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!).
By far the most frustrating part of 3D printing with Squirty the RepRap has always been the strange dance you have to do to get the Z distance correct. I use a strip of paper and carefully pull it back and forth underneath the nozzle while trying to bring it close enough to the bed […]
Last month I posted about installing a ducted fan on Squirty. After installing the fan I read issue 42 of MAKE magazine and became excited about two ideas to try for testing out the ducted fan. As is often the case, I got a bit distracted trying out these ideas so it’s taken me a […]
The suckiness of Squirty’s ability to make nice overhangs and bridges has been getting to me recently. I have been really impressed by the cool support-free prints created by LeFabShop on thingiverse but then have been disappointed when I find that they don’t quite work for Squirty. Their elephant turned out nicely but when I […]
After the creation and destruction of the case for Squirty I’ve started designing a replacement. This gives me a chance to make some improvements to the original design and is also an opportunity for me to learn to use Github, which has always been a source of wonder and mystery for me.
In my last post on stealth printing I described how I set up pronterface and VNC on a Raspberry Pi to control Squirty from an iPad. This lets me have the printer set up anywhere in the house rather than having it at my desk in the bedroom. Having it in the living room makes […]
Many 3D printing forums and blogs lecture on the quintessential importance of a perfectly level print bed. Achieving this state of printing nirvana is however a tedious and difficult task. Checking the height of the bed at various points requires you to move the print head to that position and then carefully lower it until […]