Dr. Phil's mysterious ring...

OK, here's the complete scoop on the other 3D printing project that just came off of Colossus' hot little bed. What you see here is a 2 piece ring set holding a rubber dam. The dam is from a Zeiss scientific microscope.The idea and design behind the dam belongs to Phil Erschler,  PhD. Phil works with my wife at the Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute (CVRTI) on the campus of the University of Utah.

 Phil's mysterious ring, in position

The story:

Phil and I have been friends for years, and he's one of the few people I know who's a bigger geek than I am. Phil is the reason I have my new M2. At Christmas time we got talking about 3D printing, and he loaned me a copy of the MAKE Guide to 3D Printing. I ended up buying my own copy (who says piracy costs money?) and after careful consideration (read: about 10 minutes) I ordered Colossus.

Phil's first printer project is the ring retainer system you see here. It solves a serious problem with the Zeiss microscope in a rather elegant manner. This particular microscope is used to view tissue samples. The scope uses oil to change light refraction and improve image quality. The dam is supposed to protect the internals of the scope from the oil. Unfortunately what the folks at CVRTI observed is that the dam tends to buckle under the weight of the oil, allowing it to fail. 

Phils' ring solves that problem by stiffening the ring around its perimeter. Additionally, Phil created a central plug for the dam.

The assembly from the other side

The assembly installed on the microscope

It's a bit hard to see, but the really cool thing about Phil's solution is that he created two rings - a thicker support ring with a flanged lip, and a second thin ring that grabs the lip of the dam and sandwiches it between the two rings.  This required careful measurement of both the diameter of the ring, and the thickness of its lip. It further required a precisely calibrated 3D model and a correspondingly precise print. All told, I think we went through three iterations of prototyping print candidates to get to the final version. That's phenomenal when you think about the potential cost of doing this with conventional machining technology.

Nice work Dr. Phil, and thanks for letting me be a part of a cool solution.

My first (plastic) "Thing"!

As I mentioned previously, I've been working with a PhD friend on a 3d project for his lab. I've also been working on a couple of ideas of my own. One that I just completed is the kind of thing that a personal 3D printer seems perfect for - one off fabrication of parts that are otherwise almost impossible to get.

We have a really nice courtyard, courtesy of my wife. In the courtyard we have some low voltage accent lighting. Many of these are set at the base of our willow trees to light them up at night. Unfortunately the stakes that these lights come with are pretty chintzy. Made of soft plastic with poor tolerances. At least that's the excuse I made when I broke one...

So, Colossus to the rescue! After making some careful measurements, i ginned up what I think is a much improved version. Made of PLA, it's tougher than the standard stake. To be sure, I thickened the ribs. To make sure it stays in the ground, but not under the surface, I widened the collar at the light base. Voila!

The 3D rendering

The actual item, with light base in place

 

If you're interested, I've posted it to Thingiverse, and you can get a copy of the .STL file and print your own if you like.

This is the voice of Colossus!

All hail the voice of world control! Well, 3D printing at the Fab Shop at any rate.

My new Makergear M2, Colossus

After a quick unpack, and a scavenge through a snowstorm of packing peanuts, he's up and running. Kudos to the folks at MakerGear, this bad boy is solid as a rock, and required only a very slight tweak of the bed to level it out. 60 minutes after the box was open, I had my first test print:

Glider test print, printed from the included SD card

My only complaint about the M2 is the lack of a power switch. The unit is powered by two separate supplies, one for the board and the other for the steppers. I understand that this complicates creation of a single switch, but the lack of one is a bit unpolished. A power strip substitutes nicely, if it is a bit bulky.

I'm keeping track of what I'm doing for the purpose of creating a startup guide for those new to 3D printing as I am. Already there are a dozen tips I've had to learn the hard way, and a coherent guide to getting started right is sorely needed. The information is out there, but it's scattered and somewhat obtuse. Check back often, as I'll be posting the guide here. I'll also be covering the projects in the works that utilize Colossus.

I haven't abandoned the pep helmet project, and as the weather warms I'll be working on that too. Colossus will come in handy to print some of the geegaws that the helmets will need.

3D a GoGo!

After more than two months, I finally got notice this week that my MakerGear M2 has shipped, yippee!

The MakerGear M2

When it arrives, I plan on documenting the unpacking and setup here. While there's a certain amount of information out there on the M2, I haven't found a coherent setup and tutorial guide, so I'm going to try and create one.

I and a couple of friends have already created test projects that we'll be printing once the M2 is dialed in. I'll include those too.