FuglyDuck

What exactly are you asking?

It’s pretty easy, for example, to turn an image into a grayscale .bmp and convert that to an elevation map that roughly creates an embossed/engraved surface.

It’s not easy to take photos of objects and turn them into 3d models of that object. It’s pretty much impossible from a single photo, as well. It’s possible, but usually fairly complicated- it’s called photogrammetry and there’s tools and plugins for blender that can do it; but it’s very hit or miss.

I 3d printed most of the bits for a Kosh Naranec costume. he could be a court magician… and it would still fit with the lore in bab 5, too. (oh. you said you don’t want something over the top…sorry. the best part is you can set up some motion activated light shows and play his various enigmatic one liners, stand the thing up in a corner and go get a pint someplace else; without ever leaving character. The avalanche has fallen. it’s too late for the pebbles to vote.)

alternatively you could do an “actual” court magician. or something to that effect. 3d print baubles and a top to some kind of staff. generic robes in black with a big baggy hat to round it out. learning some slight of hand might help sell it.

So… PETG and ABS/ASA- as already mentioned here- will probably be the best bet.

But if your printer can handle it (i don’t know how difficult it is, mind,) polypropylene might be a good option. For example, the tic tac lid is made out of ppe.

Ringing.

check your belts to make sure they’re not too tight (and tight enough, but probably just too tight.)

if that’s not the issue then check and tune acceleration and jerk settings. if you haven’t done full calibration stuffs, I’d recommend the guide by teaching tech

So, I’m going to preface this with a quick reminder that once deployed, a folding knife is going to cause the same kind of wounds as a fixed bladed of similar size and shape. and example for this is the Benchmade Adamas family. They have a folding knife, an auto-opening folding knife and a paracord wrapped skeleton-grip (with paracord,) fixed bladed knife.

Once deployed, the knives are all going to do about the same in a fight. And the two folding knives- the auto, and the manual knife- are going to function basically identically. In Minnesota, the only one of these that’s illegal to carry is the auto. The only reason that’s illegal to carry is because of perception. (the same perception as switchblades.) There’s no practical reason that auto-opening knives are any more likely to be used in some kind of crime than manual-opening folders.

Back in the early fifties, switchblades were frequently used by youth gangs (west side story, for example,) or rough-and-tumble types (especially in cowboy or war movies,) as a sort of visual code to indicate they were of rather dubious character. eventually that became associated with black guys being villains, because hollywood never met a trope it didn’t like. even when the villain was white, or whatever, that was broadly overlooked by popular culture.

It was outlawed in '58 largely because people perceived it at the weapon of choice by black men. it had nothing to do at all with knives themselves being particularly dangerous. or even all that common, really.

the same is true of asian martial arts movies and balisongs. (which is ridiculous. the only thing a bali should be used for is as a slightly more exciting fidgit spinner. Sorry.)

Or brass knuckles (relating to the italian mafia and irish mob. hollywood gave those to the enforcers.)

This isn’t to say that maybe knives and brass knuckles and things shouldn’t be regulated. But outside of “Knives larger than x length”, and the occasional feature like double edges or spear points (Which are bad for general use, and usually purely for a weapon, not a tool); there’s always some other reason for it being outlawed… and generally that reason is that “the wrong people” are using them.

and many jurisdictions have laws written by people who don’t have a frooking clue and are simply reacting to a knife being associated with whatever out-group happens to exist at the time.

maybe instead go to the wikipedia page for ‘Gravity Knife’

or just read my comment more fully. Gravity knives don’t have switches. or buttons. If you’re considering the hinge mechanism that allows a gravity knife to operate, then practically any folder is a “switch blade” and that’s just not true.

from the wiki I linked:

A gravity knife is a knife with a blade contained in its handle, which opens its blade through the force of gravity. This mechanism of opening is fundamentally different from the switchblade…

Even in gravity knives that appear to be opened by a switch or buttons… all that button is doing is unlocking the blade to allow it to be deployed or retracted. If simply having a button or switch or something is all it takes to be a switchblade, then this classic gem would also be a switchblade.

Just to be pedantic, gravity knives aren’t switchblades.

They have a blade that slides freely (and under the force of gravity.) the grip is basically a hinged nutcracker that, when closed, traps the sliding blade either deployed or retracted.

In any case, they’re no more dangerous than your standard folding knives of the same general proportions.

The illegality of certain knives (switch blades, gravity knives, balisongs, etc) are largely not based on the danger or actual use of those knives as weapons.

In the US it’s usually reactionary and racism.

So… if it’s something that’s going to set on a shelf or something like a wh figurine, you don’t need to prime with acrylic or enamel.

If it’s something that’s going the handled (like say, a cosplay prop,) your mileage will vary.

I’d recommend printing off small test parts to see how the paint cures and such. I use small shot-glass-size vase mode prints. (Any one the vases will work, but I suggest anything with more complex contours and a few hard edges.)

Then they get double use as a glue pot when I’m doing glueups with barges cement or similar adhesives (and painting too.)

