3D Printing

Problem solved! I transferred all the junk PLA parts into a cardboard box ready to take to the local tip. I left the box outside my shed at the bottom of the garden. Unfortunately the fence between our property and "next door" has a loose panel that has needed replacing for a long time. Fortunately, "next door" have been boarding a goat for a relative who is away on holiday for a few weeks. As you know, goats are inquisitive and will eat almost anything, it must have butted aside the loose panel and investigated the contents of the cardboard box. The PLA was a tasty snack, crunchy too! Even one corner of the cardboard box was chewed off.
How fortunate was that? Saved me a visit to the tip, and with a chunk missing, the cardboard box was easy to fold up and put into the Big Bin.
Glad I didn't mend the fence last year.

That's awful! Eating your plastic without prior knowledge. Dread to see what comes out the other end. Possibly a decent looking billy wing.....:lol:

PLA Composting
Biodegradation of a PLA bottle
Biodegradation of a PLA bottle Source: Dr. Mariano Ramirez / sustpkgg.blogspot.com
If you can’t turn PLA into recycled plastic through conventional means, there’s another interesting way to deal with it without sending it to a landfill. One of the unique features of PLA is that it’s a biodegradable plastic, which means it can be broken down over time by bacteria and fungi. You can take advantage of this fact by “composting” your PLA waste.

Composting PLA involves breaking it into small pieces and leaving it in a microbe-rich environment like a compost pile. Depending on your local conditions, it can take a very, very long time until the PLA is fully broken down. (Expect up to a year in wet climates, and even longer in dryer climates!)

I think it'll take less that a year to compost now that the goat has made a start on the process! So far there's a cluster of small round balls that glow slightly in the dark, easy enough to combine with the contents of the compost heap. We don't grow vegetables so it won't do much harm if the flower beds fluoresce gently through the night.

So if you loose a 3D printed model in the crops - how long before all thats remains is just the Electrics and pushrods ?

Not a problem Kevin, John Bannister would spot it on his early morning patrol, and leave it in the Club hut. Sorted!

I should have opened the box from Hobby King, then I wouldn't have felt so smug a couple of days ago. Yesterday evening I had an email from HK asking what I would like to do about the brushless motor that I'd ordered but they didn't have any more. Funny how an item goes from available to "back order" as soon as you try to buy it. Naturally, nothing worth doing is ever easy, the original folding prop assembly won't fit any other motor than the one from HK, so a replacement for the motor will include another prop/spinner/blades.

The print process slowed up a bit yesterday. On Friday night, I'd left the printer working on ten parts for the Joker's wing and flaps, the program predicted twenty three hours. I was disappointed to find the printer hadn't completed the job. It had stopped printing at a height of about 60mm. The display was reading a time in excess of 23 hours, so the failure to print was due to lack of filament. I checked the extruder and the filament was loaded alright, I reheated the nozzle area to around 260 degrees just in case the nozzle was blocked, usually this produces a few drops of melted plastic. This time it didn't, even probing with a tiny needle didn't improve things at all. I tried to clear the extruder by unloading the filament, that's when I found the cause of the print failure, the extruder motor wasn't driving the filament. My fault, when I assembled the rebuilt extruder head, the filament drive gear has a tiny grub screw that locates on a flat on the motor shaft. This screw is only accessible with a long Allen key, unfortunately all my long keys are ball ended, so getting a screw really tight isn't an option. At the time of the assembly I'd thought of using Loctite, but I couldn't find it, so I forgot all about it. I suppose I've been pretty lucky so far, the screw only came loose after a lot of printing. Anyway, its now screwed in with a proper plain ended Allen key and for peace of mind, it has a drop of Loctite as well. The next print stage will be the six parts that form the fuselage, I'll have to wait until six 'o clock tomorrow to find out if ot has worked.

Checked the progress after three hours, I think the Loctite and newly tightened grub screw are working well. Six pieces of fuselage on the build plate, bit fuzzy as it moves quite quickly,and I didn't use flash for the shot, the actual colour of the print is a bit "bluer" than shown in the photo. More printing tomorrow, with a bit of luck.

Them bits look quite good. Can't wait to see the finished article.

Good Luck Brian. You have more patience then me. Also its good idea to clean your toothed gear which feeds your filament with a small paint brush, which dose get clogged up with filament dust.