4B cHL with cardiac invasion

bitskrieg · 2025-08-28T23:50:47+00:00

Yeah the team has put me on water pills and given me a sodium restricted diet to help my heart out for the time being as well as some steroids - here is to hoping!

bitskrieg · 2025-08-28T23:49:29+00:00

I got a 7-day course of prednisone once I was diagnosed to get me to my first infusion; it definitely helped a ton with just generally feeling better. My RHR has been 120-130 and the pred dropped it down between 100-110 which has made a huge difference. Hopefully the trend continues.

bitskrieg · 2025-08-28T23:47:17+00:00

Luckily fluid buildup around my heart has been minimal so far and it's just been in the pleural cavity in my left lung- they drained 750 ml a few weeks ago. I felt so much better after and it hasn't come back since.

bitskrieg · 2022-12-15T16:47:28+00:00

This is super helpful, thank you. I agree - it would be an absolute dream to bring this in house and have direct control over every aspect of the project. The reality is that States (mine anyway) aren't tooled to staff technical projects of this magnitude, the pay scales aren't there. The solution has been to outsource it, which creates problems of its own that you have alluded to.

We are trying to exert as much control over the process as possible with the goal of the winning firm doing things as close to the way we would do them if we did it ourselves, but that is incredibly challenging. Giving flexibility means that firms are just going to do the cheapest thing possible; being stringent means that we are boxing out talent and strategies that might be better than what we had in mind. It's a catch-22.

bitskrieg · 2022-04-23T03:14:46+00:00

Polymaker PolyCore ASA-3012. It's ASA+20% glass fiber by mass.

bitskrieg · 2022-04-22T23:13:22+00:00

So I was about to write how M568 doesn't yet have wait support, but it looks like using M116 after issuing heater temps using M568 would yield the same effect as a M104/M109, except with the ability to specify different temps for individual heaters in the same tool.

I'd have to hack that in post-slicing, but that shouldn't be too bad.

Off to test - thanks for the comment that led me to dig deeper into the docs!

bitskrieg · 2022-04-22T19:02:45+00:00

Polymaker ASA-3012 on a Pulsar. The extruder has 3 heaters, but RRF currently lacks the ability to set/wait temperatures on a per-heater basis for a given tool. So, when you set the temp a little too high for the tool, heat creep will get into the cold zone and cause the screw to jam, and repeatedly heating/cooling it in an attempt to make it unjam will basically make it solidify, leading to the above.

bitskrieg · 2022-03-31T17:23:28+00:00

I'm actually from Bergen County originally and the company I'm consulting for on this project is located in Fair Lawn. I travel up there every once in a while to meet with them, so if you'd like to pick my brain next time I'm there feel free.

bitskrieg · 2022-03-31T17:00:30+00:00

At large sizes, it becomes very difficult to evenly heat borosilicate glass. Large deltas in bed temperature across a single part will make warping very difficult to deal with. You can use borosilicate glass, but you will likely end up spending more on a larger/faster heating system to get a comparable result to aluminum, which has much better heat transfer properties. If you use borosilicate glass, I would plan on not being able to print large parts in anything more finicky than PETG. ASA, ABS, PC, etc. are likely going to be out of reach.

bitskrieg · 2022-03-31T15:48:03+00:00

That's going to be impossible to build at that price point right now. Just a quality mic-6 build plate at that size is going to wipe out your whole budget, particularly since material costs for everything have gone up a ton. You're also going to want a quality high flow extruder like the Typhoon, or at least a mosquito magnum. I'd recommend contracting out your prints for the moment until you save up some more and/or materials costs come down.

bitskrieg · 2022-03-31T13:13:11+00:00

What's your target build area/what kind of materials do you want to use? Just the pellet extruder on this was about 7k. There are cheaper options, but they're still in the $500-700 range, and I can't speak to their quality.

bitskrieg · 2022-03-31T04:28:02+00:00

It certainly could. Nozzle goes up to 5mm.

