LesHall

Good news - the problem is solved. I just downloaded a fresh copy of Cura 4.0, deleted the old cura folder in "Library/Application Support", and installed Cura 4.0 again. I had actually taken this action before however they slipped in and re-made whatever their brokenness was. Gremlins, ugh! Whatcha gonna do? Persevere I guess! Les

The neighborhood kids managed to find their way into my Mac and wreak all sorts of havoc and mayhem. Part of the fun they left behind is missing pre- and post- operations on my Cura prints. This means that I must home head and tray plus preheat manually as well as home head and tray plus cool down manually for each print. How can I fix this and erase the play of these destructive little gremlins? Les

They are somewhat flexible, not much. The center, however flexes tremendously as the central ring arrangement acts like a four way hinge. It's actually a little bit freaky the first time you see it. The four branches rotate back suddenly (or slowly if you want) and emerging is this Alien Predator maw shaped thing. Kinda weird on a cross! Les

On an (almost) unrelated topic, Here is a photo of four Chainmaille crosses that I designed and created in 12 gauge wire rings. Les

Wicked cool! I recall seeing a short article on this, how difficult was it to print? There is SO much goin on you just can't keep up with it all! Les

I don't know yet; I plan to order it on next month's purchase list. Good point though, something to consider. Les

FYI: Check out this cute little fan. It's 16mm square and 4.5mm thick and it's a blower! Gotta get me one of them for hot motor driver chips, at $8 each from Digit-Key. Would be "cool" in a print head. Small Digi-Kay Blower Fan Les

Cool cloak fiend, what are you thinking about doing? Les

Here are some photos of a Chainmail sphere in progress. It's from a design I created ten years ago and thankfully the writeup is still available. The plan is to write an updated tutorial with some easier techniques that have now surfaced. Les

Yes I agree. This concept is extremely wasteful. If you need a mixed print and all you have is a single nozzle printer, it could do the job. Les

The way you mention is pretty close. In fact, in the original emails that is one idea that arose. The original version is a little bit different. You buy or make a spool of pre-sliced filament. This spool has say: black and white filament alternating with lengths of 100mm each. So we have 100mm black, 100mm white, 100mm black, 100mm white and so on. We slice the STL file with a custom slicer that knows this and directs filament where needed, either filament where optional (such as infill), and discard prints on the corners and edges when fast-forward (waste) printing is required. Then we line up the filament by feeding it in and extruding it until black shows (clearer color to see) and then run the gcode from the slicer. If all goes well we get a gray-scale (dithered) black-and white object. Does that make the idea a bit "clearer" (pun intended)? Les p.s. if we are making our own filament, then the approach you mention uses less waste. If we are buying the filament then it is the opposite. Or so I believe.

Thank you for your replies ahoeben and Smithy. Yes those are similar yet different enough to be of different purpose. Here's why. ahoeben's link goes to the Palette which does filament chopping and splicing to create exactly what this idea accomplishes, but with almost zero waste. However it's cost is $600 to $900 depending on what you buy and there is no 2.85mm solution, only 1.75mm. Smithy's link is really cool also, a rainbow filament that paints rainbow colors in your print. This one does a similar thing but does not place colors in a controlled way. It was the kind of stuff you show that led me to think of the one I imagined. The difference here is that no or nearly no equipment is required, just buy or make the special filament and accurately position it in your printer, use the special slicer to make your gcode, and let it print. I hope that's a little more clear. Your examples are helpful, thanks again. Les

Hey folks, I've got a fun 3D printing technique to share with you. Back in October of 2016 I imagined this technique and shared it via email with two fellow enthusiasts. Now I'm revisiting the topic for fun (and maybe to try to earn a little cash). It could be that in the two years since it has gotten out into the widely known culture, I don't know. Here it is in a nutshell. Let's take some filament in different colors and/or different materials and splice it into mixed segments forming a spool that varies in type along it's length. Next let's write a slicing program that begins with a certain color/material and prints with each segment onto the printed object in such a way that desired colors are printed where they are desired and printed in discard piles where they are not desired. Then we get a multicolored / multimaterial object plus a (probably) large amount of wasted filament, all printed on just a single nozzle 3D printer. That's it. There are a lot of details to discuss including ways to splice the filament, how to synch the colors, sudden or gradual transitions between colors, PLA based exotics, and probably other relevant details. If anyone would like to discuss this, here I am. Les

Oh, Hi Sander! I've been on an emotional roller coaster in the process of inventing lots of stuff. Some of it is 3D printer related. 50 inventions in the past two years, but I hardly recall them. Also I've been using my UM2+ all the time! Lately my efforts have focused on completing old projects and I'd like to create some kind of business supplying others with tools and/or supplies. How have you been?

Beautiful! Have you thought of making an instructables article? Les