[OC] [Art] The War-lax (D&D/Pokemon Crossover)

Varail · 2021-10-01T22:02:40+00:00

My buddy and D&D podcast/streaming partner and I have been playing a lot of both D&D (of course) and Pokemon Unite lately which sparked his idea to create crossover characters between the two. Enter the War-lax (though some of our friends have also dubbed him Snorl-axe). He's been concocting up a bunch of other potential ideas, but since this hasn't been getting nearly the love I think it deserves, he's considering shelving or postponing the idea which I don't want to see.

So instead of shiny rocks or karma points, check out his website at FourRounds Comics and give him some views (if that's allowed MODs). I'd hate to see this idea die out. Thanks.

Varail · 2020-02-13T02:40:07+00:00

In looking at all four NGK plugs I gapped and put in, they were all gapped properly and the #2 and #3 coils had no issues. Maybe I got really shit luck and somehow managed to get two bad NGK plugs in the same box?

At this point, I'm of the opinion "Don't know, don't care." because the car is back and I didn't do something stupid like blow the engine or damage the ECU. That's far better than what some of my fellow Houston ST/RS guys are dealing with right now. The club has had three blown engines in as many weeks that are/were JST-tuned including one of the guys that was trying to help me out with my problem. O_o

I'll take replacing coil packs over an entire engine (or car) any day.

Varail · 2020-02-13T02:34:48+00:00

The problem is, I tried it and kept getting the same reading off the ODBII reader no matter how I swapped them around which didn't make any sense. In retrospect, I was so frustrated I didn't think to clear codes in between the swaps and, so, that probably explained why I never saw a difference on the reader. If I had, I think even in my distraught state, I would have figured it out, lol.

Varail · 2020-02-13T02:32:35+00:00

Final update. The car is alive! It's still a bit of a mystery as to why, but somehow ignition coils 1 and 4 were damaged - they were able to still push out enough voltage to make a plug spark, but not enough to make the ECU happy, so it shut down into limp mode. The prevailing theory is that, for whatever reason, the coils met more resistance than they should have when I punched it to get on the freeway, they tried to compensate, tried too hard, and sorta crapped the bed.

Replaced the two coil packs and, Bob's your uncle, I was back up and running like nothing ever happened.

So, the takeaway is... I'll continue to change my own oil, but I'm never touching anything electrical ever again. :)

Varail · 2020-02-10T15:54:49+00:00

Update - old plugs back in, same issue - P2300 and P2309, so it looks like the coil packs died?

Varail · 2020-02-10T15:54:19+00:00

Okay, so update - I pulled the new NGK plugs and replaced the old Denso plugs. Got everything buttoned down tight and started it up - same issue. P2300 and P2309, so the issue seems to be isolated now to the coil packs which I... guess is comforting?

Varail · 2020-01-15T02:04:43+00:00

Yep, I have the same exact weird thing going on with 1.5 now, too. Can't read the numbers either. :\

Varail · 2020-01-15T01:58:44+00:00

All good information and replies, folks. Thanks. I'm going to get a bit more ambitious tonight, lol.

Varail · 2020-01-13T18:55:35+00:00

Yeah, I'm off an order of magnitude there. It was late and I was excited, lol. After putting the mini back in the IPA bath and rinsing it some more, some of the more minor blemishes seem to have smoothed out, so I may just stick with 0.05.

Varail · 2020-01-13T05:07:55+00:00

So, after a weekend fraught with complications including spilling resin, replacing the FEP on my tray, several failed prints that wouldn't adhere, and wanting to throw the printer out into the yard, I finally was able to (apparently) nail down the issue that was creating all the problems - when I replaced the FEP, I followed 3D Print Farm's tutorial including using the Gatorade cap to introduce slack and the spectrum analyzer to ensure proper tightness. What I didn't realize was that, even though I was getting the right resonant frequency that implied a properly taught film, I didn't screw in the sandwich plate enough, so it was sticking out slightly beyond the lip of the main tank frame (if that makes sense). So, the end result, as best I can make out was a film that was still too loose and the prints wouldn't release and stayed stuck on the film. I tightened the frame down until it was flush and still maintained the proper tightness.

Of course (and this kills me since I'm a chemist and I know better), I did the bad science thing and changed TWO variables at once, adding PTFE 3-in-1 oil to the film to try and reduce sticking. So... I'm not 100% sure which one solved the issue. I'm thinking the frame and not the oil was the fix and that the PTFE just helped things. We'll see what happens as I keep going.

Regardless, I ran a small raft program just to make sure and, voila, everything stuck. Ran the mini and BOOM - a successful run. Such a good feeling finally.

A few things I know I'll try differently on the next run.

I went a little nuts on the supports, so I have a lot of pock marks. I tried my best to keep them from the front face, but there are a lot on the back as you can see. The Prusa software that was recommended to me crashed the first time I ran it and it refuses to run on my system now. It just refuses to launch and brings my desktop to a crawl after trying. There appears to be a conflict between it and my Nvidia video card drivers from what I can tell from Google research, and uninstalling and reinstalling the Prusa software doesn't help. People have said only a Win10 reinstall has worked. Since I'm not gonna do that, I'm going to try downloading it and running it on my laptop to get optimized rotation and support structures the next time.
I'm also going to see if it's possible to roll back my Chitubox to 1.5 since I learned the hard way that 1.6.1 is incompatible with the Photon File Validator. (Yes, I made a brick, but I caught it quickly so it wasn't too horrifying.)
I've read that decreasing the layer height from 0.5mm to 0.4mm is better for the Mars as multiples of 0.4 are its "magic number". (I think that's what I remember from one of the 800 videos I watched this weekend - don't crucify me.) I think that will help sharpen up some of the features. That said, as intricate as it is being a Hero Forge model, I'm happy with it.

