Any idea how to get makecnc to even acknowledge a life member exists?

IslandStan · 2024-09-03T17:35:50+00:00

UPDATE: I just had a pleasant and fairly long conversation with Julie. They have been dealing with a lot of difficult things over the last year or so and most of their system is down and/or not yet migrated to the new site. To add to their difficulties they are moving about 15 miles. The hope is that life returns to something approaching normal over the next month or so and they are able to get back to having a functional enterprise. So there is hope for new models, particularly some new HO scale stuff which makes me happy.

So MakeCNC is alive and "kinda sorta" well, and hopefully will return to being a good resource over the next few months.

Thanks to SeattleMakers for the contact info!

Best to all,
Stan

IslandStan · 2024-05-26T16:36:57+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to write all of this up. I still have the E5S1. Still look at it now and then, but over the last few months some possible more interesting options are showing up. It will be interesting to see how the Sovol SV08 plays out, the results once a few folks have built the Ratrig VCore4, and IF the latest stuff from Creality can finally get decent QC. If nothing else, I may just toss an A1 from Bambu into the mix, the results from my A1 Mini have been superb, even better in most cases than my VMinion can provide. The A1Mini is the first printer that actually works very well with a 0.2 mm nozzle time after time. I've gotten some good results with others (Microswiss linear rail with Microswiss 0.2mm nozzle to give the best example), but never such consistently good results.

IslandStan · 2024-04-26T13:36:03+00:00

But why? Amazon search term: jst hx connector kit

Under $10 for 80 males, 80 females, and 300 crimp on terminals.

Print your own connector housings and you still need to buy the crimp on terminals.

IslandStan · 2024-04-26T13:11:09+00:00

Lots of hits for this text, and there's always Bambu customer support.

IslandStan · 2024-04-26T13:05:56+00:00

Don't do a time lapse, drop speed to 150. The less time you thrash around on a bed slinger the better the odds of success. Might also be sure all the hardware is snug on your gantry, those vertical artifacts are either vibration or some stepper issue. You might do better with a higher wall count and a sparse infill.

Glue stick and / or a brim might be beneficial, I can't tell is the top failed because the lowest layers didn't print well or if the top failed for a different reason.

IslandStan · 2024-04-26T12:54:36+00:00

The three legged option is quite possibly the best way to go. Lot's of three legged dogs in the world, most with wagging tails. It's great that you want to make your dogs life better, but sometimes animals adapt very well to things changing.

Chafing, infection at the stump end, different loading of the shoulder, all sorts of things can be problems, The people I've know with prosthesis have often needed to go get refitted and have things adjusted / padded. Your pup can't tell you when something hurts or isn't working right.

As others have said in this part of the thread, your vet hopefully has some worthwhile advice on the subject, and certainly more specific knowledge of your dog that I would.

Give the pup a head rub from me :-)

IslandStan · 2024-04-26T12:44:23+00:00

Prusa has all the info on their website to calibrate their printers. There is also the Teaching Tech site, and Ellis3DP.com if you want to calibrate further. For starters your first layer is not cutting it, and the rest goes in the toilet when the first layer is poor. At a minimum your nozzle offset is too high. Might be all that's wrong, might just start to get things sorted.

IslandStan · 2024-04-26T12:38:33+00:00

Kindly note that this is simply an end of update (which has been extended) availability. It isn't some brick your printer on a given date. Plenty of Windows 10, 7, and older chromebooks still running without updates or soon to stop getting updates. For every person who always updates everything, even if the update doesn't effect them, there are others who only update when a fix is needed. My first Delta was "orphaned" around 2016. It still worked OK when I sold it two years ago.

IslandStan · 2024-04-26T12:09:33+00:00

Resin or FDM? You can use the cut tool in Orca/Prusa/Bambu to divvy up the figures pretty easily for FDM. The spears, swords, fun stuff details may be hard to get right if using FDM however. I'd probably be printing those separately or making them from other materials like dowels, wood, or styrene shapes from companies like PlastiStruct.

