Ideaviation

Choosing a Home 3D Printer

2022-07-06T00:00:00-05:00

Picking a 3D Printer

Top Pick Any Price

Prusa i3 MK3S+ $799 (kit) or $1099 (assembled)

I recommend buying an extra removable print sheet. They come in multiple finishes for different materials. Make sure you are covered for the materials you buy. I am linking the kit version. They have good instructions and there are YouTube videos. It will take 10 hours or so to assemble, but you’ll know how the printer works when something does eventually go wrong or need maintenance. Mostly assembled versions are also available if you want to save the trouble.

Under $500

Prusa MINI+ $429 (kit) $459 (assembled)

The kits run something like $350, plus a little more to get an extra print sheet. It will be very reliable like its bigger brother the i3, but has a key distinction, besides having a smaller print volume: it has a Bowden style extruder. This means the motor pushing filament into the heated nozzle is fixed on the frame of the printer rather then sitting right on top of the nozzle. For a flexible filament, this could result in lower quality prints than you’d get with a direct drive extruder (like the i3 has). On the plus side, it has a much smaller footprint, so if you’re limited on space, that might be a significant factor. I recommend adding a filament sensor and an extra sheet if needed for the kinds of filaments you may want to print with.

Why Prusa

Prusa is serious about their printers. They use their printers to print parts for the printers they sell. They optimize and iterate on their printers. They use auto bed leveling so that the whole print surface is usable, and they’ve refined their nozzle height sensor to compensate for temperature effects. Their attention to detail results in printers that are well engineered, highly reliable, and well respected. When you buy a Prusa you are buying good engineering, good quality prints, and high reliability.

Making a pick

If you’re willing to spend $800-$1000, buy the i3 MK3S+ (or their current latest iteration). If you prefer a more compact version and you’re not worried about a Bowden drive system, get the Mini. It is worth noting that you can add on a Multi-color unit to the i3 that supports in-print filament switching up to 5 filaments. This is really cool, but not a personal priority for me. No such add-on is available for the Mini.

Reliability is King

The TEVO Tarantula, my first 3D printer, taught me that a large print volume is useless without reliability. A large print can take days, and my printer tended to fail enough that it was probable that an overnight print would fail in the night. Large multi-day prints were completely out of the question. Above all else, reliable printing is the most valuable trait in a printer.

Enclosures and Multi-color

Some printers come with enclosures, and there are sometimes options for multiple print nozzles. These are not priorities for me. Enclosures are helpful for some more difficult-to-print plastics, but PLA, PETG, and TPU do fine without. They can also be used to capture potential fumes. An enclosure can be a later addition, and printers can be put in a ventilated space. Multiple colors is cute, but adds more moving parts and things that can fail. I prioritize reliability and cost over multiple colors.

Improving Market

Over the last few years, printing technology has improved. People are getting good results with a range of printers and price points. But there’s usually an expectation that you have to do some work to get dialed in for good prints. That was not my experience with the i3 MK3S+. My first print after assembly was better than any prints on my TEVO Tarantula. I think the Tarantula’s print quality ceiling was rather low. Some printers have a much higher ceiling. Getting a cheap Chinese-built printer doesn’t mean you won’t be able to get good prints, it’s just more likely you’ll have to work for them. That can be fun with the right attitude.

Versatile Wall Mount for Garden Tools, Canoe Paddles, and More

2022-05-30T00:00:00-05:00

Impetus

I needed some nice wall mounts to hang canoe paddles with the versatility to hold shovels, rakes, and other garden tools.

Pictures and .STL file download links

Final version with prototypes in background

Batch of 12 midprint

The latest version can be downloaded for printing from Thingiverse or Printables.

Design details

All shafts were under 35 mm in diameter except one with a D-shaped handle. The bore of the wall mount was designed to accommodate this with a 35 mm diameter. The top of the wall mount was cupped to catch shovel blades and D-shaped handles. An oblong cone shape was cut from the upper interior of the bore to securely cup the pear shaped handles common to flat water canoe paddle handles. All design work was done in Tinkercad.

Ideaviation

2022-04-30T00:00:00-05:00

The website name ideaviation or idea-viation or idea-aviation aims to capture a sense of the range of projects that might interest me: building a new app, a canoe, a 3D printable design, a garden redesign, or an original music composition.

