so today was a busy day at the office. We have been working hard to take are 3d printed parts and put them out into the filed for testing but we want them to look high quality. a few weeks back we found a video on youtube that showed someone using heated acetone vapors to give a nice gloss finish. So we bought a hot plate some acetone and a glass jar. so we put everything outside to start testing and just a few mins later someone ran over the hot plate. It was a hit and run on a hotplate that was sitting next to a cement wall and a dumpster so they had to have been aiming for it and just missed wrecking their car. Which means we had to buy a new hot plate thankfully they are only about 30$ each. Next we had to get the vapor treating temp and time just right 5min with it acetone preheated to 200F turned out the best. we have also been working on the best way to seal the top and bottom of the casing together. so you will see pictures of us testing with a heat gun. The last project of the day was to create supports for some of the smaller details of the 3d parts those are printing right now.
here is the video we fallowed.
this is the parts holder we made
one of our test pieces
testing if we can uses a heat gun to melt the top and bottom of the casing together
on the left is the smashed hot plate you can see the cement wall and the dumpster and the new hot plate with the glass Jar
Vapor sealing a part
it had a very sort life only got to be use once
they hit it dead center i hope it messed up their tire
If you want to build your own 3d printer, a project i plan on starting next year after my wedding don't tell my GF she might kill me i already talk none stop about them. anyway check out this story on HackaDay to help control the heading nozzle accurate-temperature-control-of-your-3d-printer-extruder/
Always love Hackday and here is a great story all about printing nylon, wood, stone and all kinds of different materials check it out 3d-printering-alternative-filaments
a few weeks ago i read about how if you print on a glass board you get better prints and don't have to worry about ripping the Kapton tape, it use a blue sheet (know at Pet) that can be easily replaced by using water and a credit card like putting on window tent, also read that a cheap mirror can be used in-place of a costly glass bed. got all the supplies in and got the mirror ready it takes over night for the blue sheet to set in place so will see how it turns out tomorrow
short fall up: glass is very difficult to get to work just right when you printer is not built for it so this project has been put on hold until i have more time to play around with it. More to come
Came a cross a great read on Hack a Day about the next group of 3d printers patents that will expire next year leading to what many are calling the next big boom in 3d printers well it may not be what you think but i hold out the fact that everything gets cheaper and easier over time and its always great to have more open source projects anyway check out the story and make up your own mind http://hackaday.com/2013/09/11/3d-printering-key-patents/
