Bogenwald

Today there wasn’t too much printing…

So here we have the bookcases, barrels and bit of water. I haven’t cleaned anything up yet. I printed 4 bookcases, the four barrels and a 3 x 1 stream. The book cases took just over two hours to print, the barrels were 35 minutes with the water just under 50 minutes. There are a few more bits and pieces like the barrels etc that I want to print off, but mostly now it will be rooms and corridors. I have considered making some corridor junctions to speed laying things out. Once I am absolutely confident that the printer is running properly then I will sort out the box, which doubles as part of the dungeon.

I set the printer going again this evening as soon as I got in (not that it is unusual at the minute).

So tonight I went for a lot of miniatures.

They are mainly dwarves of some sort. They are split (in the sets) as long beards and short beards. I cannot remember what a couple of them are – top left is a blank as are the bottom left. I think the second one is a mage. Second row, on the right is a dwarves assassin.

The other things are from the Kingdom of Hell set and are the ‘tormented’. I am going to use them as some form of undead.

The ladders are 25mm long…

The long beards took 1.51 to print, the short beards 41 minutes, the tormented another 41 minutes and the ladders 38 minutes.

I did another couple of things just before…

These took about 40 minutes and 55 minutes to do.

Tomorrow I am going to get some water and ground tiles done.

These are a couple of cages and then a quartet of crates.

I am printing every evening and I think it is because I am so pleased to get my printer back up and running.

Last night this came off the bed…

I have a spider somewhere to print off too.

Tonight it was test printing bits and bobs…

Still a whole host of things that I have ready to print.

This weekend I am going to get some more floor tiles done, as well as some more miniatures. I might even get something painted!

So we have some more rickety platforms, two skull pillars, two dwarves pillars an oven, a coffin and an open skeleton casket.

The pillars could be printed in more than a pair, but I worked on the principle that if something went wrong on the printer then I would lose two rather than half a dozen. Plus it means I only have to wait about 50 minutes before I can go and get them.

I got home a bit earlier for the kids tonight so set the printer running straight away.

I did half a dozen guards as well as a halfling and an elf. The spider webs I did yesterday came out ok too…

Just off the plate right now is a demon idol as befits a scary dungeon…it took 2 hours 37 minutes, but I am really pleased with it…

I am printing a full spider web at the moment. We will have to see how it comes off the printer.

Things still weren’t right with the old printer and it was annoying me.

Last night I printed off these (accidentally) and they were okayish…

They were better than the first lot, but could be better.

Tonight I decided to print the wardens again.

After an hour and 20 minutes I came back to poorly extruded plastic.

I cranked up the heat on the nozzle a bit as well as ‘dialled in’ the screws in the spring and then started them again.

I had put the wardens on a raft to see if it would stop them sticking like superglue to the base plate. I was quite pleased with the second printing.

On the left we have a bit of the raft from where the standard bearer is. I think you may notice the difference…

These were printed in exactly the same position as the first. This shows the stark reality of poor extrusion.

As mentioned above the only difference was a 4 degree increase in temperature and a tightening of the spring.

So after this success, I have spent most of the evening slicing extra bits and pieces for the dungeon. Right now we have large rocks on the printer. These will go on the water tiles and will be crossed by planks, ropes or some other deadly looking method.

They have come out rather nicely too…

They came from exactly the same individual stone. All I did was shrunk or expanded thy x,y or z axis to make them all different sizes.

I am printing some spider webs right now, so we shall see how they come out. I will probably mention them tomorrow as I want this published before bed.

The other good thing about using rafts is that it pulls up the crap left on the plate from the prints that went wrong. The downside is that I use more filament.

My ickle dungeon is starting to get somewhere…

Still a fair few more rooms and corridors to print. I am going to make double sized rooms as well as T junctions etc. I am having a go at reprinting the caskets and windlass, seen above. Actually I was meant to be printing something else but got confused!

The rickety platforms worked a whole lot better when the extrusion was more like it should be.

They were a bit ‘hairy’ though…

the legs on the smaller ones were really well fastened on. The two longer ones had problems as the two ends fell off as soon as I looked at them. These have now been superglued in place. I might run something along the outside to strengthen them a bit more.

The other thing I will do is to get some more rickety platforms and then add some planks to place across gaps.

I also want to add some raised levels to join the rickety platforms to.

We shall see how I get on.

Posting early today as I am knackered and am going for an early night.

Today, was the club day and with my father in Laws birthday today Time was a bit short on the old printer time.

I therefore watched the Fat Dragon Games video on bed levelling, I followed the instructions ( well sort of – I just needed a bit of a confidence boost) it was really useful as it categorically states that turn clockwise to raise and anti clockwise to lower. It also reminded me to level it twice as raising one corner will lower the opposite one.

So I levelled the bed and then tried printing the square floor again as it was one that I had run into issues over. I started printing the raft and noticed that the idler wheel wasn’t turning. I unscrewed it a smidge and it made no difference, so then I screwed it up a smidge and it made no difference. I then, by accident, pushed the arm outwards and the wheel instantly started turning. I let go and, Lo and behold, it stopped turning again. I grabbed a screws and pushed it into the spring and turned it to change the spring length. Still nothing so I shoved another one in and it started turning.

The one that wasn’t turning is the silver one at the front you can see the screws embedded in the springs in the background.

This was how it was starting to look as the wheel began turn…

To be honest, the bed is a smidge low, but it is working and is making a nice raft.

I scrubbed and scrubbed the bed but I couldn’t get the shapes off. Once they get covered over with rafts etc then they should eventually disappear.

So as for why the spring was too short… I don’t want to blame anyone in particular, but someone, who shall remain nameless, forgot to add a small item that makes all the difference!

So, once the print on the bed is finished, I will nip out and add it to the extruder spring. I will then be able to remove the springs.

Soooooo after holding my breath for ages…..Two hours and fifteen minutes later we have this…..

PHEW!

I am now printing some rickety platforms…. wish me luck.