Ideaviation is intended to invoke themes like:

Ideas or ideation
Aviation (and engineering)
Deviation (which invokes statistics and free thinking)
Variation (and statistics)
Vita: latin for life

It is ambiguous and flexible enough of grow and mold to changing interests and times.

Building this website

2022-04-30T00:00:00-05:00

Github pages is a great way to host a personal website, and I started this one there this week. By creating a specially named repository, your webpage code can be hosted straight from Github. If Github, markdown, and code aren’t old friends or at least intriguing acquaintances, a free website builder like Weebly it probably a better fit for building your website.

I started by learning about Github pages. I initialized my repo with the theme and pulled a copy to my computer for customization. My workflow is currently to make and commit changes locally then push them to Github; Github actions rebuilds and reloads the website and a minute later I check if my changes had the desired effect. Soon after getting started, I stumbled on Katerina Bosko’s helpful series on setting up and customizing the Minimal Mistakes Jekyll theme. Katerina describes setting up a Docker container for development which would be handy, but isn’t strictly necessary. The Minimal Mistakes documentation has also been very helpful.

Building a cedar-strip canoe

2022-04-29T00:00:00-05:00

Deciding

This is how I knew it was time to build a canoe:

Canoeing is fun but I didn’t have a canoe.
Buying a canoe sounds fun, but I’d prefer a nice Wenonah at generic sporting store price.
YouTubers demonstrate cedar strip builds and it looks doable.
Ignore indications that it could take 500 hours, assume I can do it in 40.
Ashes Stillwater Boats had nice plans, and the Angler’s Special looked good.
Running low on special projects to keep things interesting.

Main steps

Buy plans to avoid risking 500 hours of work on a lousy design.
Buy a few planks of cedar and strip them out through a table saw.
Build forms according to plans.
Canoe-bit the strips so they can round over the curved.
Staple, clamp, and glue all strips to forms until you have formed the hull.
Trim up ends.
Remove staples, sand, clean up exterior.
Lay fiberglass and apply epoxy to exterior.
Pop off forms and flip canoe.
Clean up and sand interior.
Fiberglass and epoxy interior.
Add gunnels, scuppers, and other finishing touches like seats.
Build or buy a paddle and find out if it floats.
Come back later and sand down then apply marine spar varnish to protect from UV damage

Photos

To be added

Reflection

It’s fun to have a canoe we can enjoy as a family. Building a canoe is likely more time consuming than your expect. The work and wait is worth it assuming you have the patience for it.

Welcome to Jekyll!

2019-04-18T14:34:30-05:00

You’ll find this post in your _posts directory. Go ahead and edit it and re-build the site to see your changes. You can rebuild the site in many different ways, but the most common way is to run jekyll serve, which launches a web server and auto-regenerates your site when a file is updated.

To add new posts, simply add a file in the _posts directory that follows the convention YYYY-MM-DD-name-of-post.ext and includes the necessary front matter. Take a look at the source for this post to get an idea about how it works.

Jekyll also offers powerful support for code snippets:

def print_hi(name)
  puts "Hi, #{name}"
end
print_hi('Tom')
#=> prints 'Hi, Tom' to STDOUT.

Check out the Jekyll docs for more info on how to get the most out of Jekyll. File all bugs/feature requests at Jekyll’s GitHub repo. If you have questions, you can ask them on Jekyll Talk.

Post: Link

2010-03-07T00:00:00-06:00

This theme supports link posts, made famous by John Gruber. To use, just add link: http://url-you-want-linked to the post’s YAML front matter and you’re done.

And this is how a quote looks.

Some link can also be shown.

Post: Notice

2010-02-05T00:00:00-06:00

A notice displays information that explains nearby content. Often used to call attention to a particular detail.

When using Kramdown {: .notice} can be added after a sentence to assign the .notice to the <p></p> element.

Changes in Service: We just updated our privacy policy here to better service our customers. We recommend reviewing the changes.

Primary Notice: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer nec odio. Praesent libero. Sed cursus ante dapibus diam. Sed nisi. Nulla quis sem at nibh elementum imperdiet.

Info Notice: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer nec odio. Praesent libero. Sed cursus ante dapibus diam. Sed nisi. Nulla quis sem at nibh elementum imperdiet.

