Author: Derek Anderson

3D Printing Demo at the Arts Building in Gibsons 7pm TONIGHT (April 17th)

On By Derek AndersonIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

We’ll be doing a 3D printer demo at the Arts Building in Gibsons tonight.

(next to the Gibsons library here is a map).

The meet-up is social with some show and tell. There will also be the supplies to make some draw-bots and have some races.

“Army of Evil Robots” have their new print head so will be bringing their 3D printer, and hopefully Dan will bring the new robot arm he is working on. It has some neat unique features.

Everyone at the last meet-up had so many diverse skills.  If you have a transportable project that you want to get feedback on, go ahead and bring it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jazPNQH29j4

 

 

PLA Lost “Wax” Casting

On By Derek AndersonIn 3d printing, MetalworkingLeave a comment

TL;DR: It works, try it.

I finished off the furnace with another couple of pounds of refractory cement, and let it dry for a couple of days, then fired it slowly over a few hours to burn out the rest of the water. Things looked solid, so the next step was to try and cast something. Of course, my first thought was to “forge” some currency, and the results are below:

BTC: Meatspace Edition

It looks like I needed to burn out the PLA for a bit longer, as things bubbled and hissed a bit when I poured in the Metal. The plaster definitely needed more burnout too, since it cracked and released some steam, but overall, the process works. Just be patient with the burnout, and run it for a really long time to make sure you get all the water out (and/or keep your investments thin as you safely can).

Overall: Success! I’ll be doing Aluminum next, casting some 80/20 compatible parts for my new 3d printer design.

Building a Metalcasting Furnace

On By Derek AndersonIn MetalworkingLeave a comment
The ingredients
Mixing the 4:1 perlite:refractory cement
The core planters and the base in place.
Close up of the finished base
The walls are filling in
Ramming the refractory cement with a bamboo rod
What it looks like inside with the core out. It’s still _really_ soft.

Yet another busy afternoon; I mixed up some perlite/refractory and started building out a furnace for aluminum casting. Things are going pretty well so far. The 4:1 perlite to refractory mix seems to work OK, although I am sticking closer to 3:1 right now. My refractory cement already has some aggregate in it, so it’s a bit intolerant of the big chunks of perlite. I wish I could add some soap to the mix to make the perlite wet out better.

I also picked up a propane adaptor for a barbecue which just happens to match the size of a cheapass propane torch. This means I can use my cheap propane nozzle to heat the assembly. Turns out that there are standards for these kinds of things. Who knew!

Next up, drilling holes for handles in my cast iron skillet/crucible, then burnout for both the furnace and my 3d printed investment, then finally a test casting in Aluminum. Gonna be a busy week.

Beermaking again!

On By Derek AndersonIn BeerLeave a comment

Finally started to brew again after a hiatus of several years (due to time constraints, not by choice).

The new high output burner. It’s like a jet fighter taking off.
Sparging the mash
The start of the boil
Just added the final aroma hops
Using the copper wort chiller to crash to pitching temperature

This time around I am brewing a 7-ish percent IPA, using ESB and Caravienne malts, and a ludicrous amount of hops. I hope the 1.120 starting gravity will balance out the massive IBU.

STRONG Bed Adhesion with PVA/Weldbond

On By Derek AndersonIn 3d printing1 Comment

I have been having some issues with insufficient bed adhesion, especially when using some less than stellar PLA, so started experimenting with a variety of bed treatments. ABS paint, bluetape and Kapton all worked pretty well, but the new, all time champion is now PVA/Weldbond glue in an ultra-thin layer, only a few molecules thick, which gets the strongest (perhaps too strong) bond I have ever managed. This thin layer completely eliminates any corner lift, and prevents the tape from being pulled off of the bed as well. As a bonus, the heated bed doesn’t have to run as hot.