🆎Today my 3d printer will mostly be quietly printing.... a dual cyclone dust separator.
I am sick and tired of my workshop vacuum cleaner's filter filling up and ruining performance. It's also an unpleasant job knocking the dust out, then jetting it with compressed air to fully clean it. This (should) just drop 90+% of the dust into an air tight bucket. What a win, if it works!
ARGH power interruption. I switched on an aircon and the breaker popped. I think we have too many things with slight leakage on one side of our old split load board. Fuck. It’s interrupted the print. The printer is offering to continue where it left off, I’ll be impressed if it really can.
No, it seems the Elegoo Neptune max claims to be able to resume but then makes no serious attempt; not heating anything up. Fuck. And I think I used too much of that reel to start again. Fucking fucking fucking fuck.
The interesting thing this is revealing is that I think perhaps I might have been optimistic in thinking I could remove the supports in situ on the finished full thing. I am struggling on the partial piece.
Now I have yanked out all the support it really is a substantial item. If sadly unfinished and useless. Sigh.
BenAvelingWill you try again?@bloor
@BenAveling I really do want the dust separator so yes definitely. Once I've recovered.
Irenes (many)@bloor @BenAveling definitely tell us how it goes. 3D-printed vacuum cleaners have a lot of potential to bring this stuff into the realm of practical utility for people other than hobbyists, you know?
@ireneista @BenAveling I absolutely do intend to have another crack at 3d printing this one, because on the whole it looks more interesting BUT I did do some digging on Aliexpress, and ordered one of these :
(middle option; all parts).
More expensive than the filament in theory but it is two separate stages, with an inspection vessel on the second stage. So we will see.
groff 🇺🇦
James Derrick@bloor You have my sympathy - 3day prints of dice castles and lithopane moons went the same way.
I've managed to continue a large print by manually feeding reel 2 into the head as reel 1 ends. Manual but joins never worked for me.
Check the end of the filament isn't attached to the reel so it feeds clean at the end (side cut the last bit off).
penguin42@bloor I'd suggest you order a UPS for the printer if it wasn't your current record on deliveries.
@penguin42 @bloor My suggestion would be print multiple parts making removing infill easier, then glue them together.
will-h@penguin42 @bloor my suggestion would be to angrily rip out all MCBs and replace with RCBOs... :)
@flangey @penguin42 I mean that is what will happen, but also a full consumer unit replacement. It's probably not possible to get new breakers for this one. Plus, optimally it should probably be metal, nowadays, whereas this is plastic.
Theolodian@bloor @flangey @penguin42 we had a 2011 plastic consumer unit that could not have new circuits added to it because it was too old, not current code. Had to fully replace with a new metal one.
@theolodian @flangey @penguin42 Thing is on the whole I do feel metal is better. Oddly I think the code is nebulous. It says something like "a strong material, e.g. metal" but doesn't actually STIPULATE metal. But every single manufacturer has taken it to mean "metal".
@bloor @flangey @penguin42 the problem was the RCD and the fact that you can’t mix breakers and boxes, the breakers have to be tested and approved for that specific consumer unit.
@theolodian @flangey @penguin42 I am nearly sure the sparks that installed the 32A radial for my heat pump slapped a breaker that didn't match the board in to just get the job done. Not really ideal, but probably also not going to cause a problem either,.
@theolodian @flangey @penguin42 It's not something I'd want to do, that being said, hence the need for an entire new CU at some point in the (probably not too distant now) future.
@bloor @flangey @penguin42 this is how people end up with several little CUs, one for the solar, one for the EV charger, and one for the HP.
@theolodian @flangey @penguin42 Yeah i mean we have two. One original and one that was installed in an extension built later. My aim is also to consolidate all of that into one big one. The extension one is also plastic, so it's old.
ahnlak@theolodian @bloor @flangey @penguin42 funnily enough, we have little ones for the HP and the EV charger - every sparkie has looked at our main CU jammed up under the eaves and decided it was more trouble than it was worth trying to replace it.
@ahnlak @theolodian @flangey @penguin42 Famous last words but I think/hope ours should mostly be quite simple. The consolidation of the two into one may add a couple of challenges but nothing major. Fit a consumer unit move box where the 2nd CU is now, and run them across....
@bloor @ahnlak @flangey @penguin42 is it worth it though? There would need to be some other reason than just tidying up the electrics.
@theolodian @bloor @flangey @penguin42 I mean it would mean the sparkies could devote themselves to complaining about my earth full time, I suppose... 🤣
@ahnlak @bloor @flangey @penguin42 yeah, they made me remove most of the loft insulation and have the DNO install a PME. All dodgy earth connections.
DNO also downgraded us from 100A to 80A. 😤
Ed Davies@bloor @theolodian @flangey @penguin42 It's not so much strength - I think the actual words are “non-combustible”.
The actual requirement is for enclosures for things like circuit breakers and similar switch gear. Which is daft, IMHO, as it's not the switchgear which is the problem but high-current screw connections not being done up properly and causing fires.
There are loads of 32A screw connections on the back of walls sockets but they're not requiring those to be enclosed in non-combustible material. So, if they're not a problem, why not make the rule be about screw connections not protected by a 32A or less fuse or breaker, rather than switchgear?
That'd allow plastic boxes on garage and similar boxes on the end of 32A or 16A submains, for example.
@bloor is the aircon wired into a ring main? Common problem if so.
@theolodian yeah that’s right, it’s temporary ; we intend to put in a new consumer unit with individual breakers BUT at present it’s a split load board so lots of stuff all on one. Sigh. It’s done it once before. Also whilst firing up an aircon.
@theolodian longer term still the intention is to have some separate a/c only circuits too …
@bloor ours will be multi-split so no option. 32A for the 12kW outdoor unit. 😳
@theolodian Ah we have a dedicated 32 for our heat pump. But then we have several little 2kW and 2.5kW AC units just (for the moment) hung off the back of sockets. Which, again, I know isn't ideal.
@bloor yeah it was a pretty penny updating all of ours, new board with SPD & RCBOs. Effing painful! 😵💫
@theolodian my plan is to install a new board in the garage, get the hang of it, then bravely attempt the house one with what I’ll hopefully have learned.
@bloor yeah, I had a new board added in the garage first. Then did the same thing in the main house. Took 2 years all told, and several kiloquid.
@theolodian I am hoping for a few centiquid on each board TBH.
Phil Haigh@bloor for the very few long running prints I’ve done, I’ve gone as far as putting a UPS between the printer and the wall socket. Because you never know.
But you’ll have learned loads even from a partial print.
Simon 
@bloor Dumb question - have you checked the slicer to understand if all the internal organic supports can be accessed for removal? 🤔
You can guess why that came to mind.
(I had to use long forceps and needle pliers. Took ages.)
@jamesderrick yeah that’s a risk I admit. My plan was actually to pick out all the bits I can see first, then perhaps endoscope it, then finally run a load of gritty sand through it if needed.