I got the parts but not the time

I printed all the parts for the filament puller based on http://solidoodletips.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/filament-winder-intro and the parts listed on the Thingiverse http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:81662.  All I need now is the time to work on it.  I was able to make the frame that I am going to attach all the parts to but that is about it.  You can see that I am going to try to stack the Filastruder on top which is different and I am not exactly sure that it’s going to work.  The problem that I see when is horizontal is that one, it takes up lots of space and two, PLA which is what I am most interested in extruding, is extremely playable when it comes out of the Filastruder.  I was going to try to put a thermal mass wheel right at the nozzle to try to cool and shape the filament before winding.  I hope it works.

More XYZ

I have been printing away from jobs coming from http://www.makexyz.com/printer/michael_mcco.   This seems like a very convenient way to get print jobs.  The only issue that I could complain about is that the users requesting prints most of the time want 3D design as well.  I don’t mind doing the design work and I am getting much better at it but, it is quite time consuming and I really don’t know how to charge for the design work.  If I charge a flat hourly rate I think that it will make people not want to get items printed but if I charge an item design fee it really does not cover all the time it takes to do the design.  Either way I am happy to do the work because I do enjoy doing it.  We will have to see how long that lasts.  I can say that I have made enough money back from my printer to upgrade (see next paragraph).

We need more heat Scotty
I made enough money from my printer to upgrade to a heated build plate (I probably would have bought it regardless).  http://bctechnologicalsolutions.com/hbp/index.html.  I have been waiting for a kit like this pretty much as soon as I got my printer.   I ordered the required larger PSU (huge 9.1A) for my printer from http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10001_10001_2099286_-1 it’s a drop in replacement with the correct connector and got it right away.  I order the build plate last week and it is a bit backordered with delivery in 3-4 weeks.  This will allow printing with ABS on my replicator 2 and it will reduce warping of PLA when doing high infill printing.

Store is open

I finally opened a store for the 3D Printed Case for Analog RGB to Component Adapter I designed a while back http://www.3dprintmd.com/print/3d-printed-items-for-sale/.  I have sold a few since the maker of the kit (Koichi ) linked to my site direct from his http://tulip-house.ddo.jp/digital/english.html.  I plan on putting up a few more items that I have designed that I want to keep the controls over.  I think that this might be a way to earn back some of the design time that I put into it by spreading out the cost of the design over hopefully a bunch of prints.  Koichi also asked me to work with him on designing a case for his DISK II board http://tulip-house.ddo.jp/digital/SDISK2/english.html which I am excited to do.

That’s it for now I have other stuff but I have to keep some it reserve for future posts 🙂