Fusion - Turn a Mesh into a regular Solid Body

3D Printing + Fusion

I've seen several videos and explanations that make little sense, no longer work, or only work in commercial versions.

But... the following method (mostly and often) works (for now).

Fire Resistant / Flame Retardant / Self-Extinguishing / Non-Flammable Filament

3D Printing + FR Filaments

In the past I've printed some small housings for electronics. Most hobbyists do, and most of the time we're not considering how flammable (printed) filament can be.

I've gathered a few illustrative videos, as well as a list of materials and possible (Dutch) sources. This may lead to a little investigation into the flammability of filament. I might turn it into a YouTube video, yeah! (Pfffff 🙄)

Am I Passive Aggressive? Or just a Slimy Baboon?

Column

The Internet is a weird place. It has allowed people a kind of freedom, a place to express themselves in ways that were never possible before.

On the other hand, its (perceived) anonymity is often used as an excuse to attack every person who has a different opinion.

One of the weapons used is (claiming someone is being) Passive Aggressive. But what does that actually mean? That I'm a baboon?

3D Smell... 3D Printing & Air Quality

3D Printing + Air Quality + Carbonmax + Filtermax

The smelly smell of smell...

Go watch this if you're into 3D Printing (and never considered the dangers): 3D printers are worse than I thought by Made With Layers. That's a good video on air pollution, possible dangerous particles, and gasses, when 3D Printing... (And he has a Fornuftig as well.)

Particles, PLA, PETG, VOC, HEPA, air quality and pollution, non-acid washed Activated Carbon... Things might be more complex than I once thought, and my 3D Printer might not be that harmless... Perhaps.

On an inspired side note:

I took the original Carbonmax and created my own (improved?) FilterMax.

Wallpaper - Who is going to save Humanity? (Part I)

Wallpaper

Can AI save us from aliens, or can aliens save us from AI?

(One day someone is going to make a remake of 'V' that actually becomes a smash hit...)

The cheapest filament ever (round 2)

3D Printing + Cheap Filament

Yesterday I found (what I think is) another reincarnation of SMIC Technologies / Nova Technologies / Thomas Chain Discount Shop / ...

Now, the original SMIC never shipped my order, and I think it's a scam. But I like to be fooled twice...

Plate Lab - Glass Fiber based Building Plates - Part III - Textured Surfaces

3D Printing + Plate Lab

There's surprisingly little understandable explanation of the impact of texture on adhesion and release on print beds... But we can reason it through. (And steal from the real scientists 😇)

Obviously, texture also applies to PEI, Polyurea, and in fact, every other plate!

The cheapest filament ever (or is it a scam?)

3D Printing + Cheap Filament

I'm still waiting for the delivery of my 10 kg PETG... and somehow I doubt I will ever get it.

So, am I being scammed, and will I ever see a refund?

The cheapest filament ever (and where to find product details on orders on AliExpress)

3D Printing + Cheap Filament

Well, there must be cheaper, but this was the cheapest I ever found so far... 10 kilo of PETG, for  5.17 euro per kilogram, including shipping from Spain.

I've ordered it, and it should arrive tomorrow. When checking my order, I found a few interesting details that have me ever so slightly worried... if a. I'll ever going to get it, and b. what the hell is it?

Plate Lab - Glass Fiber based Building Plates - Part II - (Surface) Materials

3D Printing + Plate Lab

For a change this is all about the surface (of building plates, yes, but ain't it great to be superficial for once?)

I've split the previous page in two, as it was starting to confuse myself, and moved all the material stuff in here.

Plate Lab - Glass Fiber based Building Plates - Part I - The Basics

3D Printing + Plate Lab

This is a boring page. Skip it if you don't care about the materials used in your glass fiber / carbon based Building Plate.

Still with me? Okay. Here we go... Remember: everything in this post is about using glass (carbon) fiber based materials as build plates.

Plate Lab - Textured PEI - Bambu and Third Party

3D Printing + Plate Lab

In the beginning 😇 Bambu Lab was shipping the X1C with random plates. These days they all seem to come with the gold colored textured PEI plate (at least here in NL). A sensible thing, as it's one of the easiest to use 😏

Textured PEI doesn't just make sense for Bambu Lab owners... they make sense for every 3D printer with a heated bed.

