Stability test

Wine glass drawn in Cobalt. The exercise was to test how a tapering structure would build with unsupported expanding circumference. Note- this is not a suitable way to model such a form. A wood lathe would have produced much better results. The build time was almost 2 hours. We experimented with print speeds – up to 200% on some sections. Guess where?  Also 210°c seems be a good temp for PLA.

 

 

Replacement parts – Kenwood blender

Replacement cap for a Kenwood Blender. Part drawn in Ashlar Cobalt V8 and exported to Cura as a STL.

Modified STL parts from Thingiverse

My son Kit modded this ‘follow focus’ mount for his new DSLR. The STL files are from Thingiverse – http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:9313

Plus we added a lens hood  – http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:38336

Test prints

Demo test print using cura to produce g-code using defult settings – files from Thnigyverse

GoPro to Lego Beam camera mount – http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:13518

VW key ring – http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:30822

The Cura solution

Josh’s recommendation for using Cura for G-code slicing was the right advice from the beginning. The problem has been, until a few days before Christmas, that it required some fancy behind the scenes work to tweak python files buried in the Mac operating system. Over Christmas I experimented with Netfabb, Slic3r and KISSlicer mostly with limited success. Netfabb is far from intuitive to use and often freezes, while KISSlicer is simple and straightforward, despite is garish and ugly interface. Both failed to create acceptable prints for the Ultimaker. I didn’t get Slic3r to work at all.

Now with Cura  http://daid.github.com/Cura/  working, it printed acceptable results first run.  It also has a useful utility for levelling the bed 

Belts have been tightened, bed re-tapped and de-waxed  and extruder feed tension adjusted. Next post will be pics of some sample prints from files obtained from http://www.thingiverse.com/ and few 3D files created in Ashlar Cobalt.