James Glover Genius Hour Blog

      Another full week of printing! I'm pretty sure I printed something everyday. I guess I am considering this a hobby now. I never thought that I would be able to figure out how to use 3D software before this project, let alone use it to print something that I needed. I found that a lot of my focus this week has been on this project, i think because I am enjoying every step of it and it feels very rewarding to me. I have been enjoying being able to think of something I have needed, put together a design, and then let it come to life on the printer.      I had a few challenges with the project though. One being figuring out the in-depth settings of different print temperatures, layer heights, materials, and machine calibration. I only had one failed print this week because of settings but I am loving the learning process because now I know what to do for future print settings. Printing time was another challenge as most prints for me and my machine took m...

     This week I got my printer and got it all set up. I was too excited for this! After going through the manual and a bunch of videos on what to do first when you get a new machine, I did a test print on a file that the machine was sent with. It was so fun to watch it go from nothing to something. It turned out pretty good, to me anyway.       Next up was my project, the book holder. According to the software it said it would take at least 18 hours to print. I had to wait until I could supervise it for a bit before I left it alone for the night. I started it and I could not stop watching it as it was growing. It is so cool how my idea was finally coming to life. It turns out it takes longer than it says though, it took almost 30 hours to print! It was still worth the wait, and to me it looks great. It works great too, my book does not fold in on itself now when I'm taking notes. The total cost of it, not including the machine, was 50 cents. I can onl...