A Failed Experiment with Kraft Paper

After seeing the new Makerbot ABP I was curious about build surfaces.  One that I thought might work was Kraft paper.  It has a similar surface to painters tape is very cheap and could possible allow for a ABP type conveyor.  So I taped some down to my build board and tried printing.

The results with a small part were very good, although the paper seemed to lift up where it was not taped down.

I then tried larger parts where the results were probably usable, however they were VERY warped (although the pictures do not show it very well)...

Still Running Strong

I am still running strong and have started printing Mendel parts again.  I have been using RepSnapper from the beginning and have been very happy with it.  Although there are a few cases where it will crash while slicing (usually because of strange geometry, but I have not determined exactly why.)

I have not decided what I will do with my set of Mendel parts once they are printed but I am about 75% complete on a full set of parts.

Printing with PLA again!!!

Clear PLA illuminated with a red laser

More progress was made today when I managed to find settings to print again in PLA.  I had to turn the temperature up to 220°C (which I thought I tried before to no avail...).

 After getting the temperature tuned in I adjusted the feed speed, material width, & layer thickness.

And I am back to results close to what I had before the heater failure...

Printing Again!!!

Now that my brothers wedding is over and I have caught up on things that fell to the side, I have had some time to start printing again.  Since I was having some trouble with PLA before and some luck with ABS I thought I would work with the ABS for a while and see how things were working before trying to figure the PLA out.  The part I tested on was something I have been thinking about since I got my new Droid X.  The speaker is on the back and it does not carry the sound to the front very well, also I thought it would be nice to have a stand for it.  So I designed a dual purpose stand/sound director. (my first useful, non-reprap related, design.)

Here you can see the inlet hole for the sound (lower left)

A test print to check the fit on the phone (you can see the sound path)

24min 40sec to print

My first test print (slot for phone was too small and I had a de-lamination toward the bottom)

As you can see I am currently printing very well with ABS.  I could tune it in a little better but I am pleased with the results (especially with no heated bed...)

I think I may print a few more parts with ABS then go back to PLA and see if I can work out the bugs.