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This is a 1-hour version of the weekly podcast for This Week in Amateur Radio....

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You have an old radio — in the case of [The Radio Mechanic], a Stromberg...

We’ll admit to not fully knowing what [Jay Doscher] has planned for the pair of...

[Alex R2AUK] has been busy creating version two of a homebrew all-band ham radio transceiver. The...

Way back in January 2018, I had a goal to “3D print an electronics project case”.  I had enrolled in a SolidWorks class at my local community college to learn 3D modeling.  Sadly I didn’t complete it, and it remained a goal of mine for several years until I decided to move on to something I might actually finish.

There were a couple of reasons for not completing the goal.  The first was a life-threatening illness that left me pretty weak and unable to complete the class I was taking.  The second was that the 3D printer I had was more of a toy than a tool, and it was rarely able to print anything successfully.

Even though I didn’t list it as a goal for 2024, I had a growing itch, and decided to replace my original toy printer with a FLASHFORGE Adventurer 5M Pro.  The big steps up were a heated platform and full enclosure that allows for better thermal management.  In addition, it is blazingly fast, by about a factor of 16, compared to what consumer printers were capable of back in 2018.  No longer a toy, this is a tool for a maker.

I’m happy to report that after six years, I have finally completed the goal, 3D printing two parts to make an enclosure  for a 3.5″ LCD display and an ESP32 processor. I guess I will count this as a “wildcard” replacing any project I don’t complete in 2024.

 

Winter always brings a desire to do projects of some sort.  In fact, throughout the rest of the year, I tend to acquire parts for small projects with the hopes of finishing them during the cold, dark, snowy New England nights.  (Perhaps I haven’t been successful for a few years due to climate change – winter in New England is no longer horrible and coma inducing).

I found myself soldering a few 0.1″ connectors onto an Adafruit Feather board a couple of days ago.  It was likely the first time I’ve used a soldering iron in a couple of years.  While my age has brought on hand tremors, I did manage to get things properly soldered by using sandbags to support my wrist and hands.  It took about 15 times longer than it would have a decade ago, but I got it done.

One thing leads to another, and with the Feather board working, it now required something to put it in.  I had purchased a low-end 3D printer about six years ago, a da Vinci mini W.  It was enough to wet my interest in 3D modeling, and enabled me to take a class in SolidWorks at my local community college (hint – college students get a free license to SolidWorks that is good for 4 years, and the class fee is MUCH lower than what a one year license costs).  Anyway, I fired up the printer to attempt to print a case.  It was a disaster from start to end, but sort of a fun way to spend a cold afternoon.

The printer hadn’t been used in 5 years, and the same PLA filament sat in the machine all that time, becoming brittle with age and full of moisture.  With cleaning and some fiddling, it did spit out some string, and were it not for the cold conditions of the basement where it resides, it might have worked.

What did happen, when I tried printing the cover, was badly warped, as the material pulled off the Kapton tape, and even managed to pull the tape off the platform.

I thought I was going mad today. I wanted to print some rails for the FT817 and I already had the sliced files on the SD card in the 3D printer. I selected the first (there are two, one is a mirror of the other) and told it to print. Nothing. Reset the printer and tried again. Nothing. Opening the SD card on the Mac showed the file to be 0 bytes, which is certainly was not as I had printed it before. Ok, copy it again and try again. Nothing!

Right. Delete all the files on the SD card – I have them all on the Mac anyway. Copy just the files for the rails across and try again.

Nothing!

Looking at the SD card via a terminal window – I must admit to be my favourite UI – it was full of all sorts of junk. Going duff perhaps? Ok, use a recycled 8Gb micro-SD in a holder, delete all the files currently on it, copy the rails across and try that. Ah, the files did not delete so it’s full of old junk and I can’t spot the files to print. Back to the Mac. Tried 3 times with different holders to delete all the files on this micro-SD and each time unmounting and re-mounting it showed they were all still there. That micro-SD is in the bin now.

Right! Use another micro-SD, delete all the old files, copy just the two gcode files across and …. it’s printing!

Wow.

When I started off in the 3D Printing world in November of ’22, I knew it would be neat to be able to print trinkets here and there, or maybe a Telescope or two. But to be able to help a neighbor in a bind? I didn’t expect that. On Tuesday I saw a request …

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The post 3D Printing Saves A Neighbors Day appeared first on MiscDotGeek.

Over on Substack, an introduction to backplane design, which will be the main mechanical element of Project Yamhill. Click on the image below to check it out: Thanks again for your patience as I post here to bring attention to my new endeavor.

Hey everyone, I’m very sorry for the long absence. It’s been a while since I’ve written, and so much has changed. In August, I took my 1988 Suburban, loaded it up with a 12 foot UHaul trailer, and dragged all my belongings from rural Western Washington to rural Western Nevada, about 30 miles from Reno. …

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The post Fall/Winter 2022 Update… Let the 3d Printing Begin! appeared first on MiscDotGeek.

I’ve had a 3D printer for some time now and I’ve been experimenting with various settings, filaments and prints. I’ve got to a point where I’m happy with the results and am pleased to announce a new product line of 3D printed items for the Amateur Radio and Shortwave Listener hobby. The first of my …

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