Warning Notice: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer nec odio. Praesent libero. Sed cursus ante dapibus diam. Sed nisi. Nulla quis sem at nibh elementum imperdiet.

Danger Notice: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer nec odio. Praesent libero. Sed cursus ante dapibus diam. Sed nisi. Nulla quis sem at nibh elementum imperdiet.

Success Notice: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer nec odio. Praesent libero. Sed cursus ante dapibus diam. Sed nisi. Nulla quis sem at nibh elementum imperdiet.

Want to wrap several paragraphs or other elements in a notice? Using Liquid to capture the content and then filter it with markdownify is a good way to go.

{% capture notice-2 %}
#### New Site Features

* You can now have cover images on blog pages
* Drafts will now auto-save while writing
{% endcapture %}

<div class="notice">{{ notice-2 | markdownify }}</div>

New Site Features

You can now have cover images on blog pages
Drafts will now auto-save while writing

Or you could skip the capture and stick with straight HTML.

<div class="notice">
  <h4>Message</h4>
  <p>A basic message.</p>
</div>

Message

A basic message.

Post: Quote

2010-02-05T00:00:00-06:00

Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.

Mark Twain

Post: Chat

2010-01-08T00:00:00-06:00

Abbott: Strange as it may seem, they give ball players nowadays very peculiar names.

Costello: Funny names?

Abbott: Nicknames, nicknames. Now, on the St. Louis team we have Who’s on first, What’s on second, I Don’t Know is on third–

Costello: That’s what I want to find out. I want you to tell me the names of the fellows on the St. Louis team.

Abbott: I’m telling you. Who’s on first, What’s on second, I Don’t Know is on third–

Costello: You know the fellows’ names?

Abbott: Yes.

Costello: Well, then who’s playing first?

Abbott: Yes.

Costello: I mean the fellow’s name on first base.

Abbott: Who.

Costello: The fellow playin’ first base.

Abbott: Who.

Costello: The guy on first base.

Abbott: Who is on first.

Costello: Well, what are you askin’ me for?

Abbott: I’m not asking you–I’m telling you. Who is on first.

Costello: I’m asking you–who’s on first?

Abbott: That’s the man’s name.

Costello: That’s who’s name?

Abbott: Yes.

Costello: When you pay off the first baseman every month, who gets the money?

Abbott: Every dollar of it. And why not, the man’s entitled to it.

Costello: Who is?

Abbott: Yes.

Costello: So who gets it?

Abbott: Why shouldn’t he? Sometimes his wife comes down and collects it.

Costello: Who’s wife?

Abbott: Yes. After all, the man earns it.

Costello: Who does?

Abbott: Absolutely.

Costello: Well, all I’m trying to find out is what’s the guy’s name on first base?

Abbott: Oh, no, no. What is on second base.

Costello: I’m not asking you who’s on second.

Abbott: Who’s on first!

Costello: St. Louis has a good outfield?

Abbott: Oh, absolutely.

Costello: The left fielder’s name?

Abbott: Why.

Costello: I don’t know, I just thought I’d ask.

Abbott: Well, I just thought I’d tell you.

Costello: Then tell me who’s playing left field?

Abbott: Who’s playing first.

Costello: Stay out of the infield! The left fielder’s name?

Abbott: Why.

Costello: Because.

Abbott: Oh, he’s center field.

Costello: Wait a minute. You got a pitcher on this team?

Abbott: Wouldn’t this be a fine team without a pitcher?

Costello: Tell me the pitcher’s name.

Abbott: Tomorrow.

Costello: Now, when the guy at bat bunts the ball–me being a good catcher–I want to throw the guy out at first base, so I pick up the ball and throw it to who?

Abbott: Now, that’s he first thing you’ve said right.

Costello: I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!

Abbott: Don’t get excited. Take it easy.

Costello: I throw the ball to first base, whoever it is grabs the ball, so the guy runs to second. Who picks up the ball and throws it to what. What throws it to I don’t know. I don’t know throws it back to tomorrow–a triple play.

Abbott: Yeah, it could be.

Costello: Another guy gets up and it’s a long ball to center.

Abbott: Because.

Costello: Why? I don’t know. And I don’t care.

Abbott: What was that?

Costello: I said, I DON’T CARE!

Abbott: Oh, that’s our shortstop!