3d printable quick relase - spring loaded

It's done!
I managed to design a quick release adapter.
It uses a cloth peg spring for the arm and has a second spring (from ballpoint pens) to keep the arm open until you push down with your camera to lock it in place without touching the lever.

Makibox A6 HT - reliable Slic3r settings?

I may have found reliable setting for the default extruder of the Makibox A6 HT!

It finished several prints from 5 minutes to more then 3 hours without any manual intervention.
Something I haven't seen since I own this printer!
There is some grinding and blockage but only every 1-2 days and for obvious reasons (plastic blobs accumulating in the parking position,...)

Mechanics

Do all the tuning steps. Especially check the stepper motor reference voltages.
Make sure the X and Y axis and the hot end are loose enough to slide without any unusual sounds and nearly no force at all.
Make sure the springy plastic wheel in your extruder can rotate. If not, use a round file to widen the axis holes slightly. I filed a small filament-shaped grove into the surface of the wheel to reduce pressure to the filament.
Oil the trapezoidal rods of X and Y axis, the smooth rods and also the 4 plastic axes of the filament reel holder in the back.
Insert the filament spool into the back of the machine

Make sure the machine is cool (hotend less then 60°C) before you start printing.
Make sure the outside of your nozzle is clean. (Don't care for the hole.)
Always retract the filament until it is completely outside the hot end after printing.
Before starting to actualy print, manually insert the filament until it has overcome the barrier between bowden tube and the actual hot end (there's a slight change in resistance and a noise), then slooooowly go further until you feel the resistance of the plastic hitting the bottom of the extruder.

Basic settings

I started with the default Slic3r profile "A6 General (HT PLA) v0.3" from Makibox.
Then I did the following modifications:

Printer Settings

1. Leave layer height at 0.2mm
2. Leave the first layer height at 150%
3. Speed: Reduce External Perimeter and Perimeter speed to 20mm/s
4. Advanced: Extrusion width of First Layer: 200% 

The first layer needs to stick. So we push out twice as muchfilament as needed, to make sure it does.
The slow perimeters help making round holes round instead of D-shaped.

Filament Settings

1. Increase PLA temperature from 193°C to 218°C
   
2. Leave printer bed temperature at 60°C 

The increased temperature lowers viscosity and thus the force required by the extruder.
Thus reducing filament stalls due to the extruder grinding.
It also makes the first layer stick much better.

Printer Settings

1.  Reduce retraction speed from 70mm/s to 25mm/s
   
2. Reduce the retraction from 4mm to 2mm.
3. Increase "minimum travel after retraction" from 2mm to 4mm (At least twice the retraction.)

 Together with the increased temperature this seems to prevent filament stalls due to the extruder grinding.

CAM in FreeCAD progress

I'm making very slow process on porting SimpleMultiAxisCAM to the unfinished FreeCAD CAM2 module. I'm slowly getting a good understanding of how everything works but there are a lot of parts in the CAM module and Geometry classes that I still need to understand. Currently I'm working on it every thursday, when the local hackerspace meets. See here for my plan and status.

More 3d printed camera equipment

I'm finally back to 3d printing and it feels good!

That $300 Makibox is so much more reliable then my old $1225 Thing-O-Matic (notice how the press release says "reliable" and "fully automatic"? My Ass!)!
The Makibox does have filament stalls and sometimes prints are slanted but nowhere near the issues I have with the Makerbot Industries ToM.

So here are the latest things I have designed and made:


A Zoom H6 version of my old Zoom H4n remote control grip for camera rigs....



3d printable quick release plates (including a printed, custom bolt).
Adjusted to be able to still open the battery compartment on the GH2 and GH1 cameras.




I'm currently working on a 3d printed quick release adapter using common cloth peg springs and ballpoint pen springs, new shoulder rig parts and a GoPro version of this quick release plate.

3d printed quick release plates

Actually I finished these on thursday but I wanted to publish them only after I checked them with every tripod and quick release adapter I had.

The nice thing is, that this also fits the Calumet adapters (different edges) and that the cutom bolt is also 3d printed (with a slight rapper to make using a thread-cutter after printing easy).

Of cause everything is parametric, so you can choose between 1/4-20 and 3/8-16 and any depth for the bolt.

I'm currently working on designing the quick release adapter too and to make custom versions of this one (e.g. with a GoPro socket on top, a hot-shoe, a 15mm tails mount or a microphone mount.)

My design sold on Shapeways...but not by me

Aparently some user named "Next Copter" has copied one of my designs.
Version 2 of my GoPro to NERF rail connector including all photos to shapeways.
I'm publishing this design as Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA,
that means NON COMMERCIAL
that means ATTRIBUTION
that means SHARE ALIKE
that means the design, I didn't license the photos at all.

I have already contacted the Shapways abuse department and am waiting for the legal identity of the offender and how many he did sell there.
Then I'll decide about further steps. Update: Shapeways informed me that another copy by a user named "Svenstead" has appeared.