Can you pause prints?
Could you, say, embed some NFC auth token gizmo in a Calicat, glue it into place, and then continue the print around it?
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Yes! There’s actually a Cura plugin to modify g-code to pause at a certain layer and move the head back, to allow inserting something like a nut for a built-in metal thread. NFC/RFID widget sounds like a cool thing to stick in one!
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Wow, I am way more excited about this than I should be. There’s a .stl thumbnail generator plugin for KDE’s Dolphin file manager now! This is great!
Ok, that’s pretty cool! I wonder how many buffer overflows it has in it…
On this episode of random stuff I fixed, today I actually got to do something new with a printer instead of running the same parts over and over for weeks (no, I still don’t have the S1 setup. Stay tuned for that…)
Part of a canopy broke broke at the farmer’s market I work at. They asked if I could fix it for less than a new canopy would cost and the answer was yes. Yes I can.
Press out the old spring mechanism, some quick measurements with the calipers and set to 100% infill.
Took just a bit of hand fitting to get the spring plunger bit in there but now it seems to fit together as expected. Tomorrow I’ll know for sure when the canopy goes back together.
The report I heard was that it worked perfectly, for far less than a replacement canopy! And far less waste in the process.
You really should list random things you’ve R&D’d like this on your Etsy store. Who knows how many other people are looking for the exact same part?
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I’ve been scavenging canopies for the extendable leg sections, so I can make impromptu 10-12’ tall antenna masts for free, essentially.
Since early this year I’ve been perfecting a method for taking arbitrary logos/lineart and putting them through a sort of logo to .svg to CAD to 3D print pipeline.
It took a while to figure out but it’s a pretty efficient system now. It lets me stick logos on pretty much anything printed, like this little widget I came up with:
This is a pic-rail mount for sticking go-pros on rifles. Because never spend $12 online when you could spend 3+ hours on a Friday night designing the same thing… ok yeah, I guess it’s fair to say Friday nights at my house are pretty firmly ‘on the hook’…
Works great though.
Repo link, in the event anybody wants one: Printables
I also modified a neat folding tripod design I found online.
As yet another test to see how fast I can stick logos in things now, I put one in this Pixelbook holder I made for my desk.
Earlier on I came up with a basic keychain blank, for not much purpose other than testing logos at small sizes and dialing them in before adding the CAD model to larger stuff.
These were really just test pieces at first, but recently I was at a small expo in Boise and handed a few out to some other company reps I was talking to. That got very good results. It was the day I discovered a little bit of swag makes you a LOT more memorable to people than yet another guy with just business cards to hand out.
And at $0.10/piece and using the leftovers of a filament spool anyway, that’s well worth having a bunch on hand.
So… now I guess I’m swag printing today.
