Not found time slammed at the minute. Could possibly do it in blue or white PLA. Fist chance would be next weekend at best.
Grey is absolutely fine, mate, thank you. Thanks for letting us know, bud. Looks like Goatee is going to give it whirl this weekend.
Decided to setup a print server with the printer being in the garage,and it being a massive pita loading files/checking it was running correctly etc... I've also moved from the stock Cura slicer to Simplify3D it's so much better to use and well worth the cost if you use the printer on a regular basis. Just need to get an Ikea trip sorted out to get it enclosed now.
I'm really please with my IKEA cupboard enclosure. Keeps the temperature really stable and light levels for the webcam the same. Spreadie, Your print is finished.
No problems, all went fine. I did notice that one corner of my bed was slightly out of alignment, but only a slight cosmetic impact in that the extrusion lines aren't fully joined in one corner. Hope it all fits.
I'm fascinated by all this 3D design and manufacture stuff. A local college has the facilities (3D printer, CNC mill, laser cutter, vinyl cutter, plastic bending thing... etc) and on some days it opens them up to members of the public so I've just signed myself up for the induction session. I've never done any CAD/CAM stuff so I'm quite excited to see what it's all about.
Try picking up a free copy for Sketchup to have a play around with. I learnt it all from you tube videos.
Cheers. I'll do that, as long as it runs on my laptop (PC is temporarily dead). I'm keen to learn the correct design principles and methods from the start, can you recommend a quality tutor on YouTube?
I'd personally recommend following the official Sketchup tutorials. They teach you how to do house design, but the same principals work when designing products. I found the tutorials very helpful. http://www.sketchup.com/learn/videos/58
Thanks Goatee. I just had a quick watch of the basic introduction and the software seems very straightforward (so far). This is going to be fun.
Does Sketchup still have a problem with circles - where it use a polygon with a lot of sides rather than a real circle?
Tbh, I would give Sketchup a miss. I used to use it almost exclusively but have since moved over to Fusion360 which is also free and can export 3D models for direct printing. I spent far too much time 'fixing' Sketchup models for printing that it just isn't worth it. It's not quite as user friendly as Sketchup, but once you've got the basics it's a much nicer program to use.
I could probably have worded that better tbh. I know you can export STL files from Sketchup but I've never been able to print said file without cleaning it up in some way before sending it to the printer. From Fusion360 I hit the 3D print button, preview the mesh (adjust if required), hit OK and it loads the file straight into the slicer ready for printing. I can't think of a single reason why I would opt for Sketchup over Fusion now, and if somebody was starting from scratch not knowing either I would say Fusion would be the better software to learn in the long run.