Category : 3D printing

5 posts

202402/12

My style notebook

I am a prolific list maker and idea jotter. I am constantly grabbing a sheet of notebook paper to quickly write my ideas. It gets a bit chaotic with some many pages of half crossed lists laying about. I started thinking that if I could have a smallish notebook with me that I could keep everything in one place.

This idea, like so many others, has been rattling around in my head for a while. Lately I was inspired by an image of a stack of small pamphlet stitched notebooks on Pinterest. That in combination with a Readers Digest Condensed book cover I had in my stash and thinking of the function of a travelers notebook I put the three together to create my own version to better suit my needs.

As I said before, I constantly have papers to jot ideas or work things out visually. Such as this drawing on how I wanted the elastics to work in the spine. Originally I was going to have 3 signatures to my book but after drawing it out I realized that I’d need 4 to have the elastics at the same end of the book.

I used my new book cradle to assist in the binding process.

Mr. G 3D printed and assembled this very sturdy tool for my bookmaking. In the past I’d used an old phonebook for this process with very mixed results.

This book cradle makes it a breeze to accurately make holes in the spine with an awl. The results are perfect.

I added a but of reinforcement to the spine of my gutted Readers Digest Condensed book.

Then used eyelets to reinforce the holes for the elastic cording.

A bit of lace covered the unsightly bits quite nicely. All that was left was assembly. And the glamor shots.

Anyone remember Glamor Shots at the mall circa 1990s? Oh yeah… I have some cringe worthy photos from that place. Faux fur stole and white gloves…geesh. Sorry…ADHD squirrel moment!

The glamor shots…

3D printing | Blog | Creativity

T Tuesday

7 Comments

halleday

201603/01

T Tuesday: WIP edition

I’ve working on painting all of the Settlers of Catan pieces in between playing nursemaid. Mini-me has influenza. I’m beginning to think that Typhoid Mary is camped out in our house.

See those little tiny bits of white in the green hex tiles. Those are teeny tiny sheep..complete with black faces. I have to take off my glasses and hold the tile a couple inches from my face to see to paint them. BAH!!! Getting older isn’t for the faint of heart.

The attention to detail is worth it in the end though. Once I get all the pieces completed, we’ll decide in the border color for all the tiles. It must be consistent throughout the tiles. I’m leaning towards a cream to taupe tone so that the paint job on each will really pop.

I also have to share this Model T Mr. G printed. He had to modify the original CAD file as it wasn’t going to print correctly. He designed the wheels, axle pieces and the mounts for the axles.

The penny is for scale. This is for a history presentation J is doing today. He and his partner thought a 3D model would add some punch to their project.

Time for a bit of tea before some errands and more nursemaid duty. I’ll do my best to get around to visit my T stands for Tuesday friends as soon as I can.

What are you doing today?

3D printing | Blog | Tabletop gaming

3D printer, games, paint, T Tuesday

11 Comments

halleday

201602/22

Jamaica, mon!

Our family enjoys board games especially slightly out of the ordinary board games not made by the typical sources such as Hasbro and Milton Bradley. Most are titles you won’t find at your local discount department store like Target. Heck we’ve even played a game that was totally in German. We borrowed the game from a hobby shop owner who gave us a rough translation of the rules. But I digress…

Recently we played a game from our collection called Jamaica.

It’s basically a racing game that you manage your cargo and occasionally get to battle another player. Strategy and luck both play into the equation.

You keep track of who is “captain” for the turn with this compass piece.

Mr. G found this model of a ships wheel on Thingiverse and thought it might make a great custom edition to the game in place of the chipboard compass. Looks cool but not exactly the right color.

Here’s the wheel in progress, extremely wet with paint. After this completely dried, I sprayed it with walnut ink. I wasn’t sure this was a good choice but what the heck…I live dangerously.

Here’s the completed wheel in play. I sprayed it with a matte spray sealer to protect it from chips and scratches. I tested the durability of it by rubbing it together with the Hand of the King piece I had previously completed. There is no way either object will be as roughly abused as that during regular game play and storage so I think we are good.

I love how the walnut ink settled into the layers of the print giving the appearance of wood grain. So fun!

Currently I’m working on another board game. I had always wanted to make a set of custom tiles for this game but assumed that I’d be scratch building each tiles like I do for miniature terrain pieces. Since the game has 19 tiles…the task was a little daunting. Mr. G is printing the board pieces from files shared on Thingiverse. I am adding custom paint jobs to each piece. More on that project to come…

3D printing | Blog | Tabletop gaming

T Tuesday: no name edition

It’s Tuesday again…time for T stands for Tuesday hosted by Elizabeth. Grab a cup and stay awhile.

The past week is one of those I’d like to forget ever happened. Instead I’m going to talk about some pleasant things like what I’ve been doing with the 3D printed items Mr. G has been creating. There is a fantastic resource out there called Thingiverse. It has CAD files for 3D printing for an ever growing number of things anyone can imagine.

Anyone familiar with Game of Thrones??

Hand of the King…just after I started the sanding process.

a little more smooth…nearly ready to paint.

Did you know that a red base layer makes gold deeper and richer?

What do you think? I think it looks pretty awesome…aw crud… except….

that the photo should have been taken in this orientation. Such as this. DUH!

Oh well…no one is perfect. I blame my everlasting cold virus for my lapse of clear thought.

That’s it for today…more projects to come.

What are you doing today?

3D printing | Blog | Crafts

3D printer, paint, T Tuesday

18 Comments

halleday

201602/15

3D printer..let the fun begin

As soon as 3D printers came out Mr. G has been wanting one. Here it is…fresh from the box. It came with a little yellow octopus that they print with your particular machine before shipping it. And enough filament and the necessary software to print a second slightly varied model.

***FYI–photo heavy post***

I present the finished “roctopus” which it this particular company’s logo/mascot.

It was such a fascinating process to watch.

Next Mr. G moved to the garage and went about printing some calibration units to fine tune the machine…I didn’t document any of that…I got bored. After that process was complete he went about printing a case for the tiny RapsberryPi computer that he has running the machine.

This is the bottom of the case. Amazing isn’t it!!! How a spool of plastic filament can become a 3D object. There is a CAD program involved and a slicing program… I know some of you may be thinking “blah,blah..techie…blah..” but it is a very cool process.

In my next couple posts I’ll be sharing how all this plays into things of an artsy manner as well as super practical things such as….

…gears for the machine itself. All the plastic parts for this 3D printer are…you guessed it….3D printed. WHA?? Super cool. They give the files to create replacement parts with the machine. They recommend that you print certain ones that wear the quickest.

Mr. G also has ideas for household uses…such as the air compressor was in need of a new filter for the air intake…he wanted something more high performance to prolong the life of the compressor itself. He designed this new fitting in a CAD program then printed it out.