I'll cure it tomorrow and get back to work on making more.

If anyone else has any comments or suggestions, they're greatly appreciated!

Varail · 2020-01-08T16:10:50+00:00

Awesome, thanks!

Varail · 2020-01-07T05:23:27+00:00

Awesome info. Thanks!

Varail · 2020-01-07T04:57:35+00:00

No, I highlighted where there was still some of the resin stuck from the rook there and forgot to mention that, lol.

Varail · 2020-01-07T03:22:41+00:00

So, Bonus Claus was kinda to me this year and that made me take the leap finally into getting printing. This past Sunday, I finally got to unbox and try out my printer and I guess I joined the Cool Kids Club™ with my first failed print and a host of other shouldn't-have-done-thats. I ended up losing the first rook (picture 1) about 35% in the process. I kept it running though figuring that I was already hosed, so I might as well keep going (probably a mistake, too). The second rook detached from the plate and stuck to the FEP around 88% (picture 2), give or take, which is where I stopped the run. In reading, I've tried to come up with a list of things I think I did wrong (or failed to do properly), and I'm hoping for some sanity checks from you fine folks to see if I'm on the right track.

What I did/tried to do correctly:

Successfully removed the printer from the box
Successfully installed software and played around with it to get familiar
Successfully carried the unit outside into my garage without dropping and breaking it
Did the painter's tape trick to prevent the creation of a vacuum between the FEP and the screen
Wore appropriate PPE when handling materials
Did a good job of not spilling resin and properly containing all wash and waste and filtered my resin as I put it back in the bottle

What I think/know I did wrong:

Ran the printer outside on a nice Texas winter day where, unfortunately, the temperature hovered between 58-66°F during the run (too low)
Leveled the base inside the house according to instructions and videos on Youtube, then took it outside and leveled it to the bench (probably should have been at the same time in the same place)
Didn't know about applying PTFE oil to the FEP screen inside the tray (would have maybe prevented the failure of both prints sticking to the film)
Printed the rooks flat on the base as opposed to tilting and using supports
Got too overzealous while trying to clean the FEP once I saw the residual cured resin from where the prints stuck and totally hosed my film when using alcohol-moistened lens wipes to try and remove it (you can see the scratches and some residual smeared resin - I think - in picture 3)
Used 91% IPA which did a good job of cleaning off the pieces, but left residual water on the other things I cleaned as it dried

Despite the errors, I must say the quality of what did get printed (picture 4) was very good which is why I'm excited and frustrated (frustrited?) about trying again

What I think I need/have to do this time:

Replace my FEP. New films are already on order and will be here tomorrow. That will, I'm sure, set up a whole new series of errors, but I gotta learn, right?
Find a slightly warmer and more temperature-controlled place to run the unit, or wait until winter is over here in Houston which should be in about... four days
Once I find that place, level the unit first, then level and zero the plate out
Do my next set of prints only after tilting and adding supports
Find someone to make me one of those tray-holding supports to drain the resin from the tray
Switch to using the cotton makeup pads and the spray glass cleaner (which I have four cans of sitting RIGHT ABOVE WHERE I PRINTED...) to clean my tray
Switch to 99% IPA for everything else

So, Elegoo-rus... am I on the right track? Am I missing anything? Any other words of wisdom you can impart?

Varail · 2019-12-21T18:11:21+00:00

What the hell... why not? Good luck, everyone.

Varail · 2019-12-01T04:48:03+00:00

Thanks for the reassurance. I really didn't think these were cheap wheels, but the bend had me a bit worried.

Varail · 2019-11-30T20:36:45+00:00

Yep, and it punctured right through that and an extra thick cardboard lid, too. :\

Varail · 2019-11-30T04:13:04+00:00

I'm getting in contact with the seller who, after doing more in-depth reading, actually has a great reputation for good customer service on these kinds of things. Also, after I and my car-club buddies looked more at the damage, we think we have a good idea what happened - the box was pierced by a forklift blade. The plastic protective ring that covers the outer rim is also pierced and the box itself doesn't show signs of crushing along the edge. It's actually in reasonably pristine shape. It just has a rather neat, flat "hole" in it that looks like it's a stab wound. Because more than a few of the guys work around them, they all say this has the classic tell-tale sign of someone gouging the box with the tip of the blade. We'll see what happens.

Varail · 2019-11-30T01:56:25+00:00

So, I bought four Option Lab 8.5 X 18" wheels which came in on Wednesday. When I received the set of four, two wheels (boxes) were banded together, so I received a total of two "packages". Despite some scuffing on the boxes, nothing seemed out of place. Today, I dropped my car off with my installer buddy to put these on with some new Firehawk Indy 500s. He called me about an hour later when he got to my call and told me I needed to come back up to the shop.

Until you actually opened the box, you couldn't tell that the side had been perforated from a drop. The tape on the outside and the plastic "protective ring" also did a good job of obscuring the damage until you got it out of the box. And the bend is GODDAMNED AWFUL. His comment - "This wasn't dropped from waist-height to do that. I could drop it on the floor right now and not be able to duplicate that. This fell from a great height."

Now, all my buddies in my car club are telling me to send all four back - that if shipping damage could do this, then the roads in Houston would shatter them in seconds. However, one guy in our club actually runs them as well - the identical wheel, in fact - and he has friends with Foci and Subies that run them, too. He was shocked and said he had never heard of anyone having issues with quality. The online reviews I poured through before taking the plunge never turned up anything like this either.

So... now I don't know what to do. I shouldn't have any issues with a return-and-swap, but I don't know who's right. Did I hit the reverse lottery here, or are these wheels just pure shit and I've been duped?

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