I recently bought EasySox brand snow socks for my 2020 Chevrolet Bolt EV, because the car has no clearance for chains. This post walks you through what I did to put the socks on my Bolt – it was about as difficult as putting chains on.
Continue reading Putting Snow Socks On My Chevy BoltTag Archives: How To
Ways Not to Print in Two Colors on a Lulzbot Mini
I 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 Mini
Adding a Link inside your Vellum Paperback
Links are very handy in eBooks generated by Vellum, but how do you add links inside your paperback? This post covers one alternative: QR Codes.
What is a QR Code?
A QR, “Quick Response” code is a 2-dimensional barcode, that can represent arbitrary text. In your paperbacks, you can use QR codes to embed URLs – links to web pages – for your web site and for your books’ pages on Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, etc.
Continue reading Adding a Link inside your Vellum Paperback
How to Use Git Revision Control
Introduction
GIT is a file-revision control system, popular for open source projects because it supports widely-dispersed development teams. Unlike earlier revision control systems, it has no central server: each user has a separate copy of all the file revisions.
GitHub has a nice cheat sheet to use once you’re familiar with Git.
Continue reading How to Use Git Revision Control
Getting Started With 3D Printing
One of the things holding me back from 3D printing for so long was learning what tools I needed and how to use them. It’s relatively easy to print things once you have a design: Cults3D, Hubs, and many others (including your friends who have printers) can print your designs, your local library may have printers for you to use, or you can buy a printer for a few hundred dollars.
Continue reading Getting Started With 3D Printing
Tips for Making Screen Capture Videos
I recently made two FreeCAD tutorial videos. In the making, I learned several handy tips for improving the quality of my screen capture videos.
Continue reading Tips for Making Screen Capture Videos
Designing a Gothic Duefoil in FreeCAD
If 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 FreeCAD
Designing a Gothic Duefoil in Fusion 360
If 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 more
Printing replacement parts for your Prusa 3D printer
I 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 printer
Extruder gear tension: the overlooked adjustment
I 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