[dms-discuss] 3D Printers

[Ryan McKay]

I put some time in to the 3D printers at the space over the past couple
days.

Tried to improve upon the state of the Prusa i3.  I haven't had too much
luck in actually getting it to print much better than before, but I did fix
it up with an adjustable bed-leveling system.  That took a lot of time so I
actually have more time invested in mechanical fixes than software tweaks
on that particular machine as of yet.  Not ready to give up hope on further
slicer calibrations (print settings) yielding some improvements as of yet,
but I am starting to suspect that there are further mechanical issues to be
dealt with (getting some oscillations in the X and Y dimensions from layer
to layer... loose belts?) beyond the, now solved, issue of the print bed
being super uneven.

Then I fixed up one of the little wooden guys... got it printing great now,
in relative terms.  It's still not as nice as what I'd like it to be, but
it's definitely printing better than the Prusa right now.  I'd say we could
probably start telling visitors that we actually DO have a functional 3D
printer now, instead of the typical "we have some but they're all broken"
response... the only potential problem is that this one only has a 12x12x10
cm print volume.  I did all the setup, calibration, and driving of this
little guy with my laptop, so maybe tomorrow I'll try to get it running of
one of the computers in the space and then transfer over my calibrations.
Once that's done I'll be able to show anyone who's interested how to use
it, and I'll probably write up a little quick start guide that could
hopefully get a (decently tech-savvy) person from 3D model to 3D print.
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