123 Counting Fun for Kids - #30DoC Days 9&10

Day's 9 and 10 of my 30 days of creativity ( #30DoC ) involved my Kids, they are always such a massive source of ideas and creative opportunity. We have been doing numbers and basic maths recently with them, using the normal flash cards and coins. They are still not visualising numbers all that well so I decided to try and design a basic set of counters that could form games and number play before bedtime.

The visual numbers board is similar to the ones used in UK schools, but as it's 3D printed I can evolve it over time.

A simple Sketchup design gave me a board of 100 squares, a strip of 10 and a single counter.

The main board is 150mm x 150mm so fits on a Prusa Heated bed, I also used this model to test out the 'Brim' idea to stop warping, see below- 

The 'Brim' as proposed by Idolcrasher here  uses the normal outline that's used to prime the extruder, but given 0mm distance from the part and with more outlines makes a 'Brim' on the border of the thing being printed. the only down-side is that it does not hug the outline of the printed object especially if you print more than one thing at a time.

This was a very large single print, but I was impressed with how level and smooth the first two layers went down, this was quite a mesmerising print to watch, build up, I almost watched the entire thing for over an hour.

It's printing at 80mm/sec so it's really nice to see no gaps in the filament.

I switched to Neon Pink, during the last final layer before doing the numbers.

Very Pink! 

I was very pleased with the end result, and so were the kids. No warping at all thanks to the Brim?

The files are up on Thingiverse here, if you fancy printing a set or improving it.

Thanks for looking,

Cheers,

Rich.

Quick-fit Extruder mount and X Axis for the Printrbot 3D printer #30DoC day 5

For Day 5 of  30 days of creativity ( #30DoC ) I give you another addition to the Quick-Fit family, here is a Quick-Fit X carriage and mount for the Printrbot. Designed for any extruder's that can go on my Quick-Fit X carriage.

Mount with 3 LM8UU linear bearings and 4 x M4 bolts rather than the original 2.

Bad photo, but you get the Idea.

I have upgraded the dual bearing X Axis on the original Printrbot to a 3 bearing design, It should now perform better and be more stable doing this.

Above is the new design, below is the original - Note you don't loose any X axis movement or printing area with the Quick-Fit mount.

I'm calling it the PINKrBot for obvious reasons, if you need some ultra bright Pink PLA, Faberdashery have just launched an insanely bright and fluorescent range for the summer - * Punk Star Pink *

Files for the Printrbot Quick-Fit X carriage are up on Thingiverse Here.

While I was in the middle of drawing this for the Printrbot, a quick-fit adapter for Huxley was requested, as they share a vertical X arrangement, it should be possible. I'm just a little worried it will use up all of Huxley's X space!

#30DoC Day 5 - for inspirational work from around the world

I'm not obsessed with Extruder's and X carriages, I just really like them :)

 ** - Also Awesome things are happening over at the Unfold-Fab, right now, do take a look.

Thanks for looking, let me know if you have a Printrbot (built up) and also if you print one of these.

More tomorrow.

Cheers,

Rich