DIY Trellis Soundboard

On wednesday 22 april I found on Adafruit a nice project to make a 3D printed portable Trellis Soundboard. 

 In this project they included the Stl files to make the casing.  I downloaded them and started printing.  At the same time I ordered the electronics items on the Adafruit website with some other items I already planned to buy.

  First the Tray for the pcb with the 16 buttons.  This item took 46 minutes to print.

Then the Top part. This item printed in 1:56 hours.

The next print for the big part, the frame.  I had to cancel it while it was printing.  Cura keeps the last settings available for next prints. In it I had set the infill to zero.  This way the case was build with walls which had no connection to each other.. This would lead to a very unstable frame.  Here are images of these walls.

The printtime was already 1:46 hour but it would take at least 5 hours to finished...So better start a new print..
The  frame started good but half way it started to go wrong.  Underextrusion.  I did let it finished and I am thinking about covering the underextruded parts with glue. Strangely after the part of the underextrusion the best part was printed..very smooth and without mistakes.    But I also think about a new try.
The print of the frame took 5:25 hours.

After this print I started immediately to print the bottom part.  And that one came out very good.  Printing time was 2:17 hours.

The next day I wanted to have another go with the frame part.  I started the print at 6:30 in the morning.  So around 12:00 am  it should be ready.
And it did.  The frame came out very good.  Without mistakes in extrusion.  Printing time was 5:25 hours.    Here is the frame.

And here is the full box. I am very glad it worked out fine.

The next thing will be to find the screws  and wait for the Adafruit  Trellis items to arrive.
Total printing time for the box was:

1. Top        1:56
2. Tray       0:46
3. Frame    5:25
4. Bottom  2:17
5. Total    10:24      (the two mistakes added another  7:11)

On the next image I show how easily I could take the first frame apart due to the layers with under extrusion.

Second attempt wall case.

This morning I started the second print. First I changed the position of the two holes in the top of the item to a proper position.  Then in Cura I changed the direction how it should be printed.   This dictates the way the infill is made.   Yesterday the infill was diametrical on the object.  Today it is in line with the object. The estimated printtime is about 11:30 hours..
Here are some stages of the print.  Here is the item after 5:03 hours printtime and 37% done.

Here is the item after 6:53 hours of printing and 52% done.

 And here it is after  8:30 hours of printing and 65% is done.

The infill on the smaller side of the item (in front) is ok. The infill on the larger side of the object (in the back) is not looking that good... It is there but not very well connected.... The support is holding on very good allthough it has a small connection to the item.  

After 9:47 hours of printing and 78% done it looked like this.

And after 11:38 hours the print was ready.   It closed the bottom very good.  A little minus are the parts where the support material is connected to the item.

And here it is on its spot of duty.  The ventilator fits so perfectly in the case that I don't need screws to tighten it.

Some remarks on the design.    The design is very basic.   The electric wire hangs out the bottom.  This could have been done in a different way.

The case....

This weekend I build the case for the holder. The ventilator should fit right into this case.  The estimated printtime is 12:37 hours....   This morning at 6:30 I started the print.... The start looks good.
Here is the item in Cura

And here the print after  3:08 hours and  15% done.

After 3:26 hours printing the print seems doomed to be a failure.. The infill (nr, 1 and 2 on the image) show that it would not stay on this part... That means that when time for closing the circle is coming it might have no support and will create a mess.   Also (nr. 3)  shows that the infill is not good and steady.....

After 4:28 hours of printing and 27% done it doesn't look better. In the parts on nr. 1 , 2 and 3 in the image the support has lost its own support. It hangs in the air.  Nr 4 shows that the infill in this part is still underperforming. I will keep on printing because the case it self looks still ok. And also when the print won't be 100% done I can use it for the purpose...

But after 5:19 hours of printing and 35% done I had to end the print.  The distorted infill could damage the rest....

I cleaned it and sandpapered the unfinished part.  The ventilator fits very good in it allthough I calculated the holes to high. But the item will serve for what it has to do. Blowing me fresh air in the face....

The holder..

For the project the holder to put against the wall is ready.  It took 2:24 hours to print. And it came out very good.  Also the infill.  The Atomic Nozzle Clearing has certainly had effect.  Here is the item after  1:58 hours of printing and 71% done.

And here is the final product.

And here it is against the wall and waiting for the case to be put in it..

I have put the little test item in it I made in the previous print the connector test...

Connector test

For a project I have in mind I need a connector.  I got the idea to make a sliding mechanism. 
To find out what the good sizes, so that it works well, I made a test item in Blender.  It took 51 minutes to print them.  They fit very good together. 

Solar test item.

I want to make a sun tracking device using my arduino.  But first I have to learn how to use a steppermotor.  For this I created a little platform which I can mount on the steppermotor.   Here is the print after 1:54 hours and 80% done.  I have put the infill on 25% and it looks very good done.

 After 2:06 hours it was done.

An ID-Tag: arduino and 3d printing.

For a friend who works in a Gardenzenter I created a Tag he can put on his shirt. I used a 8x8LED Bicolor with backpack.  I wanted to created a holder for this tiny LEDblock.  On the fly I made a first example in Blender...and printed it.

I took 53 minutes to print.  The infill was 25% and was very consitent.

Now I needed a case for the arduino.  I found one on Thingiverse.
The case took 1:53 hours to print.

The lid did it in 46 minutes....  The case looks good. A disadvantage is, however, that it is rather vulnerable.  The walls are rather thin.  But for the purpose I want to use it, it is fine.

After some fiddling with the connectors the system works...with a 9V battery.

Printing again...

Finally after a more then a week I got  the "light".    The printers temperature sensor was giving wrong information. There was no display of the sensor temperature rising although the nozzle became very hot....  Also the software after some time began to be unstable so I had to shut it down.

What could it be?    Today finally I saw that a little connector was loose. And I noticed that I haven't seen the blue led light on when the printhead was heating up.   It is on top op the print head.  I connected it again....and everything worked fine.....   I believe this happened as I was fiddling around with the bowden tube before and after the Atomic Nozzle Clearing.

I printed the small  plus-sign and it came out well.  Printtime 29 minutes..