3DPrinting

This is about a bad patent that is preventing slicers from making brick-layer prints that would increase strength enormously, despite the fact that there is clear prior art that has expired for nearly a decade. The patent is full of bad references to the prior art and clearly shouldn't have been approved - even if the person saying it isn't a lawyer, it's obvious.

The new bad patent from 2020 would keep the invention away for another 20 years, and do real harm to the development of 3d printing.

The creator asked viewers to share this with people in the FOSS slicer community. I don't know if that's anyone here, but lemmy is pretty FOSS-happy. Also the FOSS communities here might be interested to hear about how this patent is hamstringing development of FOSS features. I don't have the time right now to search through the communities so any crossposts would be welcome.

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Any thoughts on this. It seems pretty obvious as a development once you get into it and there doesn't seem to be much difference between the new patent and the expired patent. Layer adhesion is the big Achilles heel of 3D printing after all.

I find after this election that I have an unexpectedly pressing need to wave large obnoxious flags from my sensible fuel-efficient subcompact while I drive.

Has anybody got models, templates, suggestions for how to mount a stout pole to a hatchback? I’m thinking of some kind of tube on a short arm that I could close the rear passenger door or the cargo door on to hold it in place.

You might recall last month that I posted about my 3D-printed spectacles.

Enough people asked me for the files and for details on how to order lenses and mount them into the frames that I figured I'd release everything with instructions - and also redesign the hinges a bit so the temples fold more compact, something I meant to do for some time.

The filament came out during a print and I don't know what layer it came out at. I've spent a lot of filament on this print, so is there any way to continue it?

You might find this little tool useful:

3D-printed holes gauge block

This is a block with a series of vertical and horizontal holes from ⌀1 mm to ⌀3.6 mm (nominal) in 0.1-mm increments. I print this block with any new printer / new material at the layer thickness and speed I use most often and keep the blocks as references.

Then, when I want to print a part with a hole in it that will end up printed at the final diameter without any rework (or very close, but usually it ends up exactly right) I use the gauge block I printed with the printer and the material I intend to print the part out of to find out which nominal diameter hole I need to use in the model for the hole.

For instance, the block in the photo was printed on a Prusa Mk4 with PLA at 0.2 mm layer thickness. If I want a ⌀0.8-mm vertical hole with no interference in my final part in PLA out of that printer, I'll need to model a ⌀1.2-mm hole. I know that because the shank of a 0.8-mm drillbit will slide freely in the vertical hole marked ⌀1.2 in the block.

Or if I want a hole that I can screw an M3 screw into without having to run a tap through it, the block tells me I would have to use a ⌀3.2-mm hole to fit a ⌀3-mm pin in freely, and I back off 0.4 mm to get a hole in which the screw thread will engage well but reasonably lightly, or 0.5 mm for a tighter engagement (but with a bit more risk with horizontal holes near an edge, because the layers might separate) so I know I'll have to model a ⌀2.8 or ⌀2.7 hole in the model.

I use those gauge blocks all the time. They save me a lot of time on parts that I print often because I never have to ream or thread the holes: they come out the printer just right and ready to use.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/21641314

I'm designing a case for a dew-point ventilator controller to be 3d printed. The controller is implemented using arduino on an esp32. The project is based off of the code and HW implementation by Make Magazine Germany: https://github.com/MakeMagazinDE/Taupunktluefter. When starting out I was thinking this would be an easy project but it turned out that especially the lid with its lip and groove design and the parts fixations were not that easy. I'm excited to finally print it.

The file is parametric to some extent and the main footprint is based off of a master sketch. Many parts were imported as step files from grabcad. I used FreeCAD 1.0-rc1 which works like a charm for many things. Next thing I would like to do is to use the new assembly workbench. What do you think?

Manual "Exploded view",

Opaque view.

EDIT: I didn't mention the most important part. The device switches on a ventilator when the absolute moisture content outside is lower than inside a a certain room. This results in drying of the room that you ventilate like a basement with moisture issues. The dew-point acts as a proxy for measuring absolute moisture content.

I have a Steam Deck, Switch lite with grip, Anbernic 351v, and Gameboy advance (The non clamshell one) that I want to store in my drawer, but also want to keep them tidy, well displayed, and unharmed at the same time.

I was thinking to 3d print insterts/molds of the consoles that I can just slip them in and out of, and was wondering what the easiest way to accomplish that would be.

Also, I tried to upload pictures but kept getting an error.

I recently got back into 3d Printing because it finally seemed like it had matured into a usable production method - where one could actually just make parts instead of spending all their time fiddling with the printer. That said, I realize there are still some benefits to some fiddling.

I'm wondering about other's process using the calibration prints in Orca. Do you go beyond maybe a temp tower, flow rate and pressure advance? Do you do those in any particular order? Bambu owners, do you bother on Bambu filament, or do you find their stock settings are pretty close (I haven't been bothering - most of it seems to do pretty well without).

