3D Printing

Make your own PCB Tester using acupuncture needles and your 3D printer

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If you are electronic or electronic hobbyist in general, you have probably used testing boards (or probing JICs) on occasion. These are often used to verify electronic boards or directly program them.

There are countless of them, from manual to fully automatic and you can easily buy them in countless online stores. However, our colleague Giuseppe Finizia decided one day to design and print his own completely versatile PCB Tester simply by using acupuncture needles, some cables and his 3D printer, cheaper impossible.

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The STRENGTH of 3D prints REMELTED in SALT

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Everyone is currently talking about 3D prints remelted in salt, but how strong are they really? I printed parts in DasFilament PLA, ESUN PLA+, DasFilament PETG and ESUN ABS, and remelted them in salt. I’ve also been looking at different salt grain sizes and the temperatures that are necessary to properly re-melt the parts. Let’s find out, if we can get 3D prints with the strength of injection molded parts!

Automated Sharpie Support Release Substrate for Desktop 3D Printer Instructions

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A basic instructional video on automating a support release substrate added to print supports by utilizing a sharpie permanent marker. This method avoids a true dual extruder, and additional release filament. An ingenious way to release support material, while maintaining a proper connection to the object all while increasing surface quality with by increasing support! An improvement on the methods of Tumblebeer -(https://hackaday.com/2020/05/27/impro…). Big shout out to all that helped me thing through the software logic, and to those who helped me through the Z script portion (Sharktank72@reddit). Final print towards the end of the video.

A 3D-Printed SCARA Robot Arm That Won’t Break the Bank

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In the world of industrial robots, six-axis models are perhaps what comes to mind. However, SCARA – Selective Compliance Assembly/Articulated Robot Arms – are also quite common, for applications where complicated 3D orientation isn’t needed. While these machines can cost many thousands of dollars, and are normally refined over years of work, YouTuber How To Mechatronics created a version of his own using four NEMA 17 motors and an array of 3D-printed components.

As seen in the video below, the device employs timing belts and pulleys inside the segments for power transmission and gear reduction in the horizontal direction. The Z-axis is driven by another stepper, along with a lead screw, held in place with a series of four rods and linear ball bearings. For the “hand” portion, a servo motor controls an end effector, enabling it to pick and place objects as necessary.

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Ender 3 Bed Level with Dial Indicator

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I attempt to explain how to level the bed of an Ender 3 using a dial indicator from Harbor Freight.

Indicator: https://www.harborfreight.com/1-In-Tr…
Indicator Mount: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:325…

I used a 5 thou feeler gauge. The exact feeler gauge thickness doesn’t really matter because it needs to be appropriate for your printer. You might need more or less to get good adhesion. I’ve since switched back to the regular paper method.

I used this feeler gauge: https://www.mcmaster.com/2334A8

BTT Smart filament sensor guide – Detect filament runout and jams

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Filament runout protection only protects against the filament running out.. There are other situations that create jams and clogs tha will also cause a 3D print to fail. The Bigtreetech smart filament sensor is capable of detecting these problems and saving your prints.

This video is a guide on how to set the sensor up to work flawlessly with Marlin and the factory LCD controller. It also covers how it should work with Octoprint and the BTT TFT touch screens once updates are available.