Things posted to Thingiverse

I cleaned up my knob-generating SCAD script and commented the bajeezus out of it, and posted it to Thingiverse, it's thing #11797

I don't even know how many times in the past I've wanted knobs for various projects, but it's hard to find any selection of knobs at hardware stores and if you can find them the prices are just silly. I spent some time on this script because I expect to use it a lot.

Also posted the microphone stand clamp as thing #11802 and as I mentioned in the thing description, the clamp part is a separate SCAD module and is parametric so it could be made to clamp onto any size pipe and included as a part in other things.

Noodling around

I printed the whistle from thingiverse today (2nd revision actually). It works though it's not really a good whistle - it takes a lot of air to blow.

I also printed a new gearset for my second extruder - the first one was a bad design and I did a bad print of it. This is a herringbone gearset and it's really pretty. Also herringbone gears have almost no backlash. I started it about 5 times as I adjusted print parameters. I think I have a pretty decent set of values now and the gearset works quite well. I didn't realize that it was a metric version - it's sized for an M8 bolt. The 5/16 shaft fits fine, there's only about 0.04mm difference there, but the hex cap is quite different size. I dropped in a little JB Weld rather than reprint. Gotta get some more JB weld too. But if I print again I'll grab the SCAD file and regenerate a new STL using SAE 5/16" sizes before printing.

I will try the printed plastidrive soon, either tomorrow or this weekend.

I also found that someone has already posted a clone of the Manfrotto quick release plate that I was thinking about whipping up. I could use a couple more plates so I can just leave them on all my equipment, but I've never bought them because they're $20 each at the cheapest places I can find. A printed plastic one will not be quite as sturdy as the Manfrotto cast aluminum ones; I'll see how good they are. I may actually design a new one because the one on thingiverse doesn't have a recess for an e-clip to make the bolt captive.

I also got the XLR connectors that are the standard for power, so I can eventually clean that up, and some new Kapton tape, this is 50mm wide so it will take half the strips to cover my glass. I wish the TO-220 heat sinks would arrive, I want to design and print an electronics enclosure but I can't until I know how big the heat sinks are. There's already a beautiful enclosure up on Thingiverse including a variant with a ventilation fan, but I don't know if the heat sink will fit in it.

I also discovered that HandBrake will convert my camcorder's MTS output files into passable XVID AVIs that can be uploaded to YouTube pretty well. The quality takes a hit but at least it doesn't take 8 hours to upload a 13 minute video (as it would if I uploaded the raw MTS). I get outstanding quality if I do upload the MTS but it's not feasible for most video.

So I uploaded the Chelsea High School Band at the Band Expo from last night. Tom plays tuba in this band.

I'm also getting nostalgic because the glass I got from AS&S came with their printed catalog. I haven't seen one of those in years and it's going to be bedtime reading for a few days.