Ospalh prints

I did publish a few designes on YouMagine, but in the end didn’t like the site.

You apparently aren’t allowed to use links in your descriptions

You can only share one image of a make, instead of a set. The site also prompts you to bother the uploader with problems on the design.

I have found a way to show snapshots of the build on my work computer. Only during breaks, of course. It works like this:

I’ve got a DMZ Raspberry Pi with the ssh dæmon running

And my work PC’s ssh key is registred as an authorized key

This Pi writes the web-facing IP address to my Dropbox

The printer’s OctoPrint is not visible from the web

So, with this, i use a bash script that:

Looks at the ip address of my DMZ Raspberry Pi in the Dropbox file

Connects with ssh to the DMZ Pi

On that uses curl to get a snapshot from the OctoPi

Pipes it through ssh

Writes it to a temp file

Displays it with sxiv

And deletes it

Another beginner’s mistake i made:

Is that art, or can i throw that out?

I use an OctoPi to control my CTC Bizer Ⅱ. It took my a while to realize that i had to use the GPX plugin. With that, off i went with my first print. I just didn’t realize that you had to set up things like the bed shape, or, more importantly, the number of motor steps per mm. (I also put a lot of stuff into the gcode file, instead of printing one item after the other, as i do now.)

When you hold the #3DBenchy the right way, then, while not looking good, it’s sort-of OK for a first print.

I wanted to change from the green filament, where i don’t really like the colour all that much, to a dark blue one.

What i didn’t know was that you have to be careful when pulling out the filament. I called up the ‘remove right’ menu item, and as the nozzle was hot anyway, started yanking on the green filament, and sure enough i got it out. Only, it didn’t have the melted pulled out tip, but looked somewhat snapped off.

Then i wanted to load the blue filament, went to the ‘load right’ menu item, and when i pushed in the filament, all i got was a clicking sound but no plastic out the nozzle. Cleaning the nozzle with acetone soaked paper didn’t help.

I thought this was caused by a blocked nozzle, so i unscrewed it, only to realize that a) i couldn’t really clean it all that easily, b) now i would have to level the bed again and c) that it probably wasn’t a blocked nozzle anyway. Also, i think i have an 8 mm wrench somewhere, but i used plies to unscrew the nozzle. The dents in the nozzle aren’t that bad…

Turns out, it’s much less of a hassle to open the extruder: unscrew the print head, unscrew the fan, unscrew the extruder plastic bit. When i did that, a bit of green filament came out, the cause of the block.

Before i screwed the extruder back on, i tried to level both nozzles. While having the left nozzle higher than the right one is OK when you want to print with one colour, having the right one higher than the left one is not a good idea. I think i will try this again with a bit more calm.

Apart from gaining experience, you know, knowledge you get the moment after you need it, now i know a bit better how the whole print head works. And why things like the ‘Mk8 Spring loaded Drive Block’ are a good idea. Expect another rant when i managed to find those screws and print that thing.

So, my tips from one beginner to others:

Wait for the motor to run backwards and pull out the filament slowly

This was my fourth print ever that gave some useful results, the second that pretty much worked, and the first where i liked the result.

Just a little tool to pull the key caps of a standard computer keyboard, Thingivere’s thing 63154 I’we got a keyboard that needs a bit of a cleaning and the best way to clean the key caps is ‘washing them up’ in the kitchen sink like dirty dishes.

I just recently bought my first 3d printer.

While Thingiverse allows you to upload images of things from that site you have printed, i only want to show nice prints there.

Here i’ll probably upload images of some of my failed prints as well, just as a sort-of diary, because, why not.