I have this pile of printed PLA pawns I’m not going to be using any time soon. They’re of varying quality and interesting-ness. If you’ve always wanted a MakerBot printed part but thought they were just too unattainable, now’s your chance!
I’m going to be at the East Bay Mini-MakerFaire this Sunday just walking around with my family. If you’re going to be there too, drop me a line or leave a comment and I’ll bring a spare piece for you. I’ll have at least nine pieces to give away. (More if I try a few new settings.) If you’re the only one to respond, you get all nine. :)
I finished printing 16 pieces in black ABS.
I’m experimenting with the Skeinforge settings for clear PLA again before I move on to the remaining pieces.
Default Series TitleA little while ago I posted my plastic wishlist. Glow in the dark plastic was the only thing on that list.
Well, Vik Oliver managed to score some glow in the dark PLA. Apparently it’s pretty expensive – but I don’t know how to convert 100m of 3mm plastic at NZ$60 to something I would understand. 1
Glow in the dark plastic.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of fluorescing red ABS.1 But, how sweet would glow in the dark plastic be?
It’s like making all of your printed plastic objects twice as useful, since they can be seen at night as well as day.
If you’re thinking of the normal run-of-the-mill business cards and you’re thinking too flatland.
This is a 3D printed business card printed using two extruder heads, clear PLA, black ABS, and some special GCode to essentially laminate black text within layers of clear PLA.
I’m not even sure what I would build with this kind of tech. Although, I think it would be super awesome to build models using clear PLA to create a variation on those “bubbles in crystal created by laser” thingies you see in gift shops everywhere. Or, a white or black plastic dinosaur skeleton printed in a block of PLA “ice.”
How about a woolly mammoth? Or caveman or alien or an entire 3D scene of spaceships attacking the deathstar suspended in clear PLA?
Ricardo Santos managed to create PLA in his home. My Portuguese is pretty rusty. Well, to be exact, non-existent. However, that’s what Google is for! Thanks Ricardo!
How do you choose whether to use a PEEK or PTFE barrier? Well, I asked the benefits of using PEEK over PTFE thermal insulating barriers in an extruder assembly and Nate True gave a fantastic summary:
PEEK is more rigid and won’t bow out and leak everywhere with ABS. It would be better for PLA except that PLA likes to stick to everything. So PTFE (being not sticky) is preferable for PLA. ABS is very slippery by comparison so PEEK is more than adequate for it.
…BBQ
I’m still rockin’ my black ABS coil, so I’ll probably have to add a PEEK barrier to my MakerBot wish list.1
When I read the RepRap blog or the RepRap builder’s blog I see people printing incredible things in PLA. And I never hear about their troubles with PLA. Nothing about it jamming or being fussy about temperatures. What am I missing? What are Darwins and Mendels doing that my little MakerBot isn’t?