Fusion Drive Spaceship Carrying Case Nearing Completion Pt. 3

A few months ago I completed this 3D printed model of a spaceship that I call "Titan".  I am very pleased on how the model turned out.  With this model I also planned on building a carrying case for it as it would be a real disaster if it had been damaged in any way shape or form while I move it from my home to a maker fair.  So I am happy to report that my efforts to complete the carrying case are finally nearing an end.  I thought it best to do a bit of a review of how the carrying case has taken shape so that those of you that have just seen this post can get caught up on my latest project.

The carrying case started with a large piece of foam core and an edging of Styrofoam.  This is used for the base of the carrying case.

Next a short wall of wood was glued into place around the perimeter of the base. 

The upper cover and base construction are completed in this photo. 

All of the corners are one inch foam that gave the carrying case a solid base to work on when I started fiberglassing.

Here the carrying case top cover had been sanded into shape and fiberglassed on the exterior.  The case at this point is  roughly 15 by 15 by 30 inches long. 

The bottom of the base has mounting points for the cradles that will hold the spaceship model securely in place while the case is being moved from place to place. 

Here the interior of the top cover has been fiberglassed and the mountings for the carrying handles have been installed.

Next the outer surfaces of the carrying case were wrapped in Styrofoam strips to match up to the wooden latching mounts that are needed to secure the top cover to the base. 

After the base had been fiberglassed and smoothed out it was time for the first coats of primer so that it could be painting. Sanding and priming over and over to get the surfaces smooth enough to paint were the order of the day.

Once I was happy with the priming on the top cover  I taped off the areas that I did not want to paint white and then sprayed the handle areas and outer bands that would run around the outer surface of the case. 

When the white paint had dried I removed all of the tape and paper from the top of the case to get it ready for the next step in my painting. Already the case is starting to look a lot better than just being in primer.

I taped off the white areas now so that a nice coat or two of red paint could be applied to the case. 

I was surprised to find that the case at this point had turned out better than I had hoped.  Nice and glossy when dry. Always a good sign when working on any project.

An excellent effort if I do say so myself.  I have all of the mounting hardware and holes already set up for the carrying case so it will be an easy task to complete the carrying case when I start the final assembly.  The painting on the carrying case top cover is completed and I will add a small black pin stripe that will be added to put a nice finishing touch to the paint edges where the white and red meet.  

The base for the carrying case will be completed over the weekend and then final assembly can start. The interior of the case will be lined with gray felt and then the mounting of the spaceship cradles, carrying handles, and cover latches will be added.  Lastly I plan on small felt pads to be added to the base of the carrying case to protect the paint on the bottom surfaces when it is in use.   I suspect that the case will show some where over time but that is the purpose of the case in the first place. So I was not overly concerned that the case be in absolutely pristine condition when I completed this project.  Still I think at this point it is far better looking than I had originally planned.  I'll post the more pictures of the carrying case and the spaceship model together once I am happy with the project and I put the final touches to the carrying case. 

Blender 3D Motorcycle Concept and Animation Video

Around a month ago I completed a Blender 3D model of a three wheeled enclosed motorcycle that I had been working on.  One thing that I did not have time to post about is the evolution of the design along with the short animation that I had created for the single seat version of the design.  I had completed the animation but had been away on vacation so I thought I should get this out as soon as I could once I had returned. Thus the reason for this post.  Below is the completed four and a half minute long video that includes the animation.  If you have any suggestions of comments about the design please let me know. I would be happy to hear from you.

I may work on the design more some time in the future to refine it for at least a radio controlled model.  The real thing would be great but a ton of work would need to be done to design and build it properly, safely, and economically.  All issues that would have to be considered for any experimental vehicle like this to be sure.  In the meantime enjoy the video. 

For a larger view of the video select the YouTube icon.

