3D Printing Rennaisance
I learned halfway through January how easy it was to capsize the catamaran when I failed to shift my weight fast enough during a tacking maneuver in a 30 knot wind. So I’ve gotten back into 3d printing in a big way in anticipation of needing to print water-tight enclosures for the electronics in my sailboat anemometer project. After dusting off my Creality Ender 3 printer I was reminded of the challenges of open-air ABS printing, specifically, preventing uneven cooling that leads to warped ABS prints. To combat this, I built an Ikea Lack enclosure to better trap heat and maintain temperature consistency.
Why do I print in ABS if it’s such a difficult material you ask? ABS has a lot of properties to recommend it in a nautical environment. These include: It’s much more durable than PLA, unlike PETG it’s largely unaffected by moisture, and it lends itself more to sanding and finishing. You can even apply an acetone polish to ensure the impermeability of the finished product.
Needless to say 3d printing has come a long way since I put together my first Printrbot Simple kit in 2014. My original kit, pictured as fully assembled on the right, used a balsawood construction. The extruder tip was fixed and only supported PLA. It had a print volume of 100mm cubed, did not support a heated bed, and cost $400. In comparison the Ender 3 today costs half as much, includes a heated bed and replaceable extruder tip, and boasts an all-metal construction. It has more than double the print volume, and can print in PLA, ABS, PETG, TPU, HIPS, and PVA. With modifications it can also print in metalfill, wood, and glow-in-the-dark filament. I’ve had a blast using it, and I even re-installed Blender so that I could generate my own designs.
3D printing hasn’t been the only thing I’ve been working on though. I’ve started a multi-platform BLE FTMS library for Android and iOS. I’ve also created a C-based FTMS server for my ESP32. I’m not very far yet, but it looks like it should be pretty straightforward to develop the features necessary to fulfill my new-year’s resolutions. But more on that next month.
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