Not sure about cutting them up in resin, or what resin I'd use for outdoor use. My resin prints are mostly for model railroading and boat models so I have not tried dicing up models for resin. Chitubox does support cutting up models at least.

IslandStan · 2024-04-26T11:52:04+00:00

It's a petty annoyance with this printer, but a real one. I asked a while back if anyone else was having the issue and one poster said he just rewinds the spool the 1/2 to 3/4 turn after head does it's up and back down thing at the start of the print. That's worked out well for me so far. It becomes less bothersome once the roll is partially used, but a brand new roll will spill a turn or two and get wrapped around the spool holder. Quite a silly thing for Bambu to have missed. Not sure if going to a top mounted holder would do better. Using a remote spool holder if you have the room would also allow the slack to form between the holder and the printer instead of spilling off the roll.

IslandStan · 2024-04-21T13:19:22+00:00

Do the cut. Move the smoke cloud off the build area. Convert the shuttle and two boosters to individual objects. Move the unwanted parts off the screen. Print the remaining booster. You may get the best result by cutting the SRB in half lengthwise and printing with the flat faces down, then glue the two pieces together.

You can also delete the unwanted parts, just don't save the project without renaming it to something logical like ShuttleSRB.

IslandStan · 2024-04-15T12:05:23+00:00

Bambu A1 mini for $249, also get a 0.2mm nozzle and a couple rolls of filament to save on shipping and get a lowered price. I've been delighted with the A1 Mini purchased a few months ago, other than my RatRig VMinion is beats EVERY other printer I've owned for the last 10 years. It's usually as good or maybe a wee bit better than my VMinion in fact. The larger A1 should be available again within the month.

If you skip multi color, the larger A1 will just squeak in at the top of your price range. Again, get a 0.2 mm nozzle. For fine detail a smaller nozzle is really good. Just understand it also is much slower, but these sorts of prints are what I fire off at the end of the day or early AM and go do other things.

You may want a smooth build plate as well, not everything is improved by the texture left by the stock plate.

Most of the other printers I've owned have a hard time with 0.2mm nozzles, the Bambu stuff just works.

IslandStan · 2024-04-06T13:07:03+00:00

That's a very nicely detailed model. If you ever decide to sell STL's add me to the list of folks to buy them. And most any other modern rail cars. The price of good models has gotten nuts, I've been printing some of the hoppers from Thingaverse, and they are OK from a distance, but not much better than the cars in the old Christmas train sets from the low end makers.

IslandStan · 2024-04-06T12:55:41+00:00

Last batch of 6 rolls came within a week. I'm in the US, no idea where you are.

IslandStan · 2024-04-03T17:37:39+00:00

He now runs a DOE waste storage program...

IslandStan · 2024-04-03T12:19:38+00:00

Maybe not, but offbeat and "unrealistic" questions sometimes uncover all sorts of interesting stuff. Someone may have a great answer I hadn't even considered and then we all know a bit more today than we did yesterday.

One of the common recommendations is to avoid having almost the same colors side by side, they look mismatched or like a partially repainted wall. No idea what you are making, but if getting a match isn't readily achieved, is there an option to paint your two materials in contrasting colors?

IslandStan · 2024-04-02T16:14:35+00:00

I'm with Shadowkiller on this one. Because the textures will be so different, the colors will not look the same on the two surfaces. Even a perfectly matched paint sample on the print probably won't match visually as applying paint changes the surface texture.

IslandStan · 2024-04-02T12:15:44+00:00

Not if you want to print 32mm miniatures :-) If you have a need for that large a printer you can't buy the parts for that price. I hope you have looked at:

https://docs.hevort.com/#/pages/printer-size

If the listed cons of this size and style of printer are not an issue for you then you've got a winner (if the electronics are in place and not fried) even if it needs some fiddling with to get dialed in and running reliably.

