Getting stuff indoors done.

Winter makes staying indoors, the more enjoyable choice. Been using the time to catch up on projects and cleaning our “problem” projects. Notably, two. The Robo 3d R1 printer and the laser engraver.

The 3D printer hasn’t wanted to print, no matter what I’ve tried. Pretty sure I had a post a while back on the subject. Starting testing it again, before it went to dump, reading posts for people having similar issue. Turns out it was my “new” filament that had gotten “damp” and needed to be dried. Crazy. So I bought new filament, the first in years. It came vacuum sealed.. And the Robo worked on the first try, I was amazed. Then started researching “damp filament”, found out you can get little heaters that dry out the filament. Again, amazing.

Purchased a little filament drier found on eBay for less than $50. Let it run for a few hours (12 hours to be exact), and FANTASTIC. Filament I haven’t been able to print with EVER, worked perfectly fine. So notch one up for the Internet. One Fix, Fixed.

The other project was moving my xTool M1, into my office and creating a venting system so my office and my house doesn’t fill with smoke. Even added power switches for both the blower and the Air Assist system. Did a few tests print and it works great.

Weekend well spent!

xTool M1 Laser

Having used laser engravers, or laser tools in the past, I wanted to get back into it. Having blown my laser tube in my old Chinese laser engraver (40 watt), and finding it cost almost as much as a new laser cutter for a new tube I held off buying a replacement. Found the M1 on ebay as a refurb, for almost half off, I jumped at it. Then spent $$ for the add-ons. Even with 10 watts, and easy to use software, it if very useful.

The Chinese engraver, required a thumb drive with their software to operate, and it was poorly translated to english. At least parts of it, a great deal of the software was still only in Chinese. It was usable, with a fight. Plus it required cool water to keep the tube cool. My mistake was forgetting about checking the water before use, after a nights freeze. So ice in tube, not good.

The xTool Creative Software, has its limits, not as much control as I was used to, but more than enough to get the job done. I am hoping they add features. OH and the software is Free, no thumb drive key.

The built in camera is a huge plus, I mean HUGE. Makes alignment and reusing scrapes much easier.

Looking into upgrading it to a higher power laser, which would cut down on the number of times I have to cut over the same time. Translation, faster printing.

Haven’t use the rotary, or the air assist. But I’ll get there.

Right now I am making project boxes for Raspberry Pi Pico projects, very handy tool for that.