Several of the plastic feet on my patio chairs have gone missing over the years. I should be able to do a 3D part replacement by printing some new ones. That will be the easy part of this project. The difficult part is coming up with a 3D model of part. Since no one has published a 3D model for this part on Thingiverse or elsewhere, I am on my own.
It’s fairly easy to connect to a remote 3D printer from any computer in your home. That includes tablets and phones. Here is how I did it.
My 3D printer now does auto-leveling using a proximity sensor and an external control board. This DIY PCB article describes completion of printed circuit board used in this project.
It’s amazing that after so many years with radio and electronics hobbies, I had never created a DIY PCB scratch. Oh, sure, I have used printed circuit boards made by others many times. These were either purchased commercially, or fabricated to my design. But it was time to make my own. So, here goes.
Many people begin to use a 3D printer for making toys, models, jewelry and art. These are more aesthetic than practical. But there are many practical ways to use a 3D printer around the house or workshop.
Getting the first layer right is the holy grail of 3D printing. This is hard if your print bed is not completely level. Here’s the story of why and how I added 3D printer auto leveling to my Sunhokey Prusa i3.
Calibrating a 3D printer kit can be a lot harder than building it. And, if you are not careful, you can make it even harder. Here is my experience with my Sunhokey 3D printer kit. Remember that a 3D printer kit is not a precision instrument. It’s more likely a good enough instrument. So, have reasonable expectations. Perfect is the enemy of good.
If you can assemble children’s toys on Christmas Eve, you can build a 3D printer kit. And it will probably work fine. But remember this: a 3D printer kit is not a finished product. You are buying a proven design, a box of parts, and assembly instructions. There will be bumps in the road. Here is the story of my ride.
Getting a 3D printer requires an investment of time and money. It also helps to understand your objectives. Once you get bitten by the 3D printer bug, it becomes more a matter of how than what. You know you are going to end up with your own 3D printer. It becomes an obsession. Here’s how I handled my obsession. How did you handle yours?
This question just might signal a paradigm shift. It certainly has in the past. We humans learn by thinking and doing, usually together. What will you do with your 3D printer?
When I built my first computer forty years ago, the first question my friends asked was “what will you do with it?” When I got my first high-speed internet connection twenty years ago, the first question my friends asked was “what will you do with it?” When built my first 3D printer this year, the first question my friends asked was… you guessed it. (Sadly, the second question they ask now is “can you print a gun?”)
Another commonality is the time elapsed between the arrival of these technologies and when they went mainstream. The foundations of modern computers – ENIAC, Von Neumann architecture – were invented 30 years before the home computer went mainstream. The Internet’s foundations – packet switching, APRANET – were invented 30 years before the Internet went mainstream. The precursor of the 3D printer – Rapid Prototyping – came to the industrial market 30 years before the 3D printer went mainstream. Incidentally, that that was the same year the “replicator” appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
