Starship Clutterprise Captains Log Tuesday Jan 7th 2014

Hello again! Ficinus here, I'm sharing my first week testing a 3D printer. If you haven't read my first post yet, I suggest you read 3D Printing: Meet the Replicator! 

3D Printing Update Day 2: Dual Extrusion

On the picture above you will notice two "Stepstruders", one Left, and one Right. On the Replicator Dual, you can print in two colors at once! The duotone colors included are the classic black & white. The left extruder prints in white and the right extruder prints in black.

In my notes I pointed out that the printing room was rather cold. In fact I remember that day be very cold in particular. It just rained the day before so driving on the highway was nerve racking. My sisters story of sliding on black ice at 65mph haunted my thoughts.YAY New York Weather! Unpredicatble as always. Rain? Snow? You don't know!

The printing process requires at least 110ºC (230ºF) on the build plate and 220ºC (428ºF)for the extruders. I printed only in white on day 1, so I decided to kickstart day 2 by testing the black.

On the second day of Christmas my true love printed me....
x2 JOSH keychains (First successful print in Black) Took 5 minutes to print these cute keychains for Josh Kimberg :D Took less than 5 minutes to realize they were way too small!

JOSH KEYCHAIN, by Ficinus

x2 Giant Hollow Two Color Globes (Failed both, 1rst printed only a couple layers, 2nd printed 1/8th of the globe)

Failed Giant Hollow Globes 3D prints, by Ficinus

HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS PRINT. x2 Dual Color Tests A simple test for dual extruding, good for calibrating. There is a lot to learn if you check it out in the thingiverse!

Dual Color Squares Test Fail, by Ficinus

Lessons on Dual Extruding:
It took while to figure out merging the files on ReplicatorG for Dual Printing. Even after figuring it out the Globe did not print correctly. First it failed after 3 layers (Detached from Build Platform), next it was only printing the land. The basic dual test was a much better test for beginers, just two squares. Yet that worked well for only a couple of layers and then failed both times. The number one problem is the plastic not sticking to the build plate because of the low ambient temperature. Just too cold. Each Pre heat took over 15 minutes, the machine had to struggle to stay warm, like the rest of the North East!

Why is the backroom so cold?! Can this fridgid situation be rectified!? Tune in next time when I reveal the culprit! Check out #Ficinusdesigns on Instagram for more pictures!

Stay Warm!