After I’ve created an extruded Gothic Tracery design in FreeCAD, I like to Export the top Face of that design as an SVG file that I can use in other FreeCAD designs and in scrollsawing (the poor-person’s laser cutter).
This post describes, step-by-step, how I Export one Face of a Body, in FreeCAD 1.0. A companion post explains the process of Importing a Decorative SVG file into FreeCAD.
Continue reading Exporting a FreeCAD Body’s Face as an SVG FileOften I have a decorative design that I created in Inkscape, and want to emboss or engrave that design into a FreeCAD Body.
This post describes, step-by-step, how I Import a Gothic Tracery design and emboss it on a simple block, in FreeCAD 1.0.
Continue reading Importing a Decorative SVG file into FreeCADI had such good luck swapping filament mid-print on my Prusa i3 MK3 that I thought I’d try the same on my Lulzbot Mini… with much less good luck.
This post lists the ways I’ve tried to swap filament colors at a specific point in the print, using my Lulzbot Mini and CuraLE 4.13.4 and OctoPrint 1.9.3. Your experience may be different – I hope so.
Continue reading Ways Not to Print in Two Colors on a Lulzbot MiniA few years ago at the Portland Oregon 3D printing Meetup, someone suggested we should all make our own name badges so Shashi wouldn’t need to bring as many “Hello, My Name Is” paper tags to the Meetups. A few weeks later I made a badge and a post on how to create your own, using the tools of the time.
This updated post walks you though the making of your own name badge in FreeCAD 0.21, which is a lot easier than it was in earlier versions of FreeCAD.
Continue reading Making a 3D Printed Name Badge, Version 2I recently needed to print a replacement door for the Whirlpool dishwasher’s detergent dispenser. This post details my adventure, which took three prints to get it right.
For the short version of the story, see All3DP’s brief page on how to stop ABS print warping. For the whole story, read on.
LATE UPDATE: Prusa’s excellent post on food safe printing basically says ABS = bad and that it’s really hard to make a safe 3D print regardless of the type of filament. In my opinion, you’re probably better off buying the Whirlpool replacement part rather than printing something that will harbor bacteria and fungi.
Continue reading Printing an ABS Dishwasher Detergent DoorIf you’re interested in Gothic architecture, you may have seen my post on Designing a Gothic Trefoil. In this post I walk you though the design in FreeCAD of a simpler ornament, the Gothic Duefoil: a circle divided into two arches, which are themselves each divided into three lobes.
Continue reading Designing a Gothic Duefoil in FreeCADIf you’re interested in Gothic architecture, you may have seen my post on Designing a Gothic Trefoil. In this post I walk you though the design of a simpler ornament: the Gothic Duefoil: a circle divided into two arches, which are themselves each divided into three lobes.
Read moreA while ago I bought a beat up cuckoo clock on eBay, to practice cuckoo clock cleaning and repair. Its face was missing most of its numerals. In this post, I describe how to use a 3D printed template to glue the numerals on a cuckoo clock’s face.
Continue reading Replacing the Numbers on a Cuckoo Clock DialI recently bought and assembled a Prusa i3 MK3 kit, and decided to prepare for printing emergencies by printing a full set of replacement parts as soon as the printer was working well.
I’d found, in using my other printer, that even high-quality printed parts do eventually delaminate under stress: after two years, that printer’s X and Y idler supports developed fractures. Because I couldn’t print the replacement parts (and because doing the replacement seemed daunting at the time), I wound up sending that printer to the factory for repairs.
I’ve also seen notes and videos from people recommending a set of replacement parts as a backup, in case you break a part while adjusting or doing maintenance on your printer. Having replacement parts on hand is also a good preparation for helping a 3D printing friend when their printer breaks.
Continue reading Printing replacement parts for your Prusa 3D printerI used to think that 3D Printer extruder tension – how much pressure the extruder hobbed gear exerts on the filament to move it forward – was a pretty forgiving thing. At one extreme, there’s “so loose the filament doesn’t feed” and on the other, there’s “so tight the extruder motor binds”. I thought everything in between was ok.
My assumption was confirmed each time I read advice on how to tune a misbehaving printer: people rarely mentioned extruder tension.
My recent fight to fix a bad print taught me that incorrect extruder tension can make a huge difference in your print quality after all.
Continue reading Extruder gear tension: the overlooked adjustment
