Entries from July 2018

3D-Printed Organizer Bins for Crimp Terminals

3D-printed bins, in black PLA, keep a larger variety of parts organized.

I recently needed to crimp some right-angle “flag”-style quick-disconnect terminals, which meant buying yet another crimp tool (turns out you can't use the same one you use for straight terminals) and yet more small parts, which of course have to be kept organized. To replace the various disconnected organizers I was using for this type of part I purchased a 15-inch Flambeau Merchant Box with lift-out tray, $19.99 at Orchard Supply.

I used the lift-out tray to acommodate a sheet of 1 1/8 inch Kaizen foam, a product I've used before to make drawer organizers for my office. Kaizen foam is made of layers that can be peeled from each other (but not as cleanly as you might want), so that you can draw an outline of a tool on the foam, cut straight down to the appropriate depth using a razor blade or other knife, and then hollow out the foam to that depth by digging with your fingers. This gave me a place for my crimp tools plus some room for future expansion.

Y-Axis Stop Upgrade for Prusa i3 3D Printer

The new part triggering the microswitch. Success!

Since day one of using Crystal Palace, my Reprapguru Prusa i3 V2 clone, I've been planning to fix the poor design of the y-axis stop switch. The Reprapguru design is annoying but marginally usable with careful adjustment and frequent human intervention, but after making a small bumper part on the 3D printer and screwing it to the bearing housing (all of forty minutes of effort) the problem is solved and I don't have to worry about it anymore. Not bad for a full year of irritation and procrastination!

Read more here.

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