Dolls and Doll-related Items for Sale

Sunday, January 28, 2018

3D Printer!

Even though I have other stuff to post, I wanted to share my big news, because Mr. BTEG bought a 3D printer, and today he got it working! He's spent hours researching, at least an hour putting it together, and suffered a couple of setbacks, including the printer not having all of the required parts! The printer took some time to arrive here from China, so getting the right pieces from the manufacturer would not have been easy, either. Mr. BTEG, being the wiz kid he is, produced new pieces at the maker's center at one of our local universities. (Edited: he used a 3D printer to make the pieces that  he needed. How meta!) If he wants to share more information in the comments, that'd be great. I'm pretty sure one of the pieces is the bright orange one next to the black rectangle with the colored wires coming out of it. What he ended up making with the printer is a small rectangle with low sides, kind of like a mini tray. You can see the outline of the rectangle on the bright orange flat working surface.

I'm sure Mr. BTEG has a whole list of stuff that he wants to make, but I'm hoping there will be some time available to make me a few things too. :) He did buy a spool of blue filament since my favorite color is blue. I have a whole bunch of stuff that I downloaded from Thingiverse in anticipation of having access to a 3D printer. Never thought it would be at home!



20 comments:

  1. I know someone who is going to have fun!!! :-)

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  2. Replies
    1. I certainly am excited about this! It opens up a whole bunch of options!

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  3. Whoa! Lucky you! Keep at it and maybe one day you can fill the hole left by Makies!:)

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    1. I don't think I'll ever get that far, but you never know! The Makies Lab has some printable stuff available, but of course, not bodies.

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    2. I didn't know there was anything left of the Makies page.

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    3. Not the official Makies page, no. But they still have a page on Thingiverse, which is a 3D printing community site.

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  4. Oh, the possibilities! I'd love to see your creations :)

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    1. I'll definitely be sharing what I make. Although I'll need some help from Mr. BTEG at first.

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  5. It sounds as though you are both going to have a lot of fun.

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    1. I'm hoping! Now that Mr. BTEG has made a couple of clean prints of simple items, we can start branching out a bit.

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  6. That's awesome! I look forward to seeing what you'll print!

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  7. I was going to try and laser cut the one piece, but time limits (and the distance to that maker-space), meant I tried a 3D-printed replacement first. The printed one is working surprisingly well.
    Barb described one of the pieces well. You can see it through the roll of filament in the second picture and a small bit of it in the first picture.
    The second missing piece isn't visible in these pictures. It's a vent to direct cooling air on the freshly printed piece. You can see the model I printed here.

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  8. Wow! That's great! I imagine the hardest part will be deciding what to make first!

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    1. Well, we're starting with simple things, but yes, there is a lot out there I would like to make!

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  9. That is so exciting! I can't wait to hear about your experiences with it. And see what you make with it!

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    1. Mr. BTEG has already printed out a couple of small things for me as he is testing and calibrating the printer. We're also talking about bigger things ahead. :)

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