August 2022 Meeting

[Stephen Rainsbury]

This was our third full meeting and the discussion ranged well beyond the planned 90 minutes.  We discusses a variety of topics, Tom Alexander showed us some of his work and we were able to compare notes and best practice. The major topics are listed below.

Links to the software mentioned below can be found on the society forum 3D sig section. https://www.009society.com/forum/index.php?board=47.0
3D model library

One of the original aims of this SIG was to set up a library for members to share 3D printable design files. After consideration of several options we decided upon setting up a group called "009 Special Interest Group" on Thingiverse one of the largest public domain libraries.

Only members of the group can upload files, but it is public domain so we can invite members from outside the society to contribute.  I will be contacting some of the key players over the next few weeks to see if they would be happy to contribute their work.
Link via society forum.
Octoprint
Tom Alexander demonstrated a system called "Octoprint" which is based on a Raspberry Pi single board computer. This will allow the user to sent files to their printer via WiFi rather that relying on SD cards, and optionally monitor the print using a camera module or web cam. It also includes the option to record how much filament you have used from a number of spools, which files you have printed and keep a back up copy for printing again later.
Another option of great interest to finer scale modellers is a plug in module called "Arc-Welder" which can smooth curves from a series of short straight lines to a more gradual curve.
Printing Figures
Ian McAuly has found a series of programmes on the web "Make Human" that allow you to design and print human figures in a large variety of poses, in almost any scale.
Tim Williams referenced a site "Bypeople" that contains hundreds of suitable scale and very useable figures.
Anther site worth looking at is "Sketch Fab"
These can then be manipulated in Blender to remove parts to make the suitable for installing in rolling stock.
Fault finding
A few weeks ago my Ender3 printer stopped working properly. I showed the problem to the group and received the following suggestions.
Tom Alexander – Change the 1st layer to 90% of normal thickness and speed to 20mm/s

David Jones – Thinks that I need a new extruder, preferably dual gear available from Amazon for around £15 but warned me that they are not all the same and I need the correct one for my printer. After that I will need to recalibrate the whole thing.

Next zoom meeting Sep 28 at 7:30, full details on the Sig section of the forum .