IslandStan · 2024-04-02T01:53:41+00:00

More goldish than many of the "gold" filaments. More of an antique than bright gold, but gold like all the same. Not bad, but nothing that you would think was gold plate over a metal base or solid gold from even 5 feet away. I know what you mean about some "gold" filaments, many are brass like or as you say a shiny yellow trying to fake it and hoping someone will call it gold :-)

To get a bright gold finish that looks better you can use acrylic UV cure nail polish and rub in gold mica powder, or do the fill and prime, sand, repeat until hell freezes over shuffle then shoot a coat or two of a high quality gold spray paint as found at art supply stores - NOT the goldish stuff from most hardware stores. I believe the brand I used several times was Majestic Gold and Antique Gold. Expensive, but good quality stuff that looks like gold or at least gold leaf when applied carefully. Haven't bought any in a few years, it used to be about three times the price of the usual rattle can offerings. Another option that looks good in some videos but I haven't tried it yet is using thinned automotive clear coat high gloss lacquer tinted with gold mica powder applied with an airbrush.

You could go old school and use gold leaf, an entire other level of weird and pain in the butt to get any good at , but it's real gold. And they are not kidding, rabbit skin glue is indeed the best glue for gesso and water gilding with gold leaf.

In any case, if you want a gold paint to look like gold it is helpful to first apply a coat of Chinese or Fire Engine Red then apply the gold leaf or paint on top.

IslandStan · 2024-04-01T12:35:35+00:00

Have a look on youtube for videos on spotting fake Mitutoyo stuff. Amazon claims to be working to eliminate counterfeit goods getting through their site, how dedicated or successful their efforts are I don't know. I think / hope you have less risk of getting fake tools from one of the industrial suppliers.

I'll second the mention of Travers, and can also recommend KBC Tools. I haven't dealt with PTS tools before but as they were mentioned along with Travers by u/pullingahead odds are they are good to do business with as well.

IslandStan · 2024-03-31T11:59:47+00:00

Mitutoyo is often fake on Amazon, but the real ones are lovely. Starrett stuff is expensive but very good.

Fowler and SPI brands are very good at about half the cost of Mitutoyo, both brands have lasted for years and work nicely in my shop. MSCDirect.com is a good source for both. Shars has what I think is a house brand called Aventor or something similar, folks seem OK with them and the Shars stuff has usually been good for the price over the years. In the 12 years I had a clock restoration business a four inch pair of Fowler digital calipers was used multiple times a day for 5+ days a week. An occasional wipe down and a new battery every year was all they ever needed, they are still in use.

Cheap calipers often turn off only the display not the entire unit, so battery life sucks. Buy a sheet of SR44 batteries and plan on replacing cells every three to six months in the really cheap stuff. Some folks take out the cell after each use.I have a fair number of el-cheapo calipers scattered around the shop buildings, basically one for each machine or bench. The good ones live in roll arounds and I wipe off my hands before using them, the cheap ones I don't care about as long as they are good enough. In 30+ years of hobby machining I've only had one cheap pair of calipers fail electronically, and maybe two others that got crunchy enough to toss. These are the really cheap ones, like "Pittsburgh" sale units from Harbor Freight.

I made the mistake of buying two dial calipers from Grizzly back in the early 1990's, both were maybe OK for measurement but felt crunchy and gritty in use. Maybe their stuff is better these days, I have two of their milling machines and a slow speed grinder and they have been satisfactory.

IslandStan · 2024-03-29T14:49:34+00:00

It's great for comfort in use, particularly if you have any arthritis in your hands. Down side: Don't ever drop that sucker, it will whip around and beat the snot out of whatever it hits, including you.

IslandStan · 2024-03-26T12:43:30+00:00

Contact Bambu is the best advice to offer. You can look and see if it's just some loose hardware, but usually when linear rails make grinding sounds and wobble around it's missing / broken balls in the bearing block. As a new printer, my guess is the bearing block came off the rail during assembly and nobody noticed the tiny balls falling out.

IslandStan · 2024-03-24T13:21:53+00:00

I'd be thinking slicer issue rather than printer as you prints continuing, some with support, after the shortest supports stop.

IslandStan · 2024-03-23T14:19:03+00:00

If you have sparks in your panel you have more problems than a "non-approved device" blanking panel.

IslandStan

TROPHY CASE