I'm Still Here...... Still Designing And Building

I am sure a lot of you wonder what has happened to me over the past three weeks or better.  Rest assured I am still here and still designing, building, and finally getting back to posting new projects for my blog.  The reason for my absence these past few weeks has been because I have just completed a trip that I promised myself 43 years ago.  I returned to Hawaii after all that time and took a major vacation with my sister who had never been there.  While I was in the Navy 43 years ago I was discharged from the service after serving for four years. My ship was home ported in Pearl Harbor and I always swore that I would return to one of the most beautiful places in the world.  This year I finally made that happen.  My sister and I spent five days in Oahu  and another five days in Maui. What a trip! So just to brighten your spirits as much as mine has been these past weeks here are just a couple of the photos I took from the trip.

So back to the matter at hand.  I have several projects planned that I managed to get halfway worked out while I was resting on the beach that will be coming up soon.  The first project that is currently on my workbench is a carrying case for the spaceship that I completed a couple of months ago.  I still have a little tweaking to do on the case before I can finish painting it and then final assembly will wrap things up in short order.  Hopefully in the next week or so.  

I also have a new British flag display that has been rolling around in my head that I thought I would put together to hang in my garage being as I am a big British car nut and drive a Mini Cooper to prove it.  Also I have plans for a small light display for a glass world globe.  The globe is not very large. Maybe the size of a baseball but having it sit on a base that is lit up would show it off nicely on a desktop. 

Along with these projects I have thought also about redoing my 3D printed iPad video teleprompter.  The one I originally build a number of years ago is to small to be used with my iPad Pro so again this would be a nice project to revisit. 

So as I said earlier I have not disappeared and the blog is still alive and well. All I have to do is get back to work in the shop and start posting on a regular basis again. After all of the driving, air miles, and walking I have done over the past few weeks it is great to be back home once again to my sleepy little town and a nice workshop.  I'll be posting about new projects very soon so be assured that everything is back to normal as usual.  Enjoy the photos.

Cura 3D Printing Lesson.....Finding A Simple Solution To A Printing Problem

A couple of days ago I had a scare while trying to 3D print some parts with my Creality CR-10 S4 3D printer.  I had designed a simple part that I wanted to reprint because of modifications that I found that I needed in my design.  I use Fusion 360 design software and Cura slicing software to make all of my parts.  I was about to set up the STL file in Cura for slicing the model when Cura informed me that an error had occurred with the software and needed to be reset.  I immediately followed orders and did so.  I then went through  the usual procedures to get my part ready to 3D print but when I loaded into my 3D printer the machine failed to start. 

Thinking now that I had done the setup wrong I tried all over again....and again.....and again.  Nothing seemed to work.  I simply could not get the 3D printer to start printing even though the day before I had been printing for hours and hours without any issues.  I knew for sure that the 3D printer was in good working order and assumed that it was a software issue.  So I unloaded my version of Cura (version 3.2.1) and reloaded it into my computer.  The software loaded into the machine fine but again did not fire up my 3D printer.  

The next step was to remove the version 3.2.1 Cura software and load in the latest and greatest version.  This being version 3.4.1.  I was hopeful that this would cure the problem with my 3D printer and I would be back to normal once again. I set up my part once again in the Cura software and loaded into my 3D printer and kept my fingers crossed.  It was a lost cause as my 3D printer still would not fire up and print the part that I had been working on.  

At this point it was late at night and I figured I might as well pack it in for the day and maybe get a reply from the Cura company after I had wrote them explaining what had been happening and requesting some help.  I was glad at this point to forget about it for the night.

The next morning the issue with my 3D printer was still on my mind and I had not heard from Cura on how to solve the problem.  After a little searching online I had discovered a couple of things that I still could try to fix the problem I was dealing with.  One was to take the SD card that I had been using and format it.  The SD card may be corrupt and this would cause the problem. Also another thing that I had not thought of was a simple error on my part that may have caused some of my issues.  When I unloaded the original 3.2.1 software I had not restarted my computer and then loaded the new Cura version 3.4.1.  I formatted the SD card and tried running the part again.  No luck.  I then said heck with it. I went out a bought a new SD card.  Even if this did not cure the problem I could always use another SD card some place else.  I brought it home and set up the new SD card and again had no luck. 

