𝑔𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑥𝑖

  • 1 Post
  • 47 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: July 4th, 2023

help-circle
  • The 2 is a purge line, meant to clear any pressure in the nozzle and wipe it off before a print. It can be edited in your Start G-code on the printer settings tab > custom g-code on prusaslicer.

    The 1 is a skirt, meant to get rid of any last few hanging bits of filament and start a clean print (sometimes the purge line doesn’t get everything off the nozzle). It can also be used to gauge any last minute adjustments to your z offset. If the nozzle is too close or too far, you’ll know before the print actually starts. I find that the skirt can be disabled if you’re using a brim, since it’s redundant at that point. Some who have fine tuned printers may opt not to use one at all without much issue. It isn’t meant as any kind of draft shield as another person said - that’s a separate setting. It’s just a failsafe for the cleanest prints possible, avoiding hanging bits of filament, blobs from built up pressure, and incorrect z height. The first layer is the most important so everything that helps the first layer helps the rest.




  • Doubtful. The main reason I could see a 3D printer starting a fire is either thermal runaway, often caused by bad software (on cheap printers) or electrical issues. You can check your wiring and make sure that nothing looks loose and all of your cables are in good condition. You can also make sure that your printer firmware is up to date. It’s a Prusa right? I think you should be safe from software failure in that case, as they’re quality.

    If you’re really concerned about it, you can also move your power supply, and even your mainboard, outside of the enclosure by using longer cables. This would keep the majority of the electrical components away from the foam and heated box. From my position I don’t see an issue, but that’s my personal opinion – not legally accountable information. I will say that Stefan on CNC Kitchen uses foam as well, to get rid of ringing in prints. If you decide to go through with it, just use common sense and check to see if anything is hot. You might also get some benefit out of looking into silent stepper motors/drivers and trying to make the printer itself quieter.


  • I haven’t used it outside of Windows Firefox and Android but it works great for me as well.

    For mobile specifically: Rarely do I have any issues, and when I do, I have a quick panel button for Bitwarden (top drag down menu) that lets me manually trigger it. I can’t think of any apps that it doesn’t work with. My one nit is that autofill credit card info doesn’t work often, but obv that’s a secondary use, and the info is still with me if I ever need it on the go. And adding new login info can be a little tedious on mobile – much easier to create it first, then autofill. Highly appreciate the 2FA feature too. The auto copy feature feels really seamless regardless of if I’m on my phone or not.

    I’d be curious what issues you seem to be running into with it.


  • I was in my early 20s when I started. Wanted the calming effects of nicotine, was into other similar interests, and was dating someone who also got into it. He was actually the second vaper I’d dated, so you could say it took me a while to be interested.

    I’d had a couple cigs before but I never considered myself a smoker and didn’t take to it. Vaping became a huuuge hobby for me. Learning about different mods, building your own coils, DIY e-juice, etc. I was vaping all day, all the time, pretty much as soon as I woke up (at the lowest amount possible though). It was a nice flavor and chemical pick me up when I was on edge. Sort of like a physical distraction. I vaped for 5 or so years. The lasting effects I’ve noticed are that sometimes I miss it. That’s it. It was pretty hard to quit, mostly because I didn’t want to. I had a lot of resistance, because it became a passion for me. But nicotine regulations started to suck, and that same partner quit as well. I got really sick with a flu and didn’t vape during it. Then, I didn’t start again after I got better. I had dreams about it, and it took a bit for me to want to move on.

    The thing is, though, I don’t feel any different now than when I was vaping constantly. It doesn’t improve your life that much. It’d be great if it could be an occasional thing, like alcohol or dessert is, but it’s hard to not do it all the time if you’re doing it at all. And you get to an equilibrium where it just doesn’t feel that strong. Hence the constant clouds.

    The most annoying part about it is that it becomes like a security blanket. You have to take it everywhere. Forget it for work? Guess you’ll just be late today. Have to sit for a movie? Man it sucks not to vape inside. Flying for hours? What a nightmare, can’t wait to land and go outside.

    It was annoying to not feel myself if I ever decided to leave my vape behind. And blowing clouds out of my car was great, but it sucked having to wipe down my car windshield all the time due to the glycerin condensation. Same with inside – no smoke on the walls, but the glycerine would hang around and I’d have to run an air purifier. I’d often worry about the vapor leaving slight residue all over my apartment, belongings, monitors, PC internals and such.

