wash station part 2 and new mouse.

So the wash station seems to be doing a great job of processing the prints. Unfortunately I am just having some issues with my printer now. Theses test skulls printed really well but then when I went to print something else it all went to shit (story for another post).  I am seriously thinking about buying a new machine. I haven't given up on it yet, I am sure it is just a couple settings that I have wrong. From what I can tell it LOVES small organic detailed objects but if you try and print a smooth geometric objects like for example a small box it really shits the bed.  So for me with all of these zbrush rings it will print these things all day no problem.  I got a commission that I am struggling with because it just wont print it. 

So in short order below, here are the things I did this week:

I have not yet hooked up the laser cutter so I have been experimenting with the FDM machine.  I made a playing card holder. I use these plastic cards to dredge the tray on the resin printer and I needed to make something were I can grab one card with gloves on.  Also I made a branding stamp, which sort of worked.  I think it needs some help.  I might glue some felt to it? 

We are also starting a new house project this week. We are building a deck.  We have a small concrete pad near the house. It is about big enough for two people and a bucket.  So we decided that we would build a nice deck off the side of the garage. The grass doesn't grow in this part of the yard so I am happy to cover it all up!

Liz and I have been having some adventures every weekend. This weekend we went to our favorite farm to do some good old apple picking.  

I also had to replace a printer cable ribbon on the solidscape at work.  Not my favorite thing for sure but it solved our short in our print head. The company walked me through it. I am convinced that these things were never meant for adult hands to fit into.  Lots of tweezers and poking around to get the cable fished through the back of the machine.  Ugh. It is almost like they never expect these things to break. 

I bought a new mouse to help with some recent wrist pain. I will have to report back to see if it is working. It is vertical so in theory at the very least if should cause some muscle confusion. 

We have continued our baking adventures and made some KILLER focaccia. I can't take any of the credit it was all Liz this time. It is so unbelievably good!! I have to stop myself from eating all of it.

I can't bring myself to think about how shitty things are this year. RBG dying was a kick in the nuts, while we were all already down and out. I am seriously full on yelling at the news now. I often have to just turn it off. I feel oh so incredibly lucky that my circumstances have sheltered me from most of what is happening in the world. Very soon I hope to contribute more by donating proceeds from my CAD workshops and starting a sale soon.  Part of creating the stamp was to try and make some custom boxes to do some fundraising.  More on that soon. 

 

More exciting things happening

I find myself with way more things to do now that I am not teaching and I am on a little break from the workshops.  I have been trying not to spend too much time on social media.  As a matter of fact, I am pretty sure I am going to cancel my personal facebook account and maybe only have my artist account.  Since my father passed away a number of years ago, the people who were connected to him have been activated on facebook. I am not sure if they know what social media is let alone how it could be useful instead they post hate-speach and misinformation (radical right wing nonsense).  I have tried to engage a number of times with them "Hey I know you, what are you being this way?" Well much like telling my wife to relax, its like throwing gasoline onto a fire!  So instead of wasting time with them I am now removing them from my life, along with all the other nonsense on facebook.  So if you need me I will be here, on instagram OR on twitch!  https://www.twitch.tv/arthurhash

So a couple of updates!  First we are launching another round of Rhino workshops the intro is almost sold out! https://courses.thebenchri.com/  Before that starts up I have been trying frantically to get the studio setup for some free lance modeling jobs I have coming up. So the 3D printer has been a priority. This will be the first time I am using the wash station!  

Also, last week is was my birthday and it was amazing. So much love. A good pal of mine sent me some truffles from the milk bar! (Loring you son of a bitch! I almost ate a whole box by myself!)  Liz bought me a canoe! I made myself a gorilla ring, I got some fancy to-go cocktails form ISCO spirits and there was an awesome zoom gathering!!!

Oh man.  So much love! Thank you everyone!

Work has been crazy busy!  Its like the holiday season is happening now! I am literally cranking out four to fives rings a day!! Bananas! I recently did an insert ring (two bands that receive an engagement ring) and a "copy ring" which is were someone has a ring they love but it is costume jewelry and I have to make it into a "real"  ring. 

We also made pizza and went for a couple hikes here and there. 

Liz has a big virtual event coming up at work https://metalwerx.com/marketplace 

I am going to try and post more.  I should have a store update soon along with some fundraising/auction items for the fires out west, BLM and of course the ACLU.

=

 

ANYCUBIC wash and cure station/hurry up and wait

 

A number of months ago I bought an Anycubic wash station. I think it was on sale for $130. If you read my blog you know that I purchased a Phrozen 4K to try and print some jewelry pieces. While messy it is a great printer.  It has its quirks but for the resolution and price it is hard to beat. As far as I can tell it's direct competition is the Anycubic Photon. While being a lot cheaper but it doesn't come close to the resolution I need for 3D printing parts that require stone setting or fine texture. So when I was shopping around the Phrozen was the one I landed on.  

Now that the studio is all setup I can start setting up my print area again. So far everything with the wash station seems to be working well. It seemed to be packed well. It comes with a couple accessories specific to the Anycubic photon (I will skip those). There is what I will call the "dangler" which allows you to take the platter off the Photon and put it right in the wash station....which is great but unfortunately doesn't fit the screw for the Phorzen platter. I will probably just file it to fit. There is also a dunk basket for larger parts (which will I probably use more often than the dangler until I figure out the dangler) 

From what I can tell it is just a magnetic stir station with a propeller in the bottom of the container. If you take the container out you can put in a small platter that rotates slowly to cure your part. It looks to all be anodized aluminum with parts that neatly nest into place.

So far this is what I like:

• Small foot print: I am printing jewelry so it is perfect size
• You can rinse and cure at the same time: It does one thing at a time. No chance of messing it up
• The cure station will not work if the shroud it off: you wont accidentally zap yourself with UV rays. 
• It is about the same size as the Phorzen 4K: which means the lunch trays that I bought from Amazon will fit under both just incase something leaks when I am not around.

Things I don't like:

• I can't use it yet because there is a shortage of IPA 
• It is a lot of IPA: It is 3500 ml that is almost a gallon of IPA just hanging out
• It came with a spare bearing :This makes me think that might be a problem in the future (maybe this is a pro?)

So there is no happy ending currently.  I don't have a place that I can source IPA.  If anyone has used something else to clean resin parts successfully, please let me know.  Once I start printing (which will be very soon) and find some IPA. I will circle back and post the results. Also I need to buy some gloves and paper towels to process the prints. Who would have thought that a virus would bring resin printing to its knees!