Many good prints done

Using PETG from Beta2Shape on the steel dust surface, I calibrated it to -1.09mm. Prints still fell off unless I used 3dlac. When I tried the flat surface, I was hardly able to get the print off at all. There is also a lot of very fine stringing when I use the default Prusament PETG settings. I'll try some of the tips in https://all3dp.com/2/petg-stringing-3-easy-ways-to-prevent-it/ to improve that.

For PLA, I couldn't use the steel dust surface, instead I use the flat one calibrated to -1.0mm. The PLA from DasFilament has done good by me. Curiously, after switching to the powdered surface and back, the calibration changed to -0.8mm. Clearly recalibration is a good idea after switching surface.

The printer has been quite busy. I joined makervsvirus.org and printed 50+ face shield holders:

I look super derpy in this shot, but it shows how the face mask works, just add a sheet of clear plastic.

50 of them delivered to our local hub.

I printed tools for my coworker Ilham for taking off the faucet filter (in German a "Percolatorschlüssel"):

Generic version that works on many faucets 

Version for a specific size of inner teeth - I didn't even know there were inner teeth! This was the size that Ilham needed, but difficult to get a good grip on

A version with better grip, but too large for our faucets. 

Some other things against Coronavirus:

My wife is doing a bunch of masks, but ran out of bias tape - as did all the suppliers. So I printed this nifty bias tape folding device, it works quite well.

Another thing for masks, this holds the straps instead of your eats getting pulled at. Unfortunately it slides downwards, and so does the mask.

And another couple of useful things around the house:

I got a used bike trailer of a kind I've previously used for the Monachium war chariot, but this one came with an attachment that tried to fill the same space as my disk brakes. Since physics has some stern words to say about doing that, I made an adapter for the other kind of attachment, printed in PETG (which is less brittle and more heat-resistant) and somewhat over-dimensioned. It works nicely so far.

For working from home, I found my WiFi connection utterly inadequate, so I decided to lay Ethernet into my room. These are Cat6-compatible clips that can be stuck onto the wall. I now have a pretty well routed wire, firmly attached. 

The new PrusaSlicer 2.2.0 has some nice details to it, like when an SD card is detected, it will add a button to write to the SD card and after that another button to eject. Now that's a UI that helps smooth the common path. Too many engineers in particular forget to do that, presumably thinking that it's enough that the functionality is available, there's no need to duplicate it. Kinda like the mathematician reducing a fire to "a known problem."

Progress in the 3rd dimension!

I have declared March to be "get the RepStrap running in 3D" month. With some help from Buro Detours, I have assembled the third stepper motor driver, and subsequently cut and drilled the pieces for the Z stage. It helps a lot to have a good hacksaw and a drill press, this one has gone a lot faster than the first two.

One difference between the Z stage and X/Y stages is that there is a plate under the rails that anything sticking too far down will hit. I had to change the spring-loaded wheel holders a bit to be as flat as possible, including cutting the bolts down to minimum size.

I should have a flange today or tomorrow so as to mount the whole thing together. The next interesting part is what to put on in order to hold a head, and how to avoid the whole movable part falling out when there is weight on it.

Useful heads

Collecting in this post various types of head that might be useful once the 2D part is actually running:

• 
  Fabric painter (might be able to get one from the US)
  
• Wood engraving burning tool (seen at local crafts store for DKK ~500)