I have an odd problem with using Autodesk Print Studio. It uses a completely different approach to supports to Cura, and also allows you to easily slice bits of badly designed parts and print them as multiple items for gluing together.

The problem is that when it starts a print it goes down on the z-axis flat out, and can stall the steppers (perhaps I need to up the current a bit?) There's no dedicated setting for z-speed, so I can't slow it down without slowing down the whole print process.

When this happens the two Z-axis steppers can get slightly out of synch, upsetting the carefully done bed levelling.

So, I thought, I'll stick a little pointer on top of each z-axis screw so I can easily see if the two steppers are, ahem, in step.

Then I had a better idea, grabbed an STL of thingiverse, added a 5mm hole in Turbocad and…

Hopefully, by their vigilance at all points of the compass they will also keep the three evil spirits of poor bed adhesion, combing and filament stripping at bay!

It's been done, but to be honest the skulls have now shown me that the two steppers DON'T get out of step when they stall.

Also, the skulls are much more fun

I wish I could find a setting to stop this as it affects about 1 in 3 print runs, but never happens with Cura. At leats it always happens in the first few seconds, not 8 hours in!

Yes, Marlin-based firmware, at least it works fine using Ultimaker settings in other programs as well a the custom ones that came for Cura. Cura has some really good points, like 'invisible' and very effective repairs, but the only slice it does is to let you 'sink' the model into the baseplate, autodesk lets you have much more control and do multiple slices. I am just getting the knack of using Turbocad to edit STLs. The latest version of Cura has lots of bells and whistles but seems to have lost even the 'sink' option.

Still making baby-steps with g-code. It's probably the most unpleasant programming language aside from the ones written to be deliberately obscure. I found controlling a dot-matrix printer with escape codes easier!

Big challenge for me now is to find a few more 'engineering' projects to prove the usefulness of 3D printing.

Neil

Indeed you are right.

I've come up with a few ideas, one of them will be in the next Ed's Bench, another is a remote on/off switch for the ATX power supply, which Stub Mandrel has put on Thingiverse.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2339808

Neil