If you find you do need primer… the stuff I’ve found to work best is rustoleum filler-primer. (Yes. The spray can.) you’ll lose surface details, since it’s designed to fill that in, but makes a wonderful foundation.

Also scuff the surface with a coarse sand paper before you do anything else. This will give whatever base layer you’re using a bit more to bite into.

It’s also important to note that things like rub n buff and metallic paints lose their metallic finish if you use most clear coats on them.

Iirc there’s some kinds of clear coat that are fine, but it’s like one product/brand.

i;ve never used pressurized vapor baths, for anything. I’d certainly stay away from pressurized vapor baths using heated solvents that are also rather flammable (that’s… got some exciting possibilities that I would let my worst enemy do first.) I’d use picture glass (or cheap ikea mirrors.) to build up a box. set it up outside where the vapors aren’t a problem.

alternatively, a cheap-ass-fuck stock pot with a glass lid will also work fine, but don’t seal it… and certainly don’t use it for food when you’re done.

as for if it should boil, it’s boinling point is about 80 deg. C, so if you’re seeing boiling, you either have somewhat impure MEK (which is fine,) or your temp measurement is off. It should still put enough vapor into the box that you can see it working though… it’ll just work faster. its less advised to boil it off because, well. it works too fast usually.

please tell me you’re doing all of this outside or with a ginormous fume hood that goes outside. (seriously, MEK is not to be underestimated.)

For what it’s worth, if you have a pressure vessel and you want to make it go differently, reducing the pressure will have better effect (or so I’m told.)

I’ve not used MEK personally, all of my petg parts are structural. What I’m seeing online says 60-80c.

What I’d do is kick it up by 5c at a time.

swap in failed test prints and see how that changes things. Keep in mind if you stay in the cold range and give it more time, it might create a better finish.

Too hot and it’ll start melting.

Maybe also “priming” the chamber with a heat gun so the air is also warm. (Do this before placing the MEK!)

Also, a small hole someplace that’ll get covered and a toothpick to lift the part will help retain its shape.

a MEK vapor bath would likely give you a smooth finish. But, Uhm, personally the raw print is probably preferable as MEK is some nasty shit. (not so nasty you can’t buy it at your local big box hardware store, but it’s not something you can just pour into a kitchen pot and be safe around.)

it would work similar to an acetone vapor bath for ABS.

Very few printers are going to be able to do 90 degree overhangs even close to nicely. Bridging? Sure. With significant overhangs, it’s always going to wiggle a bit until you get some more layers.

If OP weren’t using this to get as close as possible, I’d say the answer was organic supports coming in from the bed.

Try Changing the width and Hight of the First Layer to smaller Values, no clue Why, but it Fixed this kinda issue before for me!

reducing the width of the first layer seems counter intuitive to me. usually adhession is improved by using widths wider than the nozzle since the plastic has to get smooshiefied into the surface. I don’t know there’s much difference on the first layer 125%-200% of the nozzle width, but I find going over definitely helps. (I use 150% for stronger parts in general.)

or at least that’s been my experience. nozzle height/z offset would be the first thing for me to check, but PLA shouldn’t be warping that bad, IMO, so there might be some thermal issues as well.

It’s definitely being under extruded. As to what’s causing that, my first guess would have been a clogged nozzle… but if it’s happening not-at-random, it’s probably not that.

is there a way to see a log of hot end temps across the prior prints? it could be that something is causing the the machine to speed up putting out more plastic and the hot end struggling to keep up, though I’m just spitballing here.

if I want to torture myself and, hum, make a custom multicolor filament, yeah.

I prefer to respect myself, so I have a sign saying “Don’t” on the box of junk with the splicer and similarly bad ideas.

It’s been modded, which is always a crapshoot. It could be a stellar printer, or they’re lying, or they think it prints amazballs, but has really low standards. Or it could be even more amazing and their standards are just straight up OCD.

From what they say, the mods are fairly common for creality printers.

It’s also super common to mod your printers, especially lower-end brands like reality.

I would suggest asking if they could do a test print- and give them the filament to do it with. Something like a Benchy won’t take too long, or too much filament. Also if it comes out nice ask for what they used as print settings.

If it prints well, 150 is a spectacular deal.

That said, I wouldn’t suggest entering non a used printer. Too many things to go wrong. (I’d also suggest avoiding the lowest end of printers.)

Dude, it takes a couple weeks just to map the area that needs to be cleared, and have exactly zero desire to monetize my hobby. figuring in my powerful need to eat, and have a home, if I even were to sell it, it’d be just as expensive as comercial options with far, far less support.

which is also why I’m not releasing the design files on it. I don’t want to deal with the inevitable questions.

Some light fixtures using rbgw- including one that has a “secret” party mode. (It’s for my niece and it has a Stary Night, but with unicorns, screen.)

Various shelving, and such.

Probably the most stand out thing, though is a robotic snow sweeper. It’s very bespoke so I won’t be publishing it, but it goes out and clears my driveway whenever it snows. The chassis, wheels and sealed housing were all printed, as well as fairings to reduce snowy build up.