Plate Lab - Cleaning Building Plates

3D Printing + Plate Lab

How to clean a 3D Printer building plate? It ain't much more than simply cleaning the dishes...

Read more...

Netflix - Rebel Moon 1 & 2

Movie Review + Netflix

Rebel Moon is... a mess. Take Star Wars, add a bit of B-movie stuff like Krull, try to incorporate elements of the different 47 Ronin movies and it's descendants (The Magnificent Seven, Seven Samurai, and even Battle Beyond the Stars).

Next, spend a lot of money on effects, tits, and gross-dom, and call it the 'Director's Cut'...

Fat Miata / Thic Mx-5 - Why Cupholders Make All the Difference

Column + Car + MX-5 + Wallpaper

People complain my Mazda MX-5 NC2 is fat.

Let me be clear. I'm fat. My car isn't.

Read more...

Plate Lab - PEY and relatives - All the holographic stuff

3D Printing + Plate Lab

To be honest, I don't own a single one of those PEO / PEY 'holographic' plates, except the 'PET Carbon' one. Which a. isn't made of carbon, and b. has some very minor texture to it (though I can't feel it). And c. This page is pretty useless 🤣

Read more...

Disney+ - Shogun 2024 - Season 1

Series Review + Shogun + Disney+

I doubt we'll ever get a second season, and it isn't necessary. And though I've read the book, the ending was still... somewhat unexpected.

The story is complete, the show is done after 10 episodes, and my verdict is short and simple: it's a great watch, all ten episodes long. 

Plate Lab - Bigtreetech Panda Dual Textured SSS building plate (black)

3D Printing + Plate Lab

Bigtreetech sells a number of products aimed at the Bambu Lab printers, all using the Panda moniker. Marketing-wise it's a great idea. Product-wise the SSS plate is a bit of a disaster.

It looks like PEI (but only at first glance). It isn't though. It might be epoxy, some other unholy coating, or it might be a kind of truck bedliner / oily paint.

Nobody knows, including Bigtreetech.

Wallpaper - Dear Author... (Too Close for Comfort)

Wallpaper

Found this on Penny Arcade, which is either a complete miss, or a spot-on hit. This one goes into the latter category... How does it feel to be an aspiring author?

Plate Lab - X1C Aruco codes and all Bambu Lab plates

3D Printing + Plate Lab

The Bambu Lab X1C has an interesting option. It looks for a marker on the building plate, and warns you if the plate inserted does not match the one you've used during slicing. Pretty convenient, isn't it?

The P1S and P1P don't use this code, and many cheaper build plates don't have a code. So what to do?

Anne McCaffrey - The ship who sang / Partner-ship / The city who fought / ...

Book Review

I never know what to think of Anne McAffrey. She has an easy going writing style, and I like her characters and ideas, but I feel some of the stories are simply not challenging enough, and with that I mean it is almost like the author isn't challenging herself.

Still, The ship who sang is a scifi classic.

A Bambu X1 with racing stripes?

3D Printing

Just some ideas to ponder over...

What if I would replace the right panel of my X1C with a custom build, so I could add carbon and Hepa filters to the box? In other words, enlarge the chamber a little, so I won't have a Carbonmax inside the building space?

Plate Lab - Building Plates Letter Soup - From Engineering to PEI to PEZ to Lightyear to Garolite to FR4...

3D Printing + Plate Lab

Engineering High Temperature Smooth Textured PEI PEX PEZ PEY Cryogrip SSS Polyurea FR4 GS10 TK99 Honeycomb Cube Wham Bam Lightyear...

My god! It's enough to drive one crazy! So, I've ordered a few different ones, and have been scouring the Internet for more information. And to be perfectly honest: it's a confusing mess.

Bambu Lab X1C - ABS Workout - The Sequel

3D Printing + Kupper + ABS

After my aborted first attempt I settled for a single block with slightly different settings... These are the results. Remember: my settings came from trying to print the toughest object in ABS (for my Sunlu mod), not trying to make the prettiest print...

Dremel 3D20 - Weird noises (Extruder skipping?)

3D Printing + Dremel 3D20

My old Dremel 3D20 has started making some weird noises. It only does so when extruding infill, ie. when high speed extrusion and high speed movement is required. I tightened all the screws, and that didn't fix things, so now I suspect it is the extruder.

