50's here and very dry. So many brush fires that we even have some help from California firefighters. Leaves on the ground are not helping any.

Buddy have me his old 3d printer. It's frustrating for sure. Ben working 12s a bunch and other days I been tinkering with the printer and keep failing prints. Frustrating for sure.

There is a ton of difference in filament, regardless of what the manufacturer calls a particular filament.

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Happy belated Birthday, Gene!

😎 Dudes...

Top o' the mornin' to you'ze 'uns...

Coffeed up, dog walked and fed. Not much on the agenda today. Resting a sore achilles.

Hello...🙄

Good Tuesday Election Day to All! It's a rainy 70° on the way to 80°. No range trip due to rain. 🤐

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Happy Tuesday fellas

Gentlemen!

Really... this thread has been around for almost a month?

I remember when we idjits would slam one of these 500's in a day or two. [ram27bat]

We got old...🌫 🌫

Speak for yourself, I've been old for some time. 🤐

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Calibrating the printer also makes a huge deal. What model of 3D printer is it?

I have a Bambu A1 mini at home that works very well. Nearly idiot proof. It calibrates itself before every print. You have an option to turn that off to save about 5 minutes of printing time but I just keep it on. The calibration cycle start prior to printing.

It kinda goes like this: the print head goes down and kisses the print plate in 36 different areas so it knows where things are. Say the back corner is a hair higher than the front corner - it adjusts accordingly while it prints. It calibrates itself on the filament extrusion speed so it knows how hot and how fast to feed the filament. It runs all the motors at a variety of speeds and analyses vibrations so it can smooth them out (think noise canceling headphones). I rarely have crappy prints. It even has a video camera that monitors the print and if it's making "spaghetti" it stops printing. I don't use this option. If the print head becomes clogged or if filament runs out and so on, it stops printing and alerts you for for human intervention.

It cost me about $500 for the printer and a 4 filament auto feed unit so I can print a model with up to 4 different color/style/material filaments in a single print. Combining different filament materials in a single print is problems since they have different melting points and stuff (don't want to print a rubbery layer that has to mate with a more stiffer layer).

I typically use PLA or PETG filaments. These are the most common filaments used for most stuff. I buy them on Amazon and have kinda settled on a handful of manufacturers: Bambu, Elegoo, Overture, eSun, Sunlu, Hatchbox, Polymaker, Creality.

At work we have an older Prusa printer. It works OK but it doesn't do all the stuff that my Bambu can do. You need to manually calibrate it periodically which is a pain in the ass. Make an adjustment, print a test plate, tweak the adjustments and repeat until it's kicking out good prints.

Also the slicing software you use plays a role. The slicing software will take your model, the filament type, the printer that your are using and so on... slices this and writes the G-code that your printer needs to tell it what to do.

For slicing software, I use BambuStudio mostly but also use PrusaSlicer. Both are free download and have a big community. They do periodical updates incorporating new options, fixes and upgrades - things that the community wants or fix bugs that the community finds.

My votes are placed in the election, now just have to see how things turn out.

My daughter, still in High school but too young to vote, worked at the polling place near her house. Like 8 AM to 5:30 PM. She signed up for it in a Civics class (I think they have a different word they use for that now). Being a minor, she couldn't do much other than observe, greet people, hand out "I voted" stickers. I encouraged her to do it so she can see first hand one of our great rights (responsibilities) to contribute to the voting process. She liked it. Said it was and interesting experience.

Besides, she got got a day off from school to experience it, got to shoot the $hit with folks, pizza place sent some pizzas for lunch, Dunkin Donuts sent coffee and snacks. They also will pay her her $120 for being a member of the poll workers. I didn't realize they paid minors for being polling observers so that's another plus for her.

When I was young, my parents beat it into our heads (not literally) that you must vote for every election. They didn't care who or what you voted for. You just need to learn the issues and get out to vote. It's an important responsibility that everyone needs to take seriously.

If I were to ask my parents who or what they voted for, their answer would be "None of your business. It's a private matter. You vote for what you want, I'll vote for what I want."

As far as I know, parents wouldn't even tell each other who or what they voted for. They probably voted for much of the same things but your vote is private and does not to be disclosed or shared with anyone if you don't want to. I try to employ that same attitude. Some of my stances and how I vote may be predictable based on my words and behavior but I try not to let the cat out of the bag on how I exactly voted.

On a completely unrelated note. I bought this little battery powered chain saw. Prolly about a 6" bar. Just to prune some limbs, cut some branches and scrap wood for the fire pit and stuff.

Pruned some limbs this past Sunday but while doing so, held one end with the left hand and the mini saw in the other. Then the saw jumped out of the cut and took a couple bites off my left index finger. That ended the limb cutting/pruning exercise.

I only live about 4 blocks away from the local hospital so if I lopped off a finger I might be able to pick it up, toss it on ice then walk down there and ask if they can sew it back on.

Luckily it was just some finger meat that it ripped and no tendons or bones or anything. It maybe could have used a few stitches but I'll mark it up as just a flesh wound.

Once it heals, I can go back to picking my nose and flinging boogers with my left index finger.

Damm! You're lucky, chain saws don't just cut, they remove material.

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Mornin' dudes... coffeed up, time for the puppy dog walk, then off to the gym.

HHD dudes.

Cold! Well, colder than normal 44 only getting up to 68 but sunny anyway. Shorts and a jacket for the early morning walk.

Bucky, I have one of those small saws also. Mine is a Ryobi and it is notorious for jumping out of the cut since it just does not run with enough RPM to make a smooth cut. I only use it for small limbs and such.