3D Progress

  This amazing printer, the FlashForge Creator Max 2, comes with a flexible build plate that is awesome because then, after printing, you can just remove the magnetic plate, bend it, and the newly printed part pops off. Without it, you have to use a paint scraper to get the part off the printing bed, which sounds easier than it is. But, to make the flexible plate work, you have to print a spacer and place it inside the printer. The white part you see in the top picture is that part. I'll confess that I'm not exactly sure why this helps, because during printing today, I never saw that part get anywhere close to the extruders or the print bed. But, I think it is so the extruders are the proper distance from the bed. If I can be more clear about it in the future, I'll let you know.

    The bottom picture is of today's test print, which is also the final test. It's a nice, solid print. It has a couple of irregularities, and I will try to solve them the old fashioned way (filing), but this is a huge improvement over my first try for this part. The funky thing on the left is a shell that is printed around the real part. I think its purpose is to make sure that the stream of plastic coming from the extruder has a clean start. The shell (I think) is  a wiping system so that every layer on the part starts cleanly.

   Next up, I will print new spools for the filaments, so that I can use any brand of filaments instead of just FlashForge's brand. And then, it is on to Foxy Roxy's fingers :)