For this 3D printer exploration, I decided to empathize with my brother. A couple of months ago, he decided to contribute to my family by ordering a couple weekly meals through the Fresh Prep service and making them after they were delivered. This would bring in some variety into our meals and allow him to practice his cooking skills.

Unfortunately, our house has a confusing layout, which meant multiple deliveries were left either in places we would never find them or even at neighbor’s doors. He wrote a small note on paper to serve as a reminder to the delivery drivers, but this was not a permanent solution.

So I began designing.

 

The first prototype was quite basic. After getting the spacing and sizing right (using Adobe Fusion 360), I decided to soften up the shape, add some holes so the sign would be able to be hung up, and optimized the material usage by making the letters pop oud, rather than vise versa.

Next came time to slice, which I used Ultimaker Cura for.

Now it was time to print on my home printer!

This is where I ran into problems. From the filament not sticking to the printing bed, to it getting extruded too thin, to the plastic breaking while still in the loop.

Re-leveling the bed helped, although the problems were not solved. So I grabbed a wrench and took the feeder apart.

The filament had formed into a diode shape! I figured that this was due to a combination of the nozzle being too close to the bed, leaving little room for extrusion, and my contributions in trying to push the filament through that created this blockage.

This part taught me a lot about the feeding mechanism of the printer.

In addition, I used this step to switch out to a new roll of filament, just to ensure better quality.

The print took the entire day, and due to my miscalculations, I was forced to sleep with the brr of the printer in the corner of my room. It was surprisingly soothing!

After the print was finished, I painted the letters gold to make them a bit more visible.