Not that I'm looking forward to to taking the thing apart...

Nick Jones - Joseph Brideman 1 - And Then She Vanished

Audiobook Review

I never heard of either the author, nor the Joseph Bridgeman series, but apparently the latter is popular enough to have made it into 4 books by know, published in 2021 and 2022 (according to Goodreads).

And Then She Vanished is time travel, but a bit different, with some genetically defined time travel superpower thrown in. Kinda.

Bambu Lab X1C - ABS Workout - First Stage

3D Printing + Kupper + ABS

Let's see if I got ABS down now. Three large blocks, 60% speed, in ABS. Print time: 14 hours. And it's on...

I mean, what could go wrong?

Old (PLA) filament - What to do with it?

3D Printing + Old filament + PLA Filament

My Sunlu S1 mods have been partially successful, and I guess I'll have to consider a DIY solution using Peltiers to move to the next level... Though that one is still in the 'idea phase' 😇

Next challenge / experiment: what to do with old filament, and how to make sure it will last longer?

Filament drying - Temperatures and Time

3D Printing + Filament Dryer

I've compiled some numbers. Make sure to check your filament specifications - do not rely on my data!

The Excel file is here and may be more up-to-date than the table below.

Peltier filament droger concept - Gebruik de warmte EN de koude om filament te drogen (Dutch)

3D Printing + Filament dryer + Dutch

Een idee wat ik heb, maar geen idee of het gaat werken...

Gebruik de WARMTE van een Peltier element om het filament te verwarmen, en de KOUDE om de lucht te ontvochtigen.

Sunlu S1 Mod - Second (more challenging) ABS print on my Bambu X1C

3D Printing + Sunlu S1 Mod

I'm trying to mod my Sunlu S1 with a design of my own, which also offers me a challenge to better understand Fusion 360, the Bambu X1C, and printing in ABS. And if it all works out I should end up with an enhanced filament dryer, so win-win.

If it works...

Sunlu S1 Mod - First (real) ABS print on my Bambu X1C / Jupiter ABS Filament settings

3D Printing + Sunlu S1 Mod + ABS Filament

Time to go to bed, but first share an image of the bottom section, this time printed in ABS. The first attempt warped a bit, but the second try was a lot better.

Sunlu S1 Mod - Preliminary design and test print

3D Printing + Sunlu S1 Mod

This is a work in progress. This is going to be a modification of the Sunlu S1, based on the 'Turbo Mod MK2'.

I'm currently printing a prototype using PLA, just to make sure I got all dimensions etc. right, and I still have to design some air valves.

3D Printing Thickness Test - File

3D Printing

I created a small model to better understand wall thickness and slicer behavior versus strength and accuracy, but I never shared the files. So, here they are.

- Click this to download the test files

- A quick reminder (image) of the sizes

Ikea Fornuftig + 3D Printer

3D Printing + Air Quality + Ikea

In the past I used a Dremel 3D20, and when printing PLA the whole room started to smell... which can't be good. These days I am the proud owner of a Bambu Lab X1C, and I plan to print ABS and PETG, and the one little test print I made smells, even though the X1C has a filter inside the enclosure.

Is that dangerous?

Bambu Lab X1C - Print Chamber Temperature

3D Printing + X1C + Chamber Temperature

Not directly related, but when I was looking into drying temperatures and build plate temperatures I also noticed building chamber temperatures. It's one of the aspects of the X1C where could have been just a tiny little bit better.

It has caused many people to mod their machines, with varying degrees of success...

Space Elevator

Just visit this page. It's simply fun (and impressive and educational, but who cares)...

https://neal.fun/space-elevator/ 

Sharing Touch Portal settings between two PCs

Datatalk + Touch Portal

Though Touch Portal has its own backup mechanism and you can use that to share settings it does take a few clicks and a bit of attention. When you quickly want to share stuff that's not what you want.

I created a few batch files and two buttons to speed things up. Here's my approach.

Netflix - Atlas

Movie Review + Netflix

J-Lo and Netlifx at it again. After the by-the-numbers (but still watchable) The Mother here's another Lopez flick, and this time she's venturing into Science Fiction territories.

