cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/196097

The OrcaSlicer staggered perimeters in an FDM print, after slicing through the model. (Credit: CNC Kitchen)

The idea of staggered (or brick) layers in FDM prints has become very popular the past few years, with now nightly builds of OrcaSlicer featuring the ‘Stagger Perimeters’ option to automate the process, as demonstrated by [Stefan] in a recent CNC Kitchen video. See the relevant OrcaSlicer GitHub thread for the exact details, and to obtain a build with this feature. After installing, slice the model as normal, after enabling this new parameter in the ‘Strength’ tab.

In the video, [Stefan] first tries out a regular and staggered perimeter print without further adjustments. This perhaps surprisingly results in the staggered version breaking before the regular print, which [Stefan] deduces to be the result of increasing voids within the print. After increasing the extrusion rate (to 110%) to fill up said voids, this does indeed result in the staggered part showing a massive boost in strength.

What’s perhaps more telling is that a similar positive effect is observed when the flow is increased with the non-staggered part, albeit with the staggered part still showing more of a strength increase. This makes it obvious that just staggering layers isn’t enough, but that the flowrate and possibly other parameters have to be adjusted as well to fully realize the potential of brick layers. That said, it’s encouraging to see this moving forward despite questionable patent claims.

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3D printer toolheads often have large blower fans with big fan ducts ending in small holes and I wonder how necessary that is.

These large part cooling setups are most of the size of the toolhead and significantly reduce print area. Blower fans also do not produce much pressure so those fan ducts greatly reduce their effectiveness.

Does it make sense to, instead of using a blower fan, use a small compressor like for an aquarium and have the airflow delivered Bowden style to a small nozzle? The airflow would be substantially higher than from a fan. Noise isn't really an issue for a tiny compressor.

Has anyone tried this? I might eventually but don't have the time to set it up now.

So here it is with fabric in place. My frame design is fundamentally flawed and needs a total rework. There must be access to the top and bottom combs that is covered last. Hiding the side cut edges out of any overlap in the air flow path would also make it more polished.

I managed to get one end cap on last, so I could add tension to the pleats for the pic, but it was only from one side so things are starting to get skewed and wrinkled. I had assumed that the pleat forms being slightly undersized would have tensioned the fabric adequately, but that would take far too much tweaking to get repeatable results... Looks like I will be throwing more design parts at the problems... Don't give up your dreams, like quadrupling the price of a simple air filter with 2 weeks of your life! /s

Earlier post from Unfinished Proj:

It turns out that a printed pleat former is critical for holding the fabric in place and stretching it. Each of the comb clips is interlocking in multiple directions. There is a little dimple that can be seen barely on the lower clips near the tip that falls into a divot in the opposite side and through the fabric. The top and bottom are interchangeable except that there are unique end clips. It takes some force to unsnap everything when fabric is in the comb and it holds tightly.

The frame sidewall assembly clips are what I am working on now. I am trying to clamp the sides of the fabric securely while having a toolless assembly with no hardware just for design kicks and giggles.

I never imagined how a pleated filter might take such a complicated build. Currently at 32 parts. Forgive the poor print qualities in multiple parts. I sped things up and made massive layer heights for drafting purposes. This is the third full scratch iteration.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/30580334

Finally added some more lights to the P1S. Relay controlled from USB-A port.

Trickier than I thought as the original light seems to be controlled by a NPN transistor which threw me off when using the 0V from the USB-A. Feel free to ask if you want to know how to do this yourself without risking burning your board.

Huge upgrade for very little money.

(Yes, I need to dust my top cover!!)

Edit: converted to .GIF for convenience

Video description excerpt:

I saw this great video of a rocket engine exploding during a test and discovered this was part of detailed scientific paper which looked at how the defects that destroyed the engine were the result of quality control during the additive manufacturing process. Rather than just repost the video as a short, here's some more detail on the problems in the manufacturing, and the consequences on the test stand.

This is a WIP and at this point don't know if it's going to be successful or not. I'm currently building it. The idea is to use the Mercury One build but modify it so that it uses 10mm rods on the X axis instead of an aluminium extrusion with an MGN12 rail. I have a set of these rods on hand and want to use the MGN12 rail on a DIY CNC instead. These rods seem good enough for a 3D printer and I don't want to waste them.

I have decided to modify the Mercury One so that it has a different X assembly and a completely custom toolhead that houses the stock Ender5 hotend or a MicroSwiss hotend coupled with an Orbiter 1.5 extruder. Later I'll make a different toolhead for a better hotend but for now the MicroSwiss is good enough.

The red parts are original MercuryOne parts, the green ones are the ones I designed. I haven't bothered with rounding or chamfering yet. I have also imported some things from GrabCAD such as the BLtouch, hotend and fans.

