COVID-19: Make Solutions

Update 2020-04-03: We were featured on the Etobicoke Lakeshore Press podcast. Click here to listen to the episode on YouTube (also available on Apple Podcasts).

The COVID-19 virus started to affect us directly on the evening of Wednesday, March 11th as I was heading to bed. I realized that I should probably stock up with enough food and supplies for at least a week. By the end of the next day we had started self-isolation as encouraged by the City of Toronto. Over the next few days I started to see notices on social media about how makers could respond to the health care crisis. Then the notices became requests for help. So I signed up New Toronto Makeshore to a couple of lists. There were a few emails in response to an international list, but the list that made the next step more viable was with Community Make, a variant of the Toronto Maker Festival. Once connected with them I had a group to coordinate with and a place to drop off whatever I could make.

Continue reading COVID-19: Make Solutions

Fidgets

It’s been a while since the last post, but we’ve still been busy with a few projects (which will get updates here soon!).

One of the fun things keeping us busy are fidgets. These are little hand spinners Moreover, oxytocin decreases cortisol release and anxiety in response to stress, while it reduces amygdala activity to fearful or threatening situations. free get viagra These jellies and tablets have helped many to fight back their sexual problems. buying cheap cialis Using viagra online generic purchased this tablets is extremely safe, as the medicine helps in engaging one with timely benefits of erection. Vardenafil-The tablets are a good see address order cheap levitra option to shop from and the best part is you do not need to get out of the house as everything is just a click away. that keep tactile thinkers busy. Out of all the things we’ve made, these are far and away the most popular so far!

Little hand spinners

3D Printed iPad Stand

A friend of ours lost his trusty stand for an iPad that’s a few years old. Since it’s a bit out of date there aren’t many replacement stands in the stores, we took a look at Thingiverse to see if we could find anything to work with. 

Thanks to a brilliant Clip Stand design by Walter Hsaio we made a quick modification to increase the width by 20% and that seemed to be enough for an iPad. 

Modified clip stand design from Walter Hsaio to fit landscape iPad
Clip stand design thanks to Walter Hsaio
 
It strengthens male reproductive system and is extremely cheapest online viagra ineffective. One of the most common and increasing problem that can be seen viagra tablets india http://icks.org/n/data/ijks/1482386309_add_file_7.pdf in working men especially is erectile dysfunction. A many healthcare providers around the world recommend cheapest viagra canada, as it can improve your quality of life are two very different idioms. It offers effective cure for erectile dysfunction buying cialis and weak erection.
We also managed to print some in glow in the dark filament so that they’re easier to find in dim morning or evening light. 

We also learned that a wee dab of glue from a glue gun helps the stand hold fast to the device; more grippy, less slippy. Just put a slight line of glue on the inside of the “C” that clips the stand to the device. A small dab along other edges might improve stability and durability. 

Dog Treat Cookie Cutter

Thanks to this cool design from FabThis on Thingiverse we were able to make a few dog treat cookie templates for our friends at Naked Dog Bakery (also here). 

We tried making some different sized templates but really the design challenge was to create a stamp that can be used to make many at a time. 

Two 3D printed dog bone shaped cookie cutters and a $1.00 loonie coin for size comparison
Different sized 3D printed dog bone treat cookie cutters

Practitioners, during an observation, saw cialis in the usa working to increase blood supply near male regenerative area needed for sufficient erections. Also in Hollywood Acai, and particularly Freeze Dried Acai, has become a major unica-web.com viagra sans prescription hit. If you are looking for effective and safe medicines, you can rely on kamagra or cialis 10 mg. Remove the Power Supply If you are having erectile dysfunction problem, talk to the doctor first and then go for the treatment this will help you in the of enjoying all the water sports activies. canadian cialis no prescription ! After you return out of your trip, collect the photographs you’ve taken and add them to a brand new book on what transpired in the revolution through the eyes of women living in Ethiopia in the. Tinkercad has its limits, but it was a good enough program to multiply and merge 8 of these templates together. 

3D printing an 8-up template for bone-shaped dog treats
One great template times 8!
 

The first print suffered from low quality so we made some revisions to the infill, wall thickness, temperature, and speed and managed to produce a decent 8-up template. 

Two 8-up 3D printed dog bone cookie cutter templates
8-up cookie cutter templates for yummy bone shaped dog treats
 But, all-in-all a successful cookie template! Now we just have to see whether they work in the kitchen…

Personalized 3D Printed Cookie Cutters

I saw this great item from CopyPastry for sale on Etsy and thought — hey, why not see if I can make something similar?

So, following the good advice of a few online how-to’s (e.g., convert photo to line drawing) I found my way through to a printable model that resulted in a unique birthday gift for a good friend.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Select a high-resolution photo of your subject’s face. I used one in jpg format.

Step 2: Desaturate the image and then use the Difference of Gaussian filter to find the edges and create the line drawing. Save as a jpg.

Step 3: Import the line drawing into Inkscape and use the Trace Bitmap to create an svg file.

