I've done it!

I've finally done it! These are the first 3 pieces for the Prusa Air. Last saturday I went to AltLab to print them, but as usual, Violeta (the resident cupcake... the 3D printer) said - "No you don't!", and after a couple of hours discussing with her, I went home :p

Mental note: If you need give a name to a machine, skip the chapter "Women", for some kind of strange reason, the machine catch their... let's call it "moods".

So, after licking my bruises, I've stumbled on Celso Martinho time lapse documenting his Ultimaker build, and after that he tweeted about some extruder problems, very similar Violeta. We've exchanged some tweets about 3D printing and he has found a post in the Ultimaker forum, suggesting to turn off the Temperature setting in Skeinforge.

This tuesday I went back to Violeta and tried to talk to "her" without mentioning "temperature", and it worked! I was able to print the support for the Y-axis motor and two clamps... and then it was getting late and I had another lady to go to ;)

Doodling in 3D

Don't worry, he's mostly harmless! Basílio, a goodfella, a Lobster, a good friend and a Google SketchUp ninja!

Well, yesterday was AltLab meetup day, and the plan was: make a 3D model of an X axis carriage for a mini-mendel.

It was a success! After a few hours using Google SketchUp, we've managed to create a darn good looking carriage. The next step will be print it and assemble it.

Mini-Mendel X Axis mini-carriage

With my little eye I see...

Yesterday was meeting day at AltLab. The lair was packed with t(h)inkerers, from guys fixing an audio amp, other trying to burn one atmega to use on a Gen7 pcb, freshly made, for his reprap, or should I call it repstrap?? His ambitious plan is building a 3D printer with recycled parts... He has already scavenged some printers for motors and rods! I can't wait to see the result.
But something caught my attention, Mónica Mendes using DIY microscopes! She hacked some poor webcams, well, some say lucky webcams (me included), and she was taking a peek into leafs, and I say, nature always amazes me.
Suddenly, at midnight the lights went out... a little piezoesc song starts to play... wait... that's "happy birthday to you" song.... and there it is, a delicious chocolate cake, garnished with some led throwies (what you expected?!?) appeared, Maurício's birthday!!! He got a surprise ehehe!!!

Hackerspace FTW!

Well, finally I've payed a visit to AltLab, a small hackerspace here in Lisbon. And what's an hackerspace? Imagine a room packed with tools, usable "junk" and the most important thing of all... t(h)inkerers :)
Maurício Martins (the coordinator of  AltLab ) introduced me to Tiago Rorke, a guru on ReplicatorG, Skeinforge, GCode and Makerbot operator.
For 3 hours, I watched and learned  how important is the calibration of the printer, the ability to control all variables involved in 3D printing.
Can't wait to get back :D