Spare parts, spare cash and spare time.

 I received a lot of spare parts for the machine, a filament dryer, lot's of extruders, so I'm all set to give it a overhaul and get to the bottom of what the issue. Just not this week....

With the machine virtually crashing and burning (so to speak) and unplanned spare time I set my sights on improving my living space. I've been here for a year now and I've been keeping a list of shit that needs to get done, eventually. One of those things was to get the bedroom upgraded to a proper bed and more storage space. One order at IKEA later, and delivery the next day....I had to cut a few corners as I want to keep my tiny comfy chair (kids model, so for my spines sake I will need to upgrade that someday) and my display cabinet (that needs a good cleaning) is just 1 cm too wide to fit properly next to the new PAX's.....cause of course it is :)  But this way it works too. The wireless lights still refuse to connect to the new router so I'll just leave that for now, the joys of modern 5 Ghz/2,4 Ghz routers format incompatibility

Nice to have a proper sized bed now, did swap out the handles for leather strips to save my shins and ankles. Still looks as sterile as a surgeons office so that needs to remidied....eventually. But with the cabinets closed you would not know there is a 3D printer hidden there....which was the whole point. Did the same on the other end, getting rid of my, always in the way printer stand, drilling a nice hole in the old PAX and using my spare XXL printer cable to hide the little one. Let us just ignore that cable across the wall....the floor is empty and that was the whole point. 

Flock&Rock will be moved to the other cabinet, I kinda forgot it was still hiding here. Ran into a whole pile of FoW books that need to get listed this week. 

 Now, the spare cash.....

I found these 2 at the local Goodwill, 2 or 3 weeks apart. Both are old beersteins with the mark of 413 Squadron Redskins, a Fighter Bomber squadron and flying NF-5's when I was still a kid and transferred to F-16's eventually. One is marked "Fokko" and the other "FJ"

I sold Fokko for 43 euros, and FJ for 110 euros and both went to the same buyer after a rather frenzied bidding war. Not bad for a 3 euro investment for the 2 combined. After a bit of research by the seller we concluded the original owner was Kolonel Pilot Fokko J. Kingsma, who was base commander of Gilze Rijen Airforce base till 1984. The things you learn. The Goodwill could not tell me anything about who dropped these off, but the chance for any kind of info was very slim to begin with. 

Not the most politically correct these days but it's history ey.

Almost all NF-5's were later sold to mostly Turkey and Greece, these days in storage or as decoys at their airbases (AFAIK). 

Anyway, nice bit of spare cash for the hobby fund :)

Now to finish off some small chores and get the house ready for my little ladies arriving on wednesday :) 3 Weeks have flown past.....

100 hours in and oh boy....

 Well, after 100 hours in I'm getting fail after fail after fail.

I keep cleaning the nozzle, washed the build plate, calibrated again, removed the filamant and put in a fresh roll of brand new filament as the last print was very fuzzy and even just ordered a filament dryer to be delivered somewhere this week as humidity might be an issue.

 

Starting to feel like life before and after marriage this....

 Yet another test run. So far all today failed within 10 minutes, so jay.... 

3D printing first fatality

 Well, after running the printer for 105 hours I managed to clog up the 0.2 nozzle (after only 10 hours of use). Went through all the steps to unclog it, went downstairs to grab the pliers to remove the filament remains from the top....

....and then the all too familiar happend, my left hand just lets go. I can tell it to clamp all I want, it happens more and more often these days, it just goes limp. But yeah, there went the 0.2 nozzle, and of course nozzle first on the tile floor, denting the nozzle closed in a way that is just not fixable. Great.

 Replaced it with the 0.4 nozzle that then also decided it wasn't in a printing mood, so did the same steps....this time with both hands above the table and above a plushy towel. Cleaned it, fixed it and tested it.

 

28mm Odessa tank, free STL from online

Parts loosely combined, printed with 0.4 nozzle at 0.2 layer height. It's a tank only a mother could love, right? Though calling it a tank is a stretch.....

Packed up the tank and shipping it off to a mate who can use a gift as he has tons of Russians and he can use all the armour they can get their hands on :P
 

Car flat or car up? Pro's and Con's

 Tried another all night print to see what would work better, upright or flat. 9-ish hour print for 6 Polski Fiats of various types by Bergman

As they came off of the printbed, 1 destroyed, the rest came off easy enough.

"You were only supposed to get the supports off"

Good enough for use I say

Flat printing does give you these stepped roofs and hood, but a bit of filler and a bit of paint...

When printing upright it gives great detail...

...but like Taco Bell*, it complely destroys your ass!

The destroyed ones can be salvaged by making a garage with no lift off roof and just glueing them partially inside. No one will ever be the wiser.

*heresay. I've never been to, nor shall I visit one. 

Now to test out a very blocky 28mm vehicle for another 9 hour print.

Swapped the 04 Injector for a 0.2 injector....thing and did some tests.

 Switched the nozzle and made a few test prints.

 

15mm STZ-5 family

The tarp is the only weak point but easily fixed

Testing 8mm 30K Rhino's

 

Joining the Cult. I mean Club.

 Well, I've had one on my list for years. But I either did not think the technology was good enough (filament) or not safe enough for me and the kids (resin).

Well, with the purchase of a Bambu A1 that has changed. The current Sale took care of me dropping dough. 

 Having watched a few (well, a lot) youtube video's on installing, and upgrading it while it was en route from Germany. Delivery was quick, it sat on the dock for a few days till it started the route to my place. Same can't be said for the accessory pack, that is still driving around Germany, somewhere (over the rainbow....), enjoying the ride I guess? At Modhails and Ozymandas referral I picked up 4 rolls of basic Geetech PLA from their preferred store. As they said, 1 roll to completely fuck up, 1 to get to grips with the machine, and 2 to start printing. That was ordered on the weekend and arrived before the printer.

 While it was enroute I got some extra Pax parts from Ikea, getting my start up cost just shy of 600 euros for the printer, extra and spare parts, filament, pretty lights and cabinet parts.  

It arrived last friday, and after what was indeed a quick build, I did my first print...

....and it completely fucked up. That was fun. And I learned pre sliced models.....just don't. 
After that it really was a breeze, honest. Now it is just trying out what works, what doesn't, how the slicer works, watching more Youtube.

Currently running it with the original 0.4 nozzle, at 0.1 layer height, irioning on and supports. Focussing purely on 15mm and 28mm scenery and scatter atm, but I have a 0.2 nozzle on the way.....running around somewhere in Germany....over the hills. 

Ain't it cute. 

Cleanup and glueing parts together.

Test scatter for Stalker.

Adding supports.

Testing settings, with and without ironing on.

Trying tiny stuff. Not great up close, good enough for gaming use. Curious to see how the 0.2 nozzle will handle this. 

 Now trying to figure out how to clean them up even better without hurting myself in the progress :)

And with the doors closed it is pretty quiet too! 

1929 Ford AA truck at the local car dealer

 Local cardealer (whose main business is Classic cars) has a nice one this week. 1929 Ford AA truck. Nice scheme to copy for a Pulp one in the future.