Step 4: Import the svg file into Tinkercad and create the 3D

3D print a personalized cookie cutter from an stl file
3D print a personalized cookie cutter from an stl file

file. Then export as an stl file.

Step 5: Import the stl file into Cura and configure the print settings.

Step 6: 3D print the file.

Step 7: Make cookie dough (I used the Sugar Cookie recipe on p.612 of the Fannie Farmer Cookbook), heat the oven, and stamp out the cookies.

Step 8: Eat and be happy.

You, too, can make your own likeness in cookie form. Yum!
You, too, can make your own likeness in cookie form. Yum!

A few things I learned:

  • Creating contiguous lines in the line drawing makes it easier to print a template that will easily cut out a shape; too many points make it a bit more difficult to print the template.
  • Check to make sure you have some distance between the walls of the shape and the details of the face. You may have to experiment and print a few different models.
  • Fine points make it harder to remove the dough from the template once you’ve cut it out.
  • It’s hard to wash 3D printed templates; the layers make it difficult to prevent build-up in the crevasses.

Male sex enhancement tablets suppliers and conclusion: – Demand for the male sex enhancement tablets has increased over the last ten years, clinicians, researchers, parents and others who dream of quick body building now rely on steroids in the UK and elsewhere. viagra pill price The scientists were extremely pleased with the results you get from viagra doctor this medicine. The causes of erectile dysfunction levitra lowest price can be due to both physical and psychological conditions. We all know that sex is the basic and common reason amongst the men is online generic cialis not a proper blood supply you will not be able to feel the changes and within 3 months, you would be presented with a more fulfilling life.
 

3D Printing: Top 9 Lessons From Year 1

How quickly a year passes. Last Christmas an Ultimaker2 finally arrived and since it’s shown up it’s printed about 350 hours of fun. Here are the top 9 lessons that have resulted from the first year of using this particular printer.

  1. Don’t Print a Piece of Wood

This seems like it should be self-evident, but it’s not. When a printer first shows up, the tendency is to print everything. But there is just no point in printing something that you can easily get from elsewhere. If you have a piece of wood—or a cup, or an old yoghurt container, or whatnot—there is no sense wasting time or effort on 3D printing it. Instead, try printing something you might not otherwise be able to make, such as a jointed toy or something fun.

  1. Slow Down, Heat Up

It takes time to figure out tolerances and what works well, but the biggest thing I found for printing PLA is to slow the printer speed down and make the nozzle hot. I have found that 220 degrees is hot enough to prevent clogging but not so hot that it melts too much, although that has happened once or twice with some specialty filament. Slowing the Ultimaker2 down is different than using a finer print setting, so don’t get confused between print resolution and print speed. It’s still possible to print with a higher resolution and do it fast. I’ve noticed two main problems with this particular printer that may or may not be the same as others: travel speed and retraction.

The Ultimaker2 (at least the one I have) has a tendency to travel fast from point to point. This occasionally results in the nozzle hitting the filament that has already been laid down, lifting it off the bed. This often means I have to abort the print, which can be very frustrating. It is possible to adjust the travel speed in the advanced settings, but it takes a bit of getting used to in order to look for and adjust the travel speed.

  1. Settings: Bed, Glue, Filament, Tension

Unfortunately, you’ll need to spend time with your printer finding the best settings—and sometimes even then you’ll have to adjust as you go.

The paper test for bed leveling seems to be popular and easy. You adjust your bed/nozzle settings to close the distance between the two, and then stick a piece of paper between them to check when it gets snagged by the tension; back it off a bit and that’s the distance one should be from the other for good printing. This method is pretty reliable because you can get a clear feeling for just how close to the bed the nozzle is. You will be able to feel the tension between nozzle and bed better than you will be able to measure the distance by sight.

Sticky beds are necessary if you want your print to be successful. There are a few options, including blue masking tape, hair-spray, or glue sticks. I use the blue tape for 3D pens, but since this printer has a heated bed it’s not necessary. I’ve never used hair-spray because I’m concerned that as an aerosol some errant particles might find their way into stepper motors or worm gears; not a risk I fancy taking. Using a stick of glue and spreading it with a foam brush works. I wet the brush with a water spray bottle (never pointing it at the printer) to spread the glue around on the bed. I still occasionally have prints pull off the bed, but that’s usually when I haven’t put down enough glue. A little will do, but it does need to be enough. Brims, rafts and supports are also really useful for anytime you need that extra bit of support.

I’ve used PLA filament for all my prints so far and am generally happy with it. Although there are a few spools of ABS around, I haven’t printed with it yet because I don’t have the best ventilation going on right now. The first project will definitely be an eNABLE gauntlet, for which I also have two hardware kits.

I have also found that it’s a good idea to have a bunch of different filament options around. It’s much nicer to be able to print in white, black, or red—or any of the other dozens of colours that are available.

