A 3D printer diary – printing an accuracy test

Posted on January 4, 2019 by Justin

We bought this printer in a sale. It was missing a few important parts, including the SD Card with software on it to control it from a laptop. Without that software, we would be limited to the four models that were already in the printer.

I wasn’t able to find the contents of the SD card, but I found some software online. The Dremel 3D printer website must have changed since the instructions were produced, because the software it referred to has vanished, and there was something else instead … which also requires a firmware upgrade.

Connecting the USB cable, the printer wasn’t recognised by my ancient laptop. I cheated and borrowed my wife’s laptop (newer version of Windows, newer hardware), in order to install the firmware. Once that was done, I re-installed the Dremel3D software on the ancient laptop, and it detected the printer OK.

3D printed brick

I imported a Lego-compatible brick (Thingiverse item 1729056), and printed it from the Digilab 3D slicer software, via the USB cable. Using “standard” resolution (0.2mm layer height, 25% infill, 220 degC), it took 18 minutes to make a 2×4 brick. The software estimated 0.88m of filament. The brick is mostly compatible with real LEGO, which suggests it is a remarkably good test for the accuracy of the printer.

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A 3D printer diary – the first print

Posted on January 3, 2019 by Justin

After clearing some existing filament from the print head and adhering the build tape to the perspex build platform, I levelled the bed using a train ticket (which is approximately 0.3 mm thick according to my Vernier Gauge) instead of the (missing) levelling card (which is 0.3mm thick according to the instructions).

I couldn’t get my old laptop to connect to the printer. However, there are a few test models in the printer itself, including a die (singular of dice). It took about 21 minutes to print. Laptop for scale.

First Print on Dremel 3D20

Because the spool holder was also missing, I cheated a bit, and used a small spool-less length of PLA, sticking out the side of the machine.

Filament out the side

A successful first attempt.

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A 3D printer diary – Dad’s Visit

Posted on December 23, 2018 by Justin

My Dad has been trying to persuade me to buy a 3D printer for several years. He has four at the moment, and has plenty of good advice, including a library full of things to print off Thingiverse.

When he heard we had bought a 3D printer, he donated a box full of sample filament (not on reels, but in clear bags). That should last a little while. Thanks Dad 🙂

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A 3D printer diary – The Purchase

Posted on December 10, 2018 by Justin

My son managed to blag an outrageous deal in a closing down sale, and we got an ex-display 3D printer for an outrageously cheap price. It’s the Dremel 3D20 (not the latest model) and it has a few parts missing:

  • the spool lock – the barrel thing that holds the filament spool. Pretty important for operation.
  • The SD card – which contains the software and some sample 3Drem files. Pretty important for operation.
  • The Levelling device – a piece of card 0.3mm thick. Pretty important too
  • The removal tool.

For the price we paid, I was prepared to give it a go, despite the above shortcomings. It can’t be that hard to fix a 3D printer.

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A visitor to my line

Posted on June 5, 2016 by Andy

My brother came to visit. He brought a loco, and thus it became the first visiting loco on my line

Regner Konrad. My first visitor
Regner Konrad on my railway

This is a Regner Konrad, kit-built loco. It’s a geared, oscillating-cylinder loco. The revering lever is on top of the cylinder, and the cylinder drives a flywheel, and the gearing, which makes it quite a smooth (and realistically slow) runner. The regulator is in the cab. This is about as simple as it gets.

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Steam, at last

Posted on April 3, 2016 by Andy

I finally got a steam train running in my garden. My wife took these photos

steam at last
Newly-planted box hedge behind a Roundhouse Billy

A short while later, my wonderful wife used this photo (below) for my birthday card.

my own steam loco on my birthday card
Happy Birthday to me
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Progress on my railway — 17th May 2015

Posted on May 17, 2015 by Andy

More good weather has meant more progress on the railway, which is excellent news.

Actually, to tell the truth, there’s another garden project which should be commanding my attention, but it was such a sunny day that I had to retreat to a more shady part of the garden — what an excuse to get on with building the railway line eh?

I have laid a bit more track, and put down some ballast. The ballast is actually horticultural grit, which is just about the right size. Here’s a photo of a newly ballasted section.

My garden railway with newly laid ballast (horticultural grit)

The photo above is taken in the spot on the left hand side of the photo in my previous update. You will see that the grit extends beyond the edges of the timber base and among the plants, It’s also interesting to see how much the little thyme plant (in the foreground above) has grown in 2 weeks.

I have not (yet) followed my friend’s advice to glue the ballast down. I wanted to see how badly it would move in the rain. Early in the week, it hailed (yes! in May!) and the ballast has stayed roughly in the same place, which I am very pleased about.

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10 years of ballasting experience

Posted on May 13, 2015 by Andy

by Andy on behalf of SteamOil

Today, we have a Special Guest appearance by “SteamOil”, owner of the Tryfon Vale Light Railway. He shares his experiences of how different ways of ballasting have fared over the life of his garden railway.

I have use three different ballasting techniques over the years.

I tried a small section of Rowland’s Mix method, and this has stood the test of time (about 10 years so far)

The only problem was that over the years the peat content encouraged the growth if moss which I had to kill off as it rose over the rail head leading to derailments.

The bulk of my line uses horticultural grit held in place with a 50/50% mixture of Exterior PVA and water with a dash of washing up liquid added. This lasts several years before there is a need to be patched and re-glued.

I have recently had to relay the station area due to fencing works but again I used the PVA method.

Experience seems to indicate that if the ballast is mainly in the shade it seems to break up rather sooner.

The shadowed side of the garden has been completely re-ballasted this spring using the Swift Sixteen greyish/white ballast again fixed with PVA/ water.

As the raw material was nearer white than grey, the mix was toned down with a small quantity of Black Exterior water based paint added to the PVA mix.

Time will tell how it weathers over the years.

The effect at present is the nearest I have ever come to a scale appearance.

Looking back at the Vale of Evermore video, [see blog entry below] he looks to have secured his ballast in place by adding timber up-stands to his bases to prevent the ballast from being displaced.

There are no up stands visible in the herbaceous sections.
The only problem I can see is that the soil might get washed into the ballast with heavy rain or the the other way round!

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Progress on my railway — 4th May 2015

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Andy

At long last, I’ve got to the stage where I can lay some track.

This spring, I’ve tidied up the corner of the garden, built up the rockery on the corner, and fixed boards to the bricks and blocks that I mentioned in my previous update. We’ve been blessed with good weather this Bank Holiday Weekend, which has given me time to finish planting up the rockery, and eventually, on Monday afternoon, I fixed a few lengths of track down.

Progress on the railway — Mayday Bank Holiday 2015

Along the fence visible in the photo, I’ve planted a dwarf conifer, and then where there isn’t much space, a line of little Box plants, which should provide a nice green hedge.

Inside the rock circle will eventually be grass. The block on the right-hand-side of the photo has a hole in which marks the centre of radius. A few more lengths of track to go, and I can remove this trip hazard!

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Inspiration from the Vale of Evermore

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Andy

My intention is to create a pretty garden with a railway in it, one where you see the garden first, and then see a train moving through it. One of the main sources of inspiration has been the “Vale of Evermore” railway, as shown in the two videos below.

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