QC Chemist

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  • 16 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • I find that being able to sketch up things I need in CAD and then print them is both cool and really useful. It’s the main reason I bought a printer in the first place. Thus far I’ve tried out FreeCAD, Solid Edge, and Blender. With any modeling package, you will have to dedicate time on a regular basis to really get used to them. FreeCAD is certainly nice for the fact it’s free, just as it implies. I used it to design a few parts that were functional. It works, has some useful workbenches and add-ons. My problems were the software having bugs that caused models to break when trying to make changes, and available training info was often outdated. Siemens offers a free version of Solid Edge to makers, which is really nice, even with some of the advanced features turned off. It’s a much more polished program with great training resources. You can only export designs as stl files, but that’s fine for 3d printing. Solid Edge will slice and print, but I always import files into Orca and go from there. Blender looks really amazing for modeling, but I admit I haven’t spent enough time learning it yet. You can use it to manipulate meshes, which is useful for customizing and fixing models. I’ve used it to Frankenstein together different models for custom prints I wanted. But yeah, while you don’t have to learn to use modeling software to do prints, it opens up so many options for you to be creative. I think it’s worth while.











  • I’m going to make the assumption that is PETG you are working with. I had cobwebs like that when I tried moving over from doing PLA. There were a few things I had to work out to get better prints.

    1. Slow down the print speed and work up once you get acceptable prints. Try 40 to 50mm/s to start.
    2. Increase filament retraction. Default I think is like 0.2mm, try 1.0mm instead.
    3. Increase the travel speed. I’ve used 350mm/s, which helps break strings, as someone else already suggested.
    4. Drop the extruder temperature. PETG gets more stringy as it gets hotter. Lower temp may help, and if you aren’t trying to print at warp speed, bonding should still be good. Do small test prints to see where your cutoff is. Also, if the cooling fan on that Sovol is a bit anemic then printing cooler lets each layer solidify before the next one gets added. Hopefully you get things worked out, good luck.



  • Yup, Michigan originally. Hash browns were certainly a good addition. My mom would make casseroles to use up extras in the fridge, and it seemed pretty common with my friends’ families as well. She would also do bread pudding, which is like a baked french toast. Lots of bread, eggs, cinnamon and nutmeg, and raisins. Would warm up a piece and eat with maple syrup for breakfast.



  • My family used to make breakfast casseroles. A dozen eggs, crumbled cooked sausage, cheddar cheese, and bread cut into cubes. Beat eggs together with a little milk, salt and pepper. Pour over the bread cubes and sausage mixed together in a large glass dish. Sprinkle cheese on top, and bake at 325F until done. You can also add onion and peppers, or whatever sounds good. Sorry, don’t exactly have a recipe, would just throw together whatever we had around. It was a good way of using up lots of eggs, and it could be cut up and frozen for breakfasts for the week.