I then immediately went through the process of  unloading all of Cura software in my computer and reloading it with the latest version after restarting the computer in the middle of the process. I fired up the Cura software and had to reset the profile for my 3D printer when the problem of why my 3D printer was not working was starring me right in the face on the computer screen. 

On the setup screen in Cura you can set up a lot of different settings for your 3D printer to customize it. Two things for me stood out.  The two temperatures that you want the 3D printer to run at. The extruder and the heated bed depending on what type of plastic you are using.  The default settings in Cura were set to 230 degrees centigrade for the extruder and 80 degrees centigrade for the heated bed.  I reset the extruder to 220 where I normally like it and then realized why my  3D printer would not print any parts.  On my Creality CR-10 S4 printer I had swapped out the stock heating element with a new Keenovo unit that is a vast improvement over the original for printing ABS filament.  

I had unplugged the stock unit and it no longer is used. The Cura software was trying to tell the 3D printer to bring the original stock heating element up to 80 degrees centigrade and then print.  Since the heating element was unplugged and the heated bed was now being controlled by an outside heating unit and controller the 3D printer computer never could reach 80 degrees from the Cura settings and would never start the print because of it. 

I reset the custom setting in Cura to the bed temperature of zero.  Then the heated bed would be ignored when trying to print something. 

 My Keenovo heating element I manually set to 110 degrees to handle the work of heating up the bed to the temperature I need for printing.  By the way this is accomplished in less than two minutes with the Keenovo heater.  Something the stock heating element could never ever do. Well worth the money if you want to print ABS plastic.  

So after dialing in the Cura custom settings I loaded up the file for the part I had been wanting to print for an entire day into the 3D printer and pressed start.  Fifteen seconds later the 3D printer came to life once again and a short time later I was rewarded with a perfectly printed modified part! YEAH!

One more thing that I had also discovered through my investigation to solve my printing problem was that because I had not restarted my computer and reloaded the Cura software it was also not working correctly.  When I loaded my STL file into Cura to have the part sliced for my 3D printer it looked to be doing everything correctly.  In actuality the Cura software would load the name of the file on to the SD card and that was all.  The file had nothing in it.  Only the name was stored on the SD card.  

So to conclude here.  Check the little things first! Temps, plug-ins, settings, etc.  It was the simple things that got me messed up and after letting it sit overnight I had the solution present itself quicker than fussing with it for an entire day.  No matter what I am more than happy to have my 3D printer chugging along happily once again.  Lesson learned.

Blender Motorcycle Concept Project Part 4

After taking careful measurements of the Blender motorcycle concept I have been playing with I find that the single seater looks good and that is about it.  In reality it would be way to small to actually build for real.  The cockpit is to narrow and it only stands four feet tall so there is very little headroom in it.  So back to the drawing board once again today as I scaled the body up to a more roomy size.  

Select any image to get a large view

With the larger scale of the body I increased the width of the trike body to three feet not including the rear fenders.  This in turn increased the overall height to five feet. With these changes, the width of the complete model comes in at four feet wide.  The surprising thing was that now the vehicle could easily be a two seater and it still looks good.  

With the increased overall size of the Blender model it looks to have more capacity to be used as an electric as well if and when I ever plan on building this thing for real.  Again at the least it will make a very interesting model to build with my 3D printer.  Something to think about it the future. 

As for a real vehicle I would set these images aside as inspiration for the real thing.  Like my earlier posts about such a project it would take a lot of designing and technical work to get this off the ground. The real work would be under the skin and probably all the paperwork just to get it licensed to be able to drive it down the road.  Not even to mention what kind of price tag this would come in at. A long term dream vehicle project for sure.  At least for now I can dream and play with the design and not spend a fortune in the process.