HMSwolfe’s 3D Printed Custom Blasters thread - Free Files

Yeah, the side greebles look great! And...I know we don't really get a vote but I liked the fantail and think you should put it back. It may have made it look less Star Wars, but it was cool.

I must have missed it, but will you be printing these?
 
3D print is the eventual plan, although I’m not quite sure when that might happen. As a college student, prop-making is not a very high financial priority, I’m afraid. Not to mention, most local places around here that do 3D printing have strict “no firearms” policies, including props and replicas. I suppose if I were more confident in my scratch-building skills, I could make them out of styrene or PVC plastic.

I may consider doing an alternate version with the fantail back at some point.
 
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The printer arrived! Now the tedious task of overcoming the learning curve, getting it set up correctly, and then attempting to print one of these
 
Haha, nope. Crapped out at about three hours in. Good thing I was sitting next to it, or I would have wasted a lot of filament. It started printing about an inch and a half to two inches off. Not sure why. I’ll try another small test print or two, and see what’s going on.
 
After dinging and scratching the crap out of the magnetic bed cover that came with the printer, I realized two things. One: apparently the makers intended for me to place a layer of painters tape over the bed before printing anything, not that any sort of instructions were included with the product itself. And two: I just scratched and folded the heck out of mine, so I need a new one. I ordered one of their glass replacement ones through Amazon, so hopefully late next week I'll actually have something to post here other than the woes of a novice 3D printer.

Also, I realized I have less space on the print bed than I previously thought, as each piece prints a skirt or base about half a centimeter wider than the piece itself. Which means I have to be more careful about positioning things.
 
A lot of tinkering, adjusting, and belt-tightening later, and I think I have a test print working that isn’t experiencing the layer shift I had a problem with. I’m hoping to be able to show the raw print of one of these blasters by the weekend? Fingers crossed.
 
Six hours into my test print, and everything’s looking peachy. I think you can expect to see one of these blasters in raw 3D print by Saturday or Sunday.
 
I now believe that my printer may have a software bug. It has shifted the layers at almost the same time for three attempts at this print now. I have tightened the appropriate belts and when I pressed “auto home”, the extruder made a concerning noise, as though it wanted to keep moving to the left after it had already reached the edge. I frankly am not sure where else to look for help, other than the Ender 3 Pro subreddit, where I have posted my problem, so it looks like this might be on hold again for the time being.
 
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Is it premature to post this picture, knowing the print could still fail? Yes.

Is that going to stop me from posting it? Not at all.

65% printed, and things seem to be going smoothly.
 
Well, if the long (very long, I’m now seeing) absence didn’t key you in, the last print failed as well. I got very disheartened, and the printer sat in a closet for over a year. Yesterday I decided I’d dig it out and give it another go, troubleshooting all along the way.
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And, to my astonishment, it mostly worked.
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I mean, this was really just a test print from a thingiverse file, so it’s undersized and inaccurate, but it is printed. So I’ll likely try the blasters again soon. Fingers crossed!
 
What Is This GIF


What is this, a grail for ants?

Good on you for digging the printer out and playing around with it again. My printer sat unused for about 6 months, but for the last couple I've been using it a lot more. I am very much still learning, particularly when it comes to printing detailed things, but eventually you solve enough problems to sort of know what you're doing.
 

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