This is quite the Frankenstein creation and I wonder, what am I supposed to call it? It barely resembles an Ender5 at this point, only the frame does.

I feel a bit bad for still using Gdrive but here's the FreeCAD file. I only put things in Gdrive that I want to share publicly so idc if they spy on me. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WFskq_OpdML4qeyOsKfkcaarW1QUJOB5/view?usp=sharing

I have a cheap/quick/dirty deer and rabbit fence around our vegetable garden. The doors are simple PVC squares with deer netting that used to attach to the fence via hooks at the top. This design turned out to be very fiddly. The new design seems much easier to manage - simply drop the door section into its slot.

Had to fit HDMI & Displayport cables through 25mm/1 inch electrical conduit (building static limits it to 25mm). The issue is that the connector won't fit through the commercial 90-degree corners.

Solution? Enlarge the profile while keeping the bending radius:

Some CAD and a 3D print later I have the solution no money can buy. That's the power of 3D-printing and modeling.

I have to wonder how New York plans to police the entire internet. This would appear to enforce a law that only those who weren't going to "break" such a law are going to follow anyway.

[Picture shows the light centered on the seatpost using my 'fixed' housing]

The Lezyne Zecto Drive 200+ was designed to mount off-center on the seatpost of your bicycle, for some reason.
I did a very basic redesign and printed a new rear housing so it's mounted and centered properly.

You can see in the picture below that the groove for the seatpost in the Lezyne housing is offset to one side. I assure you: it is noticeable and annoying.
I designed a basic rear housing with a groove in the center to remedy the position and put band-hooks in mirrored positions on either side—another thing the Lezyne didn't do, for some reason.

This is V1 out of PLA Pro and if I like it i will ask a friend of mine to print it in CF-infused nylon.

I'm also planning a hard-mount version via a bolted clamp, because that's my style, but i didn't have the correct length bolts on hand.

Images below not loading?
Album link: https://ibb.co/album/qBrDWk

While they are far less Common then thier PLA Counterparts, PETG does also have Filaments that Glow in the Dark. Has anyone here tried them and maybe wanna share what they think of them and if they would recommend them?

Highlighting some really bad PFA problems and some overly optimistic printing profiles. As well he gets some insider information about the corners that were cut to get this printer made with legacy hardware.

This is my 400mm 110v silicone heat made on my bed. Suddenly nothing would stick toy bed any more, regardless of temp, offset, and adhesion assistance agents. I finally looked at the center of the bed was puffy. I was able to slide a ruler in between the aluminum bed and the pad. It took a bit of elbow grease to pull off the edges. Dunno how close to disaster I was but it's a little too close for comfort. It never overheated in all my use and the thermal fuse is still in tact but the scorch mark is still disturbing.

First one done, everything seemed to work, assembly was relatively straightforward and the instructions were great.

Changes - buffer tubes were printed separately with variable layer height in Orca, I've read this helps feeding filament, settings:

Adaptive height 0.08, radius 4.

Triangle Lab kit only seems to come with long springs for the buffer tube, so you'll be building the long stroke version. I wasn't aware there were multiple versions so no loss. They are on the BoM though, so hopefully it saves someone else having to scour the instructions to see if the "missing springs" are needed.

I think I'll try printing the housings for the next one with support, some of the overhangs are a bit misshapen and had to be cleared out with a drill bit. This may still bite me further down the line when I need to fit the module to the base.

It seems like it shouldn't be too difficult to take apart if necessary.

I'd think about bending the solder tabs on the motors before soldering as well, it's a bit of a squeeze inside the housing and it's harder to bend them after.

Hopefully I'll get a second housing printed this week and at least another module assembled at the weekend.

I was having a hard time finding a dice box that fit my slightly larger than normal dice, so I made my own! It uses magnets to stay closed, and the top acts as a dice tray for rolling.

I'm pretty basic with my cad skills. I learned OpenSCAD out of spite after fully getting off of windows a while back, and thus losing access to Fusion360. I tried to made this as parametric as possible, with the ability to adjust for different sized dice and magnets controlled by variables at the top of the file.

I'm sure there are things in the code that are not optimal, but the model works really well and I have been using this for a while. Figured I'd post it online and share here as well.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/12926734

I've just taken a quick look, I've not checked off the BOM yet, but motors, boards, PTFE tube and a collection of parts have arrived. There's a bit of a description/warning sheet and a link to a Google drive with it too. Will check out some more over the next couple of days.

So, found out the hard way that you can't apply heat to neodymium magnets. Had 16 magnets to press into a print (tool holder). Thought since the soldering pen I use for inserting threaded nuts into prints works so well, I would use it for this too. And it did work well, but now all the magnets are not magnets any more. Yup, heat will demagnetize them. Part is useless, so had to trash it. Found out something new, but wish I had heard about this beforehand.