7 hellhounds howling

Freecad +1

WAIT !

I think each person has to recognize that there is a time/energy cost to get out of enshittification hell, and then decide how much they’re willing to pay. If the answer for you is at least “an afternoon of video tutorials”, then Freecad will be fine for you. It’s a complicated tool that you need some help learning; that’s ok. It won’t become your new hobby.

If you don’t want to pay that cost, that’s understandable. If you feel mad that there is a cost at all, that’s ok too. That’s how enshittification works, and it sucks. As I said, each person will have to decide whether and how much they’re willing to pay to get out of it.

Anyway, the MangoJelly tutorials in YouTube are really excellent, and will have you up and running in a few hours at most. (My CAD needs are also very basic, and I was done after the first two parts, 30 min each.) For following along, I would recommend just using the main version, so that it matches his tutorial exactly, and do the steps as he shows you. It feels dumb, but it’s such a fast way to learn. You can decide later if you want to switch to one of the other branches, depending on what features you care about or what annoys you most.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGNkhS8RKFIJWGj1ad8wRVVCLBnF_13g

Here’s one of his later videos about tracing from a photo, but I haven’t watched it:

https://youtu.be/xQcDoAhmoa8?si=MkdyXVtATiNWesJ4

You can do it!

I had the same realization. I spent 3-4 hours fiddling with different settings, with no impact, and then 1 hour drying did the trick!!

Same, but we knew it was going to be about tortillas didn’t we.

Wow, same here. Upvote just for explaining how to turn that dang grid off!!

Also, there are lots of KB stls out there. OP printed this one, and thought it was good enough to share (and I agree). So, it’s useful to know which particular one they used. And, if it’s not their stl, then linking is a way of giving credit to the stl author too. One more point: any issues or adjustments they made, for that particular stl, are useful to know (like they posted below, finally).

I see the OP did update with the stl below. But I wanted to post here to say it’s just good manners to add a reference for the specific stl of a print that was good enough to share.

Wow, I want this! But I don’t have any googly eyes. If only there was a way I could make some…

Gonna tell my kids this is why the tooth fairy needs their teeth.

Here’s something that took me a while to realize and I haven’t seen mentioned much: check where the start/stop points are on each layer (z-seam) and adjust so that they’re not right on parts of the model that are small or need to be more precise (teeth, threads, hinge bumps, etc). I was having a real hard time with some print-in-place hinges, and the problem was that the layers were starting right near the hinge. The finer details were getting globbed up with the bit of extra filament there. Once I moved the z seam, it printed like a charm.

Let me introduce you to your personal savior, cast iron.

I had a similar problem caused by loose thermistor wiring, similar to what other people here are suggesting. I used an extra zip tie to secure the wire so it doesn’t wiggle during printing, and the issue was fixed for me.

My reading was that the base price is $40/night, and there’s a further discount for dogsitting. This sounds like an amazing deal.

Good luck to you! Let us know if it works out. (If not, just keep that to yourself!)

This is the one I started with; the ui has changed a little since then, but the basic info is still good I think. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXN7TOg3kj4

$12/mo goes a long way toward a mini pc or stick pc. Maybe not the right option for everyone, but it’s been great for our family.

oh, I’ve actually been thinking that people in really dry climates must have a great time; I guess the dry air alone isn’t enough though!

I use FreeCAD for most of my stuff now, but I found it very, very hard until I watched some video tutorials. After a little training, I’m really happy with it. I tried OpenSCAD, and that can be a really good option depending on your background.

You will also need to choose a slicer, or try some different ones. A lot of people like the prusa slicer, but I’ve never tried it. I started with the cura slicer, and it worked well enough that I haven’t tried anything else. It seems that some people really like the new orca slicer, so that might be a good choice too.

If you can connect a computer to your printer (either raspi, or something else), some software to manage that is definitely helpful. Octoprint is the most popular option, and maybe the only one; so look that up if it’s something you think would be relevant for you. There is also something called Klipper for upgrading your printer’s firmware. Whether or not that’s for a “beginner” depends very much on what their background is, but it’s something to consider if the additional features sound worthwhile.

I don’t know if these are really the kinds of resource suggestions you had in mind though.