    Overall, it was great for a while as it was something I got really into, but it was also a lot of money and stress over something that didn’t really benefit my life the way other hobbies still continue to do. Much better to be a free person unattached from adult security blankets. 😎


  • I think you’re right to complain, but at the same time, aren’t single use plastics much lower on the pollution scale than, say, the fishing industry or other industrial plastic pollution? It makes sense to reduce and reuse, I try - but also find it beyond helpful to have a bunch of (unorganized) baggies strewn about for things like loose screws, storing filament spools, organizing USB cables, etc. I could definitely use something like this instead of a black hole under my sink. I know it’s easy to judge – esp without the whole picture – and hopefully people aren’t polluting willy nilly, but curiosity is a better approach than judgment or shaming when it comes to changing minds, wouldn’t you agree?


  • Depends. Is the loneliness a byproduct of choices made for happiness in other aspects of your life, like moving to a new city or being picky about your social circle? Are you choosing to stay in and not interact for certain reasons? Or is the loneliness caused by things you can’t control, like people leaving or mental health issues?

    If it’s the former, I say embrace it and work on focusing less on how you think your life should look. Pay attention to the things that you love by yourself. Take in the moments any moment where you notice you’re having a great time and don’t have to stop due to someone else. Imagine you just got done with a 12 hour road trip with someone who talks too much and breathe in the silence and peace of the moment. Listen to rain or cars rushing by. Sometimes, I find that loneliness can be caused by feeling like you’re missing out on something but maybe wouldn’t even make you happy. There are lots of people who feel lonely in their families or friendships or relationships.

    If it’s the latter, I’d work up to a more comfortable and satisfying level of socialization. It takes time. In that process, you’ll hopefully find yourself leaning pickier and finding out what works and what doesn’t. Be selfish. Learn to spend time with people and then decide for yourself whether you want to keep spending time with them. Treat your energy and presence like precious rubies. They are! Invest in who matters most to you and keeps you feeling good after you leave. This will build your confidence and belief in your worth and motivate you to keep working on the things that keep you from happiness. Ending loneliness isn’t a goal you get to, it’s a side effect of choosing people who see the real you and doing the self care of letting others in. :)


  • I haven’t been yet personally, but I have a lot of friends who go every year. Some of the things that they love about going are the big cultures around consent, the random awesome and unique things that you find everywhere, spending time with friends, a lack of money economy, being your completely human self w/o any judgement, and basically stepping into a world that’s separate from the rest of society. You’ll find a lot of these things at local burns as well. If you are getting curious, I would really encourage the latter. Regional or local burns are like mini burning men with a similar vibe, but a lot more conscientious and tight-knit. The best way to get into one is to find a facebook group for the one closest to you. Sometimes they’ll meet up outside the events, and you can go to ask questions and to coordinate. Since there’s a lack of money economy, everything is done either with trades or with shared responsibility. There’s something at burning man called “radical responsibility” where each person is responsible for their own wellness and contributions. So you can’t go expecting there to be vendors or other people with food or water or what have you – it’s important to figure those things out ahead of time so that way you’re not a burden on others (which allows you to be a contributing member of the community and show up fully). Like I said I haven’t actually been, so I don’t know the full details, but that’s most of what I do know! Most people I’ve met that go are some of the most interesting people I know and really know how to party and what life’s about for themselves, so I recommend finding out more :)


  • One thing that I’ll add in is that I started with a similar setup, but I’ve heard it isn’t ideal to be turning your pi on and off all the time without a proper shutdown sequence. I have my printer psu and filament dryer both plugged into smart plugs. Klipper is connected to home assistant wirelessly so I can turn them both off when prints finish, at idle, etc. My printer is in an enclosure, and the psu, pi, and mainboard both sit outside to keep them from getting hot. Pi has its own charger. I don’t find it to be a burden to have the pi and psu both plugged into outlets rather than only having one plug. I find it to be a lot more stable for troubleshooting and any power issues that have come up.

    Just so you know, I also started off with the teaching tech all in one electronics box. I spent a ton of hours modifying it for my particular sbc and printer. I guess I ran into issues when I would have to take out one of the boards to work on it, lol. The tolerances were really tight and it was just a pain to get it out from behind. I still have the pi+mainboard both in a box, but it’s a new one I designed later on that just sits on a shelf below the printer (wires come through a hole). I find it to be really useful for printing ABS and other hot filaments and keeping a clean and tidy enclosure.



