So I 3d printed a stand for my katana today. I ran out of black filament so I had use purple.
Moving forward with more functional 3D printing. In this example, a pistachio bowl. I’m using them for Chinese garlic peanuts at present. Which you should buy as they are excellent! Get them in Chinatown (Lucky Moose). See last photo in set. I love it when tech meets food! It’s my jam!
Ok, so today I upped my 3d-printing game and started printing with new material, PETG (Polyethylene Terephthalate with a glycol modifier). It’s trickier to print with, but the material are much more durable and flexible than the filament material I’ve been printing with to date (PLA). This opens the door to much more functional prints, mechanical even. Here’s my first successful print, a bear in a box. Ya, I know. Not all that functional but my wife likes it. Happy spouse, happy house as they say.
It took a bit of work, but I finally pulled off a decent Karloff Frankenstein’s monster print. The neck bolts were an addon. Now, the standing and priming. If all goes well this will be my first print that I paint. Wish me luck. I’m not known for my steady hands, or patience.
As much as I’ve been enjoying 3D printing tchotchkes. I love making functional pieces so much more. Here’s a filament spool holder and a Wyze camera mount. The spool mount minimized resistance for the filament senser, feed and extruder. The Wyze camera is to monitor my prints from anywhere. I might open the camera up live to put people to sleep watching my long prints.
I’m not known for my patience. However, after numerous moments of wanting to throw this printer across the room in frustration, I have it now properly calibrated and I am now getting consistently good prints. Nothing too complex yet but I’m getting there. I also managed to get the printer all networked up this morning as a bonus. Argh! I wasn’t too happy about printing a cat. I don’t much like cats!
I had to go through some growing pains first though. ARGH! Apparently the skulls are underneath. I accidently printed with full supports turned on. I’m supposed to be able to remove these supports with pliers. However, I messed up again by printing too high a density for the supports making them impossible to remove.
More misadventures. Shit! It was supposed to be a dosing cup for my espresso portafilter. I forgot the first rule in 3D printing. Always watch the first layer.
My first successful print! A whistle that actually works. What I’m not showing are the several hours of xyz calibrations and tests, support forum reading and many failed first layer attempts. But hey, here’s a whistle and it works. #3dprinting #prusaminiplus
I don’t give any credence to divine providence. However, yesterday I purchased my first 3D printer and today while wondering about the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair I was drawn to a stall of wonderfully macabre art sculptures. It was there I met Ali Rahimi, a sculptor using 3D printing to achieve these amazing pieces. Now I have yet to receive my printer, design or print anything but looking at his work gives me incredible encouragement and inspiration as to what is the art of the possible. I really appreciated him letting me take these photos of his work. Check out more of Ali’s work.
