Turk's Head print...

The Turk's Head print came out so nicely I thought I'd give it a little space of it's own. It might even make a novel Scout woggle, but you might want to use the version without a base and take on the challenge of a supported print!I printed it in PLA at .3mm layer height with a .45mm width and 20% infill. It was set to a perimeter speed of 30mm/sec and left to chug away while I walked the dog.What I have observed when printing in black...

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Y-carriage changes...

I've recently changed the number of linear bearings (LM8UUs) under my y-carriage, reducing the count from four to three. While my y-carriage was running smoothly enough I could detect slight binding on either end of the travel and I couldn't get rid of it no matter how much tweaking I did to the positions of the four bearing mounts. My suspicion was down to slight irregularities or even minor bows in the rods. I'm sure precision ground rods...

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60mm fan holder for Gen6 cooling...

Quick Post: It's good to keep the electronics cool. I salvaged a lovely quiet 60mm fan recently so I printed off a holder from thingiverse for it (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:13469). I modified the base plate of the holder so it clipped on to the printers threaded rods. See photos...There was a bit of stray airflow on to my printed bed, so I slotted a clear plastic lid behind the board to stop unmanaged airflow to the bed. I'll also need to...

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More extruder talk...

There's such a variety of RepRap part designs out there that you really have to match them up carefully if you plan to upgrade any individual aspect of your printer. You can 'pick 'n' mix' but as I've learned you should think it through and double check everything before starting in to an upgrade. Here are some examples of the minor issues I bumped into when I bought a new extruder hot-end, the J-Head IV-B.The j-head has a 16mm diameter insulator...

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PVA coated print bed experiment

There was a recent suggestion on the forum from Enlightx that a coating of diluted PVA (50:50), painted on to the print bed would aid adhesion of the printed object, preventing warping or even breakaway. The suggestion was echoed and tried by Rich on his blog. I gave it a go, diluting to a ratio of 1:8. At this point I've been using it for over a week, printing each evening. Here's some feedback on the experiment.It brushes on easily and...

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The Hot-end...

The majority of extruder hot-ends on the market at the moment come as kits of varying degrees. There's a certain amount of assembly you have to do yourself, but this is changing rapidly, and not too soon I think.(J-Head IV-b shown above.)It comes with a resistor and thermistor but they are not fitted. Fitting them is 'fun' the first few times, but after a while becomes a bit tedious. I can see the expanding market moving to some level of pre-assembly,...

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New extruder assembly...

One thing lead to another recently, and before I knew it I was half way to building a new extruder! I had been printing very consistently with an experimental hot-end hitched to a Greg's Hinged drive, but that was a .35mm nozzle and printing was slooooow! The max layer height being the limiting factor. Quality was excellent though as was evident in the Herringbone Gear Set print.I bought a new hot-end, the J-Head IV-B (4b), printed a new extruder...

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