I tell my students that mistakes are good – that you grow new brain through them, and learn a lot. So I guess I grew some new brain connections these past few days. Printing the Ultimaker robot was great, but I was anxious to print a knot. I found lots of good ones on Thingiverse.com, mostly posted by people from the UnKnot conference.
The next steps were to put one of the files into the slicing software Cura and then put the design onto an SD card. At first, I couldn’t get the Cura software to run. It definitely could have been something about the way I installed it, but I tried it on a couple of different machines and got an error message like “this application has stopped working” which was a dead end for me. The next day, I looked at the different available versions of Cura and noticed that the one I installed had only been released three days before, so I decided to try an earlier version. That worked! I also had to find an SD card to use. That is not something I use regularly anymore. I am glad that the printer does not need to be networked though. That could have been a big delay in getting started.
So I found an SD card and then looked for a computer with an SD slot. That took some looking too. Maybe we’ll order an SD reader that plugs in to a USB port as we start to use the printer more.
Once I got a file imported to Cura, I needed a little help on knowing what to do to get a file on the SD card, but I found good video instructions on You Tube – good enough to get me moving forward anyway.
So I thought I was ready to print a knot. I have always liked the five-fold symmetry of the 5_1 knot, so I decided to try that first. I also had a couple of composite knots on my card. Well, this day did not see me printing any knots. Each of three tries had problems almost right away. The central base was fine, but I think there were other places where the model was touching the base. When the nozzle went to those other places, the filament did not stick to the build plate at all. The nozzle moved to the side and made a small messy blob which stuck to the nozzle. Then it came back to the center, bringing the blob with it. Then it moved to a new spot, made a messy blob, and brought that back to the center. Humph.
Next time, I will try an easier object, one that does not have isolated footprints. I would also like to see the supports that the slicing software is creating. Hopefully I can learn about that soon too.