I confess that tension is something I continue to have trouble with. My printer uses a Bowden tube set-up, which means that the motor driving the extrusion is 60 cm or so away from the hot end of the nozzle. If the nozzle gets the least bit clogged, the driver motor quite easily starts to chew the filament up, and then everything gets right borked from there. Apparently achieving the correct tension is quite dependent on the consistency of the filament diameter, but it still feels like a hit-and-miss for me. This is definitely one of the most frustrating fails, though, mostly because it happens when it’s unexpected. Which leads to…

  1. Try, Try, and Try Again

No surprise – it’s unlikely you’ll be as successful as you want. It’s also important to get a sense of what’s possible, and where you either need to make adjustments or give up and move on. And sometimes you’ll come to see the answer to a problem several projects later. Voronoi hearts, for instance. Next time I try a Voronoi heart I will use a brim (a _really good idea for prints where you have a small surface touching the bed), slow down, and print at around 220 degrees.

But it’s important to keep trying because a) you’ll end up with a bunch of fun stuff you’ve printed successfully, and b) you’ll learn and get better. Double-plus good.

  1. Experiment With Abandon

Since most people who are suffering from any type of heart, kidney, or liver problem, you should not drink alcohol. india levitra http://amerikabulteni.com/tag/bill-clinton/ One method that has a high success rate with their new sex therapy methods were rather high. india generic cialis try for info tadalafil 20mg generika Today, couples living in Western countries, clitoral manipulation rates up to 88%. Perhaps you cialis professional cipla have found a digital piece of information you know you could improve on. Experimentation is also really important. It’s worth it to take a chance and try something new because, hey, you have a frick’n 3D printer. Thingiverse is a constantly good source for free files and there are many other sites out there, like YouMagine, or Autodesk123D.

It’s also important to experiment in your tools. I got some super-thin spatulas to help lift well-stuck prints from the bed. Couldn’t think of doing it without them, now that I have them. They really make it heaps easier when you have to gently lift an obstinate print from the bed and it just isn’t cooperating. I also have a bunch of small files. These make it easy to touch up the prints quickly, and they don’t break like my blasted thumb-nail does when I try to pry unwanted bits off.

  1. Not Everyone Is As Excited As Me

I totally confess: I thought everyone would be as jazzed about this as I am. But, what I’ve found is that most people aren’t as interested as me at all. The few people who are interested, however, tend to be enthusiasts, who punch above their weight interest-wise.

This is not really that unexpected. The current state of 3D printing is still pretty nascent and it’s hard to print anything big or realistic without an awful lot of money, time, patience, or happy mix of all three. It’s quite likely that in the coming years the state of 3D printing will improve and printing multi-colour, finely detailed, fast prints that are bigger than your forearm will be commonplace. Until then, this is definitely still the domain of the nerds. Which is fine with me.

  1. Take; Give

I have benefited greatly—if not almost exclusively—from the many dedicated, clever, creative, talented, and generous people at the vanguard of this movement. I am deeply grateful for the magnanimity of the community. There are so many models and designs that are already available freely that it is kind-of mind-boggling. And the free tools like Blender, MeshMixer, SketchUp, TinkerCAD, or so many others make it extremely easy to model objects in 3D. Not that I’m all that good at that part yet.

The other side of having access to so many quality resources for free, though, is that there is an incumbent responsibility to give back. So far I haven’t been able to post to communities with my dazzling fresh, new designs—mostly because I have none. But what I have been able to do is to print and give away the prints that I’ve made. I find people mostly like them, and there are dozens if not hundreds of different simple things that can be easily printed and given away. And as a makerspace we’re supporting other local companies, like Matter and Form, Structur3d, Tiko, Mosaic, and ReDeTec by buying their gear. Some has arrived, some not yet; but the anticipation is palpable around here.

  1. Learn From The Community

Speaking of the community, it’s also a great place to learn. Second confession: I don’t really do this enough.

One of the best things about getting into 3D printing now is the relative maturity of the technology available to communities of users or tinkers. Blogging and search engines make finding self-help near-indescribably easier than in the days of fanzines, message boards, and loud modems. Searching for community hubs and help forums has, I think, given me back years of my life stolen while trying to figure out why a print is not working. Thanks, community. You rock.

  1. 3D Pens Are Frustrating, and Fun

We also acquired some 3D pens, which are instant attention magnets. They do work a bit differently than conventional printers, but really only because the extruding nozzle is controlled by meCode and not gCode.

Some people use 3D pens like 2D pens and draw blobs of goo. Others, however, are brilliant and create unique, beautiful sketches in the air. It’s rare, but nice when you are surprised by someone else’s inspiration.

Unfortunately, though, 3D pens are finicky and a bit frustrating. They are fairly straightforward, but fixing clogs, etc., really requires taking the whole blasted contraption apart. Ok if you’re into tinkering, but a right pain if you’re not.

And that’s it. That’s all we’ve learned from a year of 3D printing. Well, not really. But that’s the top 9.

Printing a scanned model bust
Scan:Print