Over the past two months or so I have worked on-and-off on what was a really interesting a fun build; a mostly 3D printed 3D printer called the Rook by Rolohaun. This is an open source DIY printer with the goal of accessibility and low cost.
This was my first DIY printer build and I would highly recommend the Rook to anyone who has been thinking about or is interested in DIY printers but is unsure they want to make a one to two thousand dollar investment in a DIY machine like the Voron without first gaining some lower stakes experience.
WARNING WARNING WARNING
Nothing in this article should be considered medical advice or be diagnostic in any way. This article is purely for educational purposes for those interested in learning about the basic concepts that underlie genetic testing.
The bad news and some background on genetic diseases Due to a recent harrowing and ongoing medical odyssey in my immediate family I learned that I have a 50% change of having autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.
Basically, there is a 50% change I inherited a copy of the polycistic kidney disease II gene that contains a missense mutation. This type of mutation changes a single base pair (letter) of the DNA sequence.
This past quarter I was the teaching assistant for the MCB-162; and upper division human genetics course here at UC Davis. This was my second time as a TA and overall enjoyed my role in the class. This class was about 60% the size of the previous class I TA’ed for which was nice in terms of reducing the amount of grading required and being able to spend more time with individual students during office hours.
Despite my best efforts attendance at office hours was still fairly low with 3-4 semi-regular students and sporadic attendance from the rest of the class.
Where is everyone? I am lucky to live within biking distance of the Davis Craft Center, an excellent facility that provides screen printing, woodworking, welding, and “maker” resources (3D printer, laser cutter, soldering kit, etc.) to UC Davis students and community members at very reasonable prices.
I only learned about the maker space at the Craft center within the last three months; since then have been visiting semi-regularly to work on my projects. The main benefit of working there for me is that there is significantly more space compared to my one bedroom apartment and it is cat free. This is especially helpful when working with anything remotely string shaped.
I am almost constantly running my 3D printer. Usually the only time it is not pumping plastic is when the laundry machine is running. Both the printer and laundry machine are plugged into the same outlet and for some reason having them both running at the same time can occasionally cause the printer to freeze and stop.
If the girlfriend wants to start a load of laundry a common question she has for me is “How long is left on this print?” since she is nice enough to not want to risk my print failing.
So I wanted to create a quick and easy to read indicator for how far along my printer is through a print and came up with the solution described below.
This is a project I put together for the parents before I headed home for the weekend using the Glowforge laser cutter at the maker space at the UC Davis craft center.
The project consisted of generating street maps of a few personally notable places using SnazzyMaps. I converted these maps to bitmaps using Inkscape which I also used for the rest of the coaster design. Coasters were cut out of medium thickness clear acrylic sheets.
To make the box, I used MakerCase to generate the SVG plans based on the size of the coasters. I cut the box sections from medium thickness draft board and assembled with tacky glue.
A little while ago I was at Bay Area Ultra Stock’s 40th meetup and managed to record a few of the games. Played at Braly Elementary school in Sunnyvale California.
For these games I was playing with my Pump Skewer by SillyButts designs. All parts were printed on my modified Ender3V2.
The site banner image is actually a specific type of infill pattern used in 3D printing called “gyroid infill”.
Generally, to save time and plastic, parts that are 3D printed are not printed as 100% solid blocks. Instead the user will set a infill percentage that defines how much of the interior space is filled. Once that is decided you still need to determine exactly how you are going to fill that space so it can be translated into commands the printer can understand.
Enter infill patterns.
Image courtsey of Cura
These are strategies used to fill in the internal space of a printed object.
It is likely you have come into contact with the Nerf brand at some point in your life. Hasbro’s iconic line of foam flinging mechanisms, until recently, held a near complete monopoly on the hobby. While Nerf blasters remain fun for casual around-the-house or workplace battles, for many, they simply do not pack enough of a punch. There has always been a small continent of nerds who longed to maintain the goofy persona that Nerf affords with its bright colors, oversized projectiles, and exaggerated designs but push the limits of their blasters. These early “hobby grade” Nerfers modified existing blasters and even constructed completely original designs using parts you could buy from a hardware store.
These recommendations are in addition to general 3D printing best practices, namely proper bed leveling and cleaning. Without a clean and level bed, none of this advice will do you any good.
1. Print a filament guide; preferably one that uses a bearing for your printer I print on an Ender3 and use this guide by Mark Villela. A filament guide is an abosulte requirement to reduce the angle the filament must enter the extruder gear at. Without one, the tension on the filament at the extruder will be to great for it to push filament into the hot end.