With the current state of mass telework and increased social distancing, finding new ways to connect with others over shared projects has become a necessary endeavor. This has lead me to upgrade my webcams, and use OBS to create a streaming setup to show-and-tell what I have been tinkering with.
After a few years of rebuilds, teardowns, and tool changes, I am finally adding a router to my MPCNC. I have been wanting to work more with sheet material like wood, acrylic, and even aluminum if I can get the hang of using this tool.
After a few months of going back and forth on this idea, I decided to pull the trigger and build the Mostly Printed CNC (MPCNC). It is a CNC platform that can be assembled out of inexpensive electronics and hardware, EMT conduit, and 3d printed components.
Ryan at V1 Engineering sells a kit with all the electronics and hardware, leaving me to source a table, conduit, and print the parts. While waiting for the kit to arrive, I started the long process of printing.
A friend of mine recently joined the 501st, a group of Star Wars fans who cosplay in full sets of screen-accurate Stormtrooper armor for charity events. He opted for a biker scout variant, which includes a distinct laser pistol as a sidearm.
To help complete his set of armor, I printed a replica of this blaster.
Over Christmas, I took advantage of Google’s sale on the Google Home Mini to pick up a few for the apartment. Even though it doesn’t take up a lot of desk space, I wanted to mount it to the wall to keep it off the limited shelf space, and to hear it throughout the room. To resolve this, I came up with the following wall mount. The design started with a few reference images I found online.
At less than $10, the Tertial lamp from Ikea is my favorite source of workspace illumination. So far, I have one in the garage over my workbench, and one over the desk in my office. They are easy to move into place, and will hold fast when let go. For the price, this lamp can’t be beat. The mechanics of these lamps is also interesting. Forces and torques are balanced through the weight of the lamp and counter-acting springs.
In collaboration with my university’s anthropology department, I had the opportunity to scan skeleton fragments with the intent to 3d print copies. Yesterday, I finally got a sample scanned and printed.
I placed the skull fragment on the rotating platform of a NextEngine 3d scanner, giving a full 360 degree view of the object. I did this twice at different orientations, and used the scanner software to fuse the scans together.
Though I received it weeks ago, I finally got a chance to install the x-axis upgrade for my Printrbot. I now have 4 more inches in the x direction, and a heated build plate.
I also installed a new Ubis13 hotend to replace the offbrand E3DV6 that leaked all over the place. This required printing a new fan mount, which you can see coming off the hotend in the picture. I’m looking forward to printing with new materials and making use of the extra space.
A little over a year ago, our group acquired this old ZCorp 310 printer from surplus. This machine uses powderbed technology, where an inkjet deposits liquid binder on a plaster material, fusing it together into a solid object. This brand of printer is rarely seen nowadays, since the company is now owned by 3D Systems. With no material, no accessories, and no software, we were unsure if it was even functional.
Despite the wide range of available thermoplastics, sometimes spools of filament with desirable electromagnetic or mechanical properties are not commercially available. For this reason, our research group acquired a Filabot filament extruder. Pellets of thermoplastic are loaded in through the hopper, and pushed through a heating element via an auger. The nozzles are bolts with different sized holes for 3 mm and 1.75 mm filament.
Today I got a chance to make some filament.
