Win some, lose some.

Convention

I'm still on the fence here. A big incentive for me is gone since there won't be a Chessex dice booth there. High cost and low profit were the owner's reasons for not showing up and those are perfectly valid. But I have a long shopping list and now I need to think about why I would go besides running my games.

BTW - the vendor list is currently almost empty. As in most of the spaces are showing as Available. If they haven't updated the website that's not a good sign. If that's true it's not a good sign.

My events are still showing as free even though it was supposed to be fixed a month ago. Their dashboard shows them at the correct price, the event ticket buying site shows them as free. I'm letting them work it out. Their systems are not my concern.

I'm giving it a few weeks to see how sales go. If it gets within a couple of weeks of the convention and there's very low or no ticket sales then I'm going to cancel. I know, I know. I committed to running the games. But if there's no one choosing to sign up then I won't be running games. I'll be sitting next to a table being bored. And having to pay for the privilege since I don't know if they reimburse for events that had no players. Actually I don't know their full badge reimbursement policy - commit to run the games or actually have enough players?

Housework

We're not going there.

Is the Airbrush Worth All This?

So I have not just one but four airbrushes. I've never used an airbrush. Um. Actually I have five but one of them is going to be sold when I get around to it. So I don't count it.

I got the airbrush bug mostly for priming stuff so I don't have to be dependent on the weather and deal with aerosol fumes. Then I started seeing all the very nice things they can do with practice and foresight. Therefore I thought airbrushes were good things.

I didn't take into account my limited space. I really didn't. But I'm working around that. Or working in it. Whatever the phrase I'm still moving forward.

I have all the minis to paint for the dungeon crawl. I kind of neglected to think about that while I focused on printing up the dungeon. Whoops. Since these are full adventuring parties I need sixteen minis painted. Plus the three NPCs. I got them at the convention and they've sat in the bag since I got them home.

I ordered new triggers for all the airbrushes to make them more comfortable to use. Over Christmas I replaced the triggers on all four of them. I'm rather proud of that. I also took the time to completely disassemble each one and put it back together so I had that under my belt. All of them have the quick connect adapters as well. It's now a pretty sweet setup. Final triumph is that they all fit into the plastic bin I had gotten for airbrush stuff.

Last week I spent the time to find them, double check I had the right ones, carefully placed them in their parties, cleaned them up, assembled them, based them, glued them to 'bottle caps', sand based them, and added the gesso to the sand bases to glue it all in place. Overall they're ready to go.

Then I pulled out the air compressor for the first time and it does sit nicely on the kitchen counter where I planned to put it. Check.

I attached the pressure regular and moisture trap. I may have to use thread tape on it but for now it's attached. Check.

I looked for the air hose I bought that's brand specific and has the matching quick connect adapter. Um. No. Can't find it. And the search begins...

I looked for literally hours last night with no joy. I gave up and sulked. I also thought about where I could have put the stupid thing. There was a brief time when I thought about ordering a new hose and adapter but stopped myself because I don't NEED another one and can't use another one. That and they're not cheap.

Today I didn't get to looking again until later in the evening and dug through a lot of stuff. Finally, tucked away in a canvas bag, I found the stupid thing. Once I found it I realized that it was in the carry bag from when I took a fairly useless airbrush class at a regional game store. The airbrush was put away, the hose wasn't.

Check! Air hose on the compressor. Again it may need thread tape and I'll deal with that if needed. I know where the thread tape is.

The final thing was the photo tent I got to use as booth. I do have a portable booth but that thing is large and a pain to set up. I don't need heavy filtration for acrylic. A note on that later. The photo tent is one that folds down like the car sunscreens do so it's perfect for my space.

Except that it's not. I didn't think to measure so it's far too large to fit into the space I've allocated for a spray booth. Sigh. I needed a YouTube video to show me how to fold it back up (twist it all into the center and squish) and then I measured the space, converted inches to centimeters, and ordered the correct size. I'll figure out a use for the larger one at some point.

By the time all this happened it was way too late to consider doing anything. It was too late when I found the air hose. However I could continue to get it set up and that's how I found out about the photo tent.

Tomorrow I will be using a cardboard box as my spray booth because I have a very large number of them sitting in my living room waiting for a new home. There has to be one in an appropriate size in there. It's not perfect but it's better than a piece of posterboard or something.

Had I not found the air hose tonight I was going to use aerosol primer on the minis because I couldn't wait any longer. Now I can use the airbrush and I may even try putting down skin base tones with it as well. Those are always the first layer of paint and if I overspray badly it won't matter. I need to learn to do this and the best way is to just do it.

Ok. Some notes here. The 'bottle caps' are actually 3D printed ones that are supposed to fit the painting handle I haven't printed yet. It's a knock off of the Citadel one and was designed to fit these caps. The good news is that I can print as many of the darn caps and handles as I want. If they work.

I do have some other ones that use bottle caps and are on spools but I like this one better. While most people only have one that's because theirs cost a lot of money. Mine just take some printer time and a little filament. Plus I can print all the caps I need.