3d Printing and the Future of Piracy

Update on the above, I won 2nd place in the homebrew contest, the winning entry was really cool it was a SNES cartridge with embedded game that was also a wearable badge. Got a new Hakko soldering iron and I earned one of the AND!XOR badges (pic below) that were only earn-able through challenges throughout the weekend. Fucking stoked, already contemplating what to do for next year, it was really fun.


Also I got to meet the Hack for Satan guys and show them the mask. Their badge project this year is amazing as well, so glad I managed to get one. I still have to dig into it but from what I can gather so far based on observation the bluetooth low energy radio in the badge communicates (transmits/infects) with surrounding badges which progressively cause the 5 points of LEDs to illuminate near the faces:

MusicForFish said:

So if my kid wants to make custom unique jewelry etc.
How much does it cost to get one of these systems up and running?

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I'm biased so i'll do it up front. The Prusa i3 MK3(S) is amazing i've had one for a while and it just works, if a print fucks up it's usually due to something I did wrong 9/10. The con is it's a $749 kit or $999 if assembled by them so the cost is high. Prusa just introduced their Mini that's around $349, smaller build plate but it's fast, I'm considering one myself.

If you're looking to make larger stuff on a budget you could get a Creality printer, I started out with the Ender 3 but got annoyed with how inconsistent it was. Also steer clear of the Anet devices they're basically a fire waiting to happen unless things have drastically changed in the last 4-5 months.

Latest project was a LED cube using 6 8x8 WS2812 panels. I did a write up on how to assemble it along with the parts used 8x8 WS2812 LED Cube

I love the way it turned out:


I'm working on a model for a DIY "HyperCube" at the moment in FreeCAD. Had to go back to the drawing board a couple of times. Once it's finished i'll post the model files and build process.

I bought myself a Sovol on black friday, this will be my first experience with 3D printing.

Made a Pokeball Nintendo Switch game case for my friend. Was a pain in the ass to make because the hinges are not designed that well. I ended up having to just set the layers just below the hinge parts to start with 100% infill. Switching to PLA+ from eSun also helped a ton too.
edit: model here - Pokeball Switch Cartridge Holder by Kickass3DPrints

PLA+ From eSun is the shit, I dont fuck with regular pla anymore

My first print, a little mandalorian figure from Thingiverse. Left is the first attempt, it went all sphaghetti at some point and I asked a guy at work what that was about, he told me I need to click "enable supports" in Cura in order to fix that issue. Second attempt on the right after clicking enable support. Anybody know what I'm doing wrong here?

Attog said:

My first print, a little mandalorian figure from Thingiverse. Left is the first attempt, it went all sphaghetti at some point and I asked a guy at work what that was about, he told me I need to click "enable supports" in Cura in order to fix that issue. Second attempt on the right after clicking enable support. Anybody know what I'm doing wrong here?


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The second one looks better, have you tried removing the supports from it? The photo's a bit blurry so I can't make out any issues with the support enabled print.

"removing the supports' is that what all those are, really supposed to look like that? My idea of supports was little line of plastic like you would find on a model set while in the box:

Yea, 3d printing supports are kinda wasteful by default. There are some "Tree" Supports ( I think cura has the option for them), but when you print and enable supports they're meant to be pulled off with some pliers.

thingiverse can be dangerous, I was looking for a stopper/plug to print to plug a hole in a ceramic planter - be careful where you are when you search for the word "plug"!!!

I started printing a pulse rifle from the movie Aliens, first part turned out great, took 18 hours to print. 49 more parts to go...

Even Christmas trees are unsafe to search for I was browsing last season and sure enough a "Christmas tree" that looked like a butt plug showed up in my feed. I dunno if people actually use printed sex toys but the materials available don't seem very good for it...

Been printing things non-stop for the past couple days, starting to get the hang of things. Working on a prop Aliens M41 pulse rifle now, first 10 or so parts are done and I got my very first clogged nozzle. Going to try clearing the blockage tonight.

Good luck with the nozzle clog, if you can't cold pull it using a butane torch to lightly heat the nozzle while pulling sometimes works well.

Few times iave had a clog I just heated up to crazy hot and pushed through, worked for me but not sure what machine you have