The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • Thing-O-Matic: Fairing Clamp Plates

    Although those pink clamp plates worked well enough, they did not provide, shall we say, a completely satisfactory user experience. I reprinted new sets in red while varying the extruder speed by 0.1 rev/min, with small tweaks to the overlap between the infill and the loop threads.

    First, the big pictures with details scrawled on the back of the lower plate…

    At 3.2 rpm, which is only slightly too fast:

    Fairing Plate - 3.2 rpm
    Fairing Plate – 3.2 rpm

    At 3.3 rpm, a bit overstuffed:

    Fairing Plate - 3.3 rpm
    Fairing Plate – 3.3 rpm

    At 3.4 rpm, there’s obviously too much plastic:

    Fairing Plate - 3.4 rpm
    Fairing Plate – 3.4 rpm

    Some closeups, in the same order…

    At 3.2 rpm with 0.20 overlap, it looks OK:

    Fairing Plate - 3.2 rpm detail
    Fairing Plate – 3.2 rpm detail

    At 3.3 rpm with 0.25 overlap, which pretty much devours the inner loop thread:

    Fairing Plate - 3.3 rpm detail
    Fairing Plate – 3.3 rpm detail

    At 3.4 rpm with 0.25 overlap there’s serious overfill:

    Fairing Plate - 3.4 rpm detail
    Fairing Plate – 3.4 rpm detail

    In all cases, the extruder left a track while exiting upward from near the middle of the images. Even at 3. 2 rpm there’s slightly too much plastic.

    My ladies don’t care about the fine details. They prefer red to pink and the clamps hold the fairings firmly in place…