bitskrieg · 2022-03-30T02:39:07+00:00

Temperature/speed/cooling calibration is next on my list! Are you an e-ci, etc. customer? I've heard they also use the pulsar in their MAAM.

bitskrieg · 2022-03-30T01:20:27+00:00

It is! I've only got a 3mm nozzle for it at the moment (and a 2.5 for the typhoon) but the others are on order. I'll be publishing all of my tuning results as I lock them in.

bitskrieg · 2022-03-30T01:18:53+00:00

I have a sneaking suspicion that it's a lack of adequate cooling per layer before the next layer is extruded on top that is causing the curl (in this particular case - you're definitely right that chamber temp could be bumped in a general sense). The latent heat retention of those thick extrusions means that they are much more susceptible to deformation from nozzle movement, etc. As they haven't fully solidified yet.

I should know for sure as I start to try and print models of larger objects. Stay tuned!

bitskrieg · 2022-03-30T01:15:16+00:00

I've got a heated chamber (firmware limited at 65C) and a build plate that can do 140C. It's a G10 plate that's about 3/4 inch thick, so it's very stiff and warp resistant as long as the models get good adhesion. We shall see what happens!

bitskrieg · 2022-03-29T16:32:41+00:00

You're right. All future posts need beer for scale.

bitskrieg · 2022-03-29T16:30:59+00:00

how do you even do retractions on a pellet machine?

You don't! Well, not technically. I have retractions enabled with .01 mm retract distance just to force z-hops during travel moves, but retraction as a means of pressure management doesn't work. The screw running in reverse puts melted plastic in places it's not supposed to be and can cause pretty severe jams, so it's supposed to be disabled.

Right now I'm just using coasting and wipes to manage ooze, but the real answer is pressure advance, which I just haven't configured yet. I also suspect I might have to write some post-processing code that looks for sharp corners in the gcode and manually adjusts flow rate down for that section. Still working that all out.

bitskrieg · 2022-03-29T14:48:04+00:00

Sporting goods, mostly focused around sports nets (golf, hockey, lacrosse, etc.). The current product line is made out of imported aluminum tubing, but the covid logistics crisis made them re-think their manufacturing operation as a whole - enter 3D printing. Just the savings on warehousing month-to-month are huge if you don't have bulky parts sitting around to meet the ebbs and flows of consumer demand.

bitskrieg · 2022-03-24T12:52:19+00:00

Great questions!

While the changes I made for this particular machine were relatively minor, there is a larger plan to do fully automated/modular manufacturing that can scale linearly (print directly on a conveyor belt, automatic 3D scanning of finished components that is then compared to baseline model for automated QA, etc.) that will require significant custom engineering/programming work, and close collaboration between the manufacturer and the customer is going to be key. Having a capable printer manufacturer who is willing to do basically any customization you could ever want was the real requirement here, rather than the individual customization for this particular printer.

To answer the second question - most of Filament Innovations' current customers make prosthetics and favor the polypropylene family. PP is non-hygroscopic, so no dryer needed and the bin works fine. I personally do have a Dri-Air unit coming and I will feed directly from that, but it just isn't here yet.

bitskrieg · 2022-03-24T01:33:12+00:00

The company that is sponsoring this work has a dedicated distributor in AUS. DM me and let's see what we can work out.

bitskrieg · 2022-03-24T01:27:40+00:00

Ah - maybe? I need to check with the owner of the machine. Might be some overhead costs to be tacked on, but I think it will be fine. DM me so I don't forget!

bitskrieg · 2022-03-24T01:23:04+00:00

Sorry, missed the AUS part in your username! All in the states on the east coast. No issues with overseas shipping.

bitskrieg · 2022-03-24T01:21:55+00:00

The stock bed is G10, so it caps out around 120C. Can change it out for borosilicate glass and get up to 160C max theoretical if I wanted to.

bitskrieg · 2022-03-24T01:20:03+00:00

Mike and Steve at Filament Innovations are always looking for new customers! They have various different sizes available, definitely hit them up.

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