Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472, and today, I am bringing a good report about my 3D printer. Let’s get started!
The problem so far: My 3D printer has had some issues with filament running through the extruder tip when it shouldn’t. The plastic semi-remembers its curl from the spool, so it curls around and touches another hot spot on the extruder tip. In addition: This would drag along the initial couple inches of extrusion, keeping the printer from laying the important first outline when making the raft. I even observed stuff peeling off the printbed a couple times.
While I was at investigating printer problems, I got some cleaning filament and played around with using it for something other than a print; some had come with the printer, and I took it for normal material. I followed a tutorial to clean the printer, and got most of the stuff in the printhead out.
I was never able to get the printer to start extruding right away, but by raising the print bed, the troubled corner stuck without the outline. I still had a print I wanted where I would have a hollow cube, but the support structure would account for more than half the weight. The solution: print one side and two edges twice and glue the halves to each other. I think it took on the order of eight hours, and within four hours of coming off the print bed, one of the prongs had easily snapped. I don’t plan on fixing it, nor do I plan on replacing it at this time. The design was flawed; it was only half a centimeter thick, and I think it needs a full centimeter.
Either way, with this distraction out of the way, the printer is a bit cleaner and working correctly again. I can now return to my bigger project. The next step is with Blender.
Final Question: Unrelated: I started a Spigot Minecraft server this week for family and a few friends. What are some plugins you have had fun with in the past that would work for multiplayer cooperative on a small server?