3-D Printing : Elegoo Neptune Max - 7 January 2024

That's the result of about 6 hours of printing on the Elegoo Neptune Max 3-D printer. I am not an engineer but I enjoy learning how to use technology. I did not devise the small fairy door model you see above.

Yesterday I spent a great part of the day trying to level the Print Bed of the 3-D printer. I often wish technology were more 'touch and go'; it is very frustrating when things go wrong. I was very fortunate when I (eventually) found this very detailed tutorial on how to find the right level for the Print Bed. I watched other tutorials too and learnt other snippets that will help in the future, but this tutorial was the only one that gave me a crucial bit of information I needed to sort the problem I've been having when printing. Have a look at some of what's happened :

The projects were not sticking to the Print Bed so I kept on getting 'failed attempts' as you can see above. I tried different models, tweaking every time. Yesterday I went back to basics.

The tutorial took me through the lengthy process of levelling the Print Bed and each time I finished going through the steps ( tightening the nuts under the Print Bed and running the whole process ) I'd have another go and 'fail again'. This is why this little fairy door took the whole day ! (and night if you consider that I gave up and went to bed when I noticed it was finally 'sticking' properly and working).

Perhaps you are wondering why I printed a fairy door. The project was fairly straightforward and 3 dimensional but mostly flat so I could easily see whether or not the Print Bed was properly levelled. Fairy doors are normally painted and then placed outside in a secret location at the bottom of a tree.

Despite the cold I went out and tested it. Have a look :

That tree is too neat. The location needs to be surrounded by moss or stones. In addition the door is currently too clean and needs to be brown or 'aged' a bit to fit with the surroundings. This process therefore is longer, but it's okay. I appreciate that many people do not like 'clutter' like that in the outside particularly bits of plastic by a tree, so I may even put it indoors.

Thanks to Thingverse and the kindness of creators I have access to open source projects to practise, but at some point I'd also like to design something. This year I would like to take you through the process of me learning how to draft a project and complete it in the 3D printer. I reckon it will be fun.

Thank you for reading.

(All the photographs are mine and were taken with my phone)