In a nutshell: young girl watches her mother and half the world killed by an AI developed by that same mother, and returns to the fight 28 years later, having to overcome her fear of AI.

Roadtrip 2024 - Gratis (?) routes door Frankrijk (Dutch)

Travel + Dutch

Zoals gewoonlijk is dit blog vooral voor eigen gebruik 😁

Ik ben een road trip aan het voorbereiden. Portugal... of toch naar Italie? Ik weet het nog niet, maar als het Portugal wordt, dan is daar Frankrijk met die vervelende tolwegen...

Zijn er ook routes door Frankrijk welke snel genoeg zijn, soms leuker zijn dan de tolweg, en wat minder kosten? En is dat de moeite waard?

MX-5 SmartTop Roof Controller - stress relief for the lazy ones

Car + MX-5

Mods4Cars SmartTop controllers have been around for quite some time. Exemplary of that are the type of connector used (who uses a mini USB these days?!?) - and their website https://www.mods4cars.com/ isn't the most modern one on the world.

On the other hand... who cares as long as the product works? 😇

Nanci Schwartz - Robber Barons 1 / 2 / 3

Audiobook Review

3 books by a debuting author. The series contains three books, and they're... cheap. Yeah. Literally, I mean. (Discounted on Amazon.)

Unfortunately, the price is somewhat a reflection of the quality of the proofreading. Someone should have given some feedback to the author, and that clearly didn't happen.

Replace Head Unit in an MX-5 NC2 (2011) - 5. Installing the Atoto and Accessories

Car + MX-5 + Atoto Head Unit

I opted to take out the Bose head unit from my MX-5 (Miata) and replace it with an Atoto. These are my trials and tribulations getting the Atoto unit to work... (There weren't many, to be fair, except for that rotten security bolt.)

Replace Head Unit in an MX-5 NC2 (2011) - 3. Wiring Diagrams

Car + MX-5 + Atoto Head Unit

When possible I try to understand what I'm doing, and why. That doesn't always work out 😏 but at least I try 😁

This is my first radio install in... well... thirty years? So I grabbed all the diagrams I could find, and tried to understand when I needed SWCs and LOCs, and when not.

Replace Head Unit in an MX-5 NC2 (2011) - 2. Remove Old Head Unit

Car + MX-5 + Atoto Head Unit

There are many instructional (?) videos on the Internet that show you how to remove and install a new head unit in an MX-5 NC (aka Miata MK3.5 etc.). 

Some of those videos are pretty good, many others are terrible and awful 😏 so I decided to write this post as a kind of 'addendum', and answer the questions the videos did not. Obviously this is limited to my own setup!

Replace Head Unit in an MX-5 NC2 (2011) - 1. Parts Required

Car + MX-5 + Atoto Head Unit

The MX-5 is a great car, but the radio Mazda put in isn't very impressive. So I decided to replace mine.

Here are some notes for those trying to do the same thing... I will add some images that identify some of the things that weren't entirely clear in the videos. Let's start with getting the right parts.

Planning Your Holidays / Vacations... and Avoiding the Crowds in Europe

Travel

Overpriced hotels and tourists everywhere. Vacations can be so stressful, especially during the summer months. 

You may simply have no choice with kids and such, but what if you have the option to reschedule your summer holiday?

So... When? That would depend on...

a. Where you want to go

b. What you want to do there

c. All the other idiots having going to the same place at the same time

Resync Video Subtitles

Datatalk + Subtitles

I bought the original set of Farscape DVDs, only to find out they have no Dutch subtitles. Bummer.

Online I found several Dutch subtitles as .srt files, but the timing was wrong. Here's how to fix subtitle synchronization issues...

Kurviger Isn't Just for Motorbikes!

GPX + Travel

I've tried both the MyRoute-app and Tom Tom Go, and they both had their own idiosyncrasies. Time for Kurviger.

This is an app which is intended to - on-the-fly - creation of 'curvy' roads for motorbikes. I'm (trying to) use it as a navigation tool for leisure scenic routes in a convertible. And it works surprisingly well when trying to do exactly that.

GPSBabel

GPX + Travel + GPSBabel

I made an earlier reference to GPSBabel. It's a tool to 'fool around' with some .GPX files.

There is a full manual in PDF available here. or an online version here (lots of ads, unfortunately).