One of the early improvements I added to Squirty was a ducted fan to blow air on the plastic just after extrusion. The aim of the fan is to cool the plastic more quickly and to provide better bridging performance. I measured the improvement in bridging with a ducted fan in an old post. I’ve […]
In previous posts I described a z-probe modification I made to Squirty the RepRap. The major issue with this z-probe was that the point probed was about 30mm away from the nozzle, which meant that the probe could not reach the entire bed. I’ve designed a new version that resolves that issue. By mounting the […]
In a previous post I described some safety electronics for Squirty the RepRap that will switch off power to the printer if the hotend got too hot or if the bed was powered for too long. In this post I’ll describe an upgrade to that system and a setup to allow logging of safety information […]
3D printing is, of course, the most frustrating hobby in all existence. Browse through any 3D printing forum and alongside the beautiful prints you’ll come across posts that compress incandescent rage into a few choice words like “I’m throwing my ******* printer out the window”. In my case most of this rage comes down to […]
In this post I’ll describe a safety system I’ve put together for Squirty the RepRap that should prevent the type of catastrophic thermal runaway that I experienced a few weeks ago. The system could work for any printer with a little modification (but obviously use at your own risk!).
After my printer almost killed me I needed to get my hands on a new hotend. RepRapPro, which made my printer kit, has unfortunately closed down so I got a new nozzle, heater block, heatsink block, heater cartridge and thermistor from emaker.io. The nozzle is the new “quickset” design, which is clamped in place rather […]
After a period of relevant dormancy, Squirty has had a lot of work done recently. I have replaced most of the original plastic parts, which were starting to crack, and put in new bearings. I also designed a new x-carriage ducted fan adaptor that put better air flow on the printed part and put in […]
I’m much better at acquiring kit for projects than I am at building them, so I tend to have a lot of Raspberry Pis lying around. I’m very lucky to have access to a beautiful view of the New York skyline at the moment, so I thought one good use (partially inspired by the House […]
Once I got my printer’s z-probe and autoleveling set up I was struck with a sudden paranoia that my printer bed was saddled. The standard autoleveling in Marlin can deal with a printer bed that is not level, but it cannot fully correct for a bed that is not entirely planar*, e.g. one that is […]
Some time ago I put a borosilicate glass bed on Squirty. I really like it because PLA will stick firmly to it when it is hot, but will pop off easily once it cools down. It is also really easy to clean. The only issue I had was how to attach it to the aluminium […]