I started thinking about this because I pulled out some OLD filament when I got my X1C, just to see if any of it was still usable. I dried it all thoroughly with a dehydrator, and have been pleasantly surprised. Much of it has been fine. The really old ABS has been fine as was the slightly newer ASA. The 5-year-old Hatchbox PLA was perfect, but a slightly newer generic PLA roll is terrible (it may have been bad when new). Old PETG has been hit and miss. I had all but given up on one roll, only to try tuning it, and suddenly got usable prints for the rest of the roll. Then the next roll clogged the nozzle on the pressure advance tower. I could just toss it all, but it was already paid for several years ago, so anything good that comes out of it is a win.

This is the worst possible setup to print living hinges: PLA isn't terribly flexible, and here the flexible bits have to be printed vertically, which really isn't ideal to withstand cracking.

Yet when the application isn't heavy-duty like in this clamp-on connector, even PLA printed "against the grain" works well too: this connector can spread its hooks linearly 3 mm apart and the living hinges don't crack or weaken even after many cycles.

Hi, I have printed a small holder for a Bowden tube to print from my filament dryer outside of the enclosure, but the filament coming out of the tube is tensioned and I don’t know if it will cause problems later. Is this fine to keep or how can I fix this? This i a Ender 3 V3 SE btw.

So my trusty USB-C Dongle which I use to connect my switch to a TV on the road is dying. The cable has frayed and I don't want to touch it any more.

So I decided to turn it into a USB-C Hub... basically give it a shell to hide away the cable.

Designed the part in FreeCAD in 30 min, and BOOM

Needed to do a bit of a redesign after the first print, what you see here is the V2. The Lid slides on and the USB-C to C female connector is slotted in. Needed to heat it up to get it to fit.

But I am very pleased with the design. Works well (now the slots are bigger. And I can safely throw it into a bag without risk of self destruction.

Sure I do need more cables but this also means I can upgrade/replace cables when they ware down.

5/7 would recommend!

EDIT: Update and pic in comments:

Hey folks. I posted a while back asking for some advice on a future purchase.

To sum up. My brother and I are visually impaired and retired through that.

We have purchased a tiny 25ft narrowboat between us we use to travel around the UK.

And as our vision is getting worse (we will likely lose it eventually). I have some major electrical work planed this year to make thing easy for us to maintain.

So I was looking for advice on nylon printing. Yep it has to be nylon. Because some of this stuff needs to sit over the tiny hot engine plus alternator and survive diesel splashes amd bilge water etc while supporting electronics.

But some here also pointed out petg will work when. The heat is less high. So thanks.

This is just an update that i have just had the printer etc delivered.

I have a Neptune 4 pro with a tent and vent system to keep temprature and fumes safe stable.

I have a 70c filament dryer and plan to print Descicant hokder to be placed in spools with lids that hold hydrometers. This and some vacuum bags should allow storing the petg and nylon easyer. Then Microwaving the stuff when the meters are above 25%

Also those desicant holders look worth adapting somehow for the boat.

So now I need to replan my workshop to make setting all this up and using it easy vision wise. That will take a good few days.

This is basically a thank you for your help in the past and a "Hi ill be posting the mess I make learning how to get this workjng over the next few months. "

Thanks guys all the best

Portable bike stands take up a lot of floor space and suck to deploy and collapse every day. I'm in the process of converting the main stand upright tubes and head to attach to the side of a toolbox cart instead of the base of the portable stand.

Look mah, no supports:

Too much floor space wasted:

I was afraid the pedals wouldn't clear when the head is mounted vertical, but it looks like I still have around 5-10 millimeters of clearance. I still need to design and print the actual clamp mount to the toolbox. This was just a mockup with some wood clamps to check pedal clearance first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x79l7UO_qww

Caveat: The bike used is an e-bike with a powered wheel. The pedals have very little load requirements and no long-term or load testing is shown. As one of the most hardcore roadies you'll ever interact with, personally, I believe this would not last more than a week if it could survive a single ride on a traditional bike and someone like myself based on my first impression of the design. Still, the idea is impressive to me. In practice, a robust enough design will likely outweigh a chain drive by an order of magnitude. The reason the chain and cog transmission is standard is because of the balance of weight to durability. Every single gram matters on a bicycle far more than may be apparent at first.

Consider watching this video with FreeTube, a nifty open-source program that lets you watch YouTube videos without Google spying on your viewing habits!

Combined with Libredirect, which automatically opens youtube links in Freetube, it becomes really slick and effortless to use.

11 pumpkins printed! The bodies and stems are printed separately and glued together. (I'm not rich enough to have a multi material machine.) gonna give em out at the office.

STL https://www.printables.com/model/302562-pumpkin-with-separate-stem

After tuning my vref, the printer was missing steps still. I pulled the trigger and am swapping from the 4.2.2 to the 4.2.7 creality board to see if that resolves the issue.

While i was in there, I figured I’d put another z axis motor on there.

Do you guys have any recommendations on firmware or should I just stick with creality’s?

Really nicely designed print, check the build guide for some really nice engineering details (very short video)

Archive link: https://archive.ph/EJZwR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Js8erWbsDQ

I've been watching Chris' lathe builds for awhile. This concrete pour seems like a really useful idea. The lessons learned and advice given here are valuable insights into the practical aspects of this technique.

My main underlying curiosity is what happens when such a methodology is used to create automated single purpose machines.

STEP/STL: https://www.printables.com/model/1045065-simple-cable-holder