Hedgehog Toothpick holder by Invent0r

[Jules]

I do love this machine! (And boy, it is some kind of sturdy after what I've put it through the last 3 days!) You MakerGear folks have got one hell of a machine here, when someone can go from "never touched a 3D printer before" to results this good in 3 days!

Saw this on Thingiverse and since I was looking for a domed print to practice on, thought I'd give it a whirl. (And, duh....hedgehog.....had to do it.)

Turned out almost perfect, but i had to re-slice it a few times and slow the outer perimeter speed down to a crawl to get the right settings to avoid all the gaps in the top curves. Turned out that 88% infill was required to smooth it out and keep from skipping lines across the top. Nothing less looked good.

hedgehog.jpg

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I'm still fighting the PLA pulling up at thin areas - on this one his little nose was creeping up, which turned out kind of cute, but if the bulk of the printing had been over the head area, it would not have been pretty. (And I hadn't used a brim on this one.) About 80% of the print had separated from the glass by the time it finished. It was just barely hanging on.

And that reminds me....a note to other beginners - NEVER use a 3 layer brim on anything. Just take my word for it.

[JohnnyRobot]

Looks good!

You can get PLA to stick very well by spraying a coat of this on your glass beforehand.


It's what I use and I never (well, mostly never) need to use a skirt or brim. 3 layers would be a pain to remove.

I specify a 2 pass skirt 5mm away from the part just to make sure the nozzle is primed before the actual print starts.

[Jules]

Thanks for the tip! I had an old can of hairspray that my mom left here years ago that I was trying to use, and it just wasn't doing the job by itself.

Also discovered that heating the bed up to about 40° helped a LOT in getting the edges to stay where they were supposed to. (I'd been trying to run it unheated, but that didn't work so well for anything over an inch or two.)

I'll pick up some hairspray with better hold this weekend. i was having to use 2 and 3 coats of the other stuff.

[JohnnyRobot]

I recommend you set your heated bed to 65. That, plus the hairspray and you'll be in great shape.

Another tip: To remove your prints from the glass, let it cool to room temperature. If it doesn't come off easily, put it in the freezer for a few minutes. It will pop right off. This is probably obvious, but you don't want to put the hot glass directly into the freezer... Not good.

[Jules]

Yep! Picked up on that one.

Had one that would not let go, I took a chilled soft ice pack (not frozen, just refrigerator temp) and laid it on the back of the (room temperature) glass, and that print popped right off. Rather loudly at that.....a bit scary. But the glass and print were fine.

[insta]

I recommend you set your heated bed to 65. That, plus the hairspray and you'll be in great shape.

Another tip: To remove your prints from the glass, let it cool to room temperature. If it doesn't come off easily, put it in the freezer for a few minutes. It will pop right off. This is probably obvious, but you don't want to put the hot glass directly into the freezer... Not good.

Pfft whatever, I have a special area in my deep freeze specifically to put my hot boro. I put it upside down and collect the separate part and glass 5 minutes later.

[Jules]

Pfft whatever, I have a special area in my deep freeze specifically to put my hot boro. I put it upside down and collect the separate part and glass 5 minutes later.

Are you kidding? (Because I would sure like to treat this a little less delicately. I'll freeze that slush puppy.)

[insta]

Pfft whatever, I have a special area in my deep freeze specifically to put my hot boro. I put it upside down and collect the separate part and glass 5 minutes later.

Are you kidding? (Because I would sure like to treat this a little less delicately. I'll freeze that slush puppy.)

I'm not kidding. I abuse the hell out of my boro. That's why I buy it for $25/sheet instead of using window pane glass -- boro is specifically engineered to have a very low thermal expansion, so a hot sheet isn't much larger than a cold sheet. The plastic changes dimensions much more than the glass and that's why it'll pop off.

[Jules]

Super! Just placed an order for a couple of spares the other night - I'm more prone to to drop it than anything else (super klutz), but i ordered those mainly cause I was tired of waiting for the hairspray to dry before starting the next print.

I am so hooked!