Well I took another plunge

[Susie]

Awesome job on those soap dishes!

...You know, of all the things I thought I would ever admire, soap dishes were never on the list...but those are nice to look at as well as highly functional for our precious soaps.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Very nice. How are you finding the process in general?

 

[CaraBou]

LOVE that first soap dish - very unique!

 

[kchaystack]

Very nice. How are you finding the process in general?

Its pretty smooth. I find a model I like, and download the .stl file and load it into Cura. Cura is a slicing program, and translates the model into gcode - which is what is sent to the printer.

This is where you have to set the temp of the print head and the build plate, resize and move/rotate it to make sure it fits your build plate, and add any support structures to support any overhanging bits that need it.

Once this is done and exported to gcode I send it to the printer, and it heats the parts and starts printing. You have to watch it for the first few minutes, sometimes the plastic will snag and start to bunch up around the nozzle. You have to cancel the print and clear that and start over. It has only happened 2 or 3 times and I have printed quite a bit of stuff.

It takes several hours to print. So I usually go off and do other stuff and check on it occasionally. the first soap dish there took long enough that I went to bed once it was at like 30% done and I felt safe to let it run.

Next is sanding a piece and priming it so I can paint it.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Nice. A friend of mine has put a piece of glass on the bed to make the bottom of the print smoother - it takes a bit of the possible height away, but he finds it better for most things to print on to the glass rather than the standard bed.

 

[kchaystack]

Nice. A friend of mine has put a piece of glass on the bed to make the bottom of the print smoother - it takes a bit of the possible height away, but he finds it better for most things to print on to the glass rather than the standard bed.

Well the V2 has a new bed coating that plastic adheres to well. If you use glass you have to coat it with glue stick or hair spray to get the plastic to stick. Some people have complained about badly warped beds, but I have not had a problem with mine - its just sometimes a glob of plastic builds up and catches the print, dragging it and turning it into a blob.

But everyone on the 3d printing groups agrees you should always monitor the print for the first 15-30 min anyway. So it is not that much on an issue

 

[WeaversPort]

It's here!

Have you given it a name yet??

 

[SunRiseArts]

That is just super cool.

 

[cherrycoke216]

Oh so cool!!! I love the first and second one soap dish & the Japanese money lucky charm cat!

How are you gonna polish it before coloring?

 

[BattleGnome]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robotic-industries/buildone-99-3d-printer-w-wifi-and-auto-bed-levelin



Adding this here instead of starting a new thread. If anyone is still interested there are a few more days on this kickstarter. $99 for a 5" bed and if you go for all the fun there is a laser engraving option.