  • Changing the nozzle isn’t hard, you just have to be careful. All you have to do is heat up the hotend, hold the heater block with a wrench, and use another wrench to unscrew the nozzle (you might’ve gotten one with your printer for this). Holding the heater block is mostly just important imo so that the torque doesn’t misalign other parts in your hotend. Remember that if you’re facing down, then screwing directions are reversed. So you would unscrew the nozzle clockwise (righty loosey).

    After you get the nozzle off, I would push some filament through the top to get your clog out. Then you can put the same nozzle back on. The main time you would need to replace it is if you’re consistently having issues even after that or you’ve been using it for a while (the hole gets worn through bigger over time). You can also look into doing a ‘cold pull’ to get out clogs.

    Of course your extruder would still work fine if you didn’t have anything in it because it’s only jamming due to trying to push something through a clog :p You have 2 zones in a hotend: the cold end (radiator) and hot end (heater block). Sometimes a clog can happen because of heat creep, where a bit of hot melted filament gets retracted up into the cold zone and resolidifies there, blocking the passage.




  • To add on to the other response you got, what you’re experiencing is called warping (corners lifting up). Slow down your first layer, I usually do mine around 20mm/s. And yeah, clean your build plate if you are getting curling and you might’ve touched the plate. Hand oils transfer easily. You can take off the removable metal sheet and wash it with soapy water. You can also spray or drip rubbing alcohol and wipe with a paper towel between prints. Use a brim and make sure your first layer height is perfect (too far can cause it to not stick well enough, and too close can cause a clog or messy layers). The first layer is the most important for a perfect print.

    When you get a new filament, do be sure to check the temperature recommendation on the side of the spool. Sometimes different brands print at different temps. Different types, like PLA and PETG, print at different temps too.

    If you got clippers with your printer, they can be used for a lot of things. You can cut stuff off of your prints. Typically what I use mine for is cutting the end of the filament into a point before I insert it into the printer so that it goes in more easily. If you pull used filament out, it will typically be melted and blobby on the end and harder to reinsert.

    People will probably give me flak for this but I use the metal wire brush that came with my printer and brush it on the nozzle while it’s hot. You can buy extras online. It does wear the nozzle down ‘sooner’ since it’s abrasive, and it makes a bit of a mess, but it’s way more effective than trying to wipe it off imo. Cleaning the nozzle isn’t super necessary, but it will keep bits of charred filament from getting into your print and will help the nozzle last longer until you change it.

    As for the question about putting your printer away, you don’t have to do that. I would be more worried about the people sticking their fingers in or near the printer than about the printer itself, lol. 3D printers have really strong frames and motors. They are really easy to take apart and replace things as needed, unlike something like a computer which is a bit more delicate with more electronics. I typically pick mine up by the top bar if I need to carry it anywhere. Just make sure that the printer is somewhere where it won’t hit anything if the bed is sliding out, and that as it’s homing or moving, the head and the bed aren’t going to catch on any wires. Do be careful with the motors if you’re ever interacting with the printing while it’s moving, they don’t care if there’s something in the way. :p

    Like I said on your last post, I’m happy to help if you have any other questions 👍 I’m happy you’ve been enjoying your experience so much! 3D printing is the best hobby!





  • So you can get an Ender or similar printer for $100-200 and it would mostly work out of the box, but there is often a huge amount of troubleshooting that follows. I got a 3D printer originally to try to earn extra revenue but never ended up selling anything because the hobby took over for me. I spent hours learning how it works and hundreds replacing parts (trying to perfect my machine, not at all necessary). It’s a bit of an investment of time and money but you may find that you end up enjoying it and using it beyond the scope of your current project. It’s definitely something that takes a lot of commitment to learn unless you have a lot of money you’re willing to invest towards a more no-issue printer like a Prusa.

    It looks like there are a ton of makerspaces in Seattle. If you have the time, you can actually often volunteer to use the machines for free. And it would give you the ability to use other machines there, like laser cutters. I actually also volunteer about a couple hours north of you at the bham makerspace. If you happen to be in the area and want help printing stuff – or you decide to get a printer and you want help learning how to do it, you should hit me up! I’m super passionate about it and I would be happy to give you advice or help out. :)