3D Printer

 

My main Christmas present, bought jointly for me by the family (organised by Alex) was an Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro 3D printer.  This introduces me to an indispensible tool of the maker world.

There is a fair amount of careful assembly work required.  Luckily a video and instructions provide clear details for each step.  Assembling it myself also provides a basic understanding of the parts and mechanism.  There are three axes controlled by stepper motors which are accurate to 0.01mm.  An extruder heats up filament so that it is soft and comes out of a nozzle where it is built up in thin layers (maybe 0.04mm) into shapes.

The base plate needs to be carefully levelled.  The method makes the level accurate to less than the thickness of a piece of paper over the base.

My first test print, provided on an Elegoo USB stick was a buddha about 2cm high.  The level of detail and surface smoothness achieved was excellent.  The print took about 30 minutes, which seemed slow but is much faster than earlier printers.

The next couple of experiments were a tetrahedron and a "gyro" keyring both of which came out brilliantly, perhaps as good as you would expect from shop bought items. 

My first proper build is a collapsing pirate sword for Harry jnr, it is amazing.  I saw it on a great turoial from Everything STEM.  You print it in situ on the printer and when you pick it up it telescopes into a full-length sword.