Notes from 3d Printing Meeting Feb1 2023

3D Printing

There have been discussions in Slack about the 3D printing area around proposed guidelines and rules.

Do Not Hack

Problem: - how to manage donated filament and people taking stuff. Is there a difference between the 3D printing area and the rest of the space?

In general, if you have an item it should be in a box or in Large Project Storage with a do not hack sticker. Obviously it would be expected that stuff with a DNH sticker shouldn't be taken, but that hasn't happened here. Best not to leave stuff lying aroun

We have guidelines. Put it in your box. If it's valuable take it home, and put a DNH sticker. This all stems from an unfortunate incident where someone forgot to put it away.

Filament

Marianna: Will post a link in the channel to University of Manchester who are trying to get rid of filament because they recycle material. Are we actively looking for donations

It might be good to have a few basic colours available. - That would be something to delegate to the 3D Printing team who have a budget they could use for it.

If members are willing to coordinate it's quite easy to get a variety of filament between them. Possibly rather than it being a thing that is expected of the Hackspace it might be good to just chuck in for a few extra rolls for people to experiment with next time we place an order.

Benefit of the space providing filament is we can pick a brand and people can develop good slicer settings for it. Newer users might struggle to find good settings. Knowledge sharing might work

Suggestion of sample packs, which is a thing we used to have. Might be good to have in the vending machine. Suggests it could go in with the laser stuff for sale.

Boils down to desire for consumable filament by members but needs to be managed in a good way for fair use.

3D Printing Team

Connor: Do we need to expand the 3D printing team? Mike: Dave has mentioned in the channel he's looking for help. Chris R: Points out that a few people have offered but there have been a few barriers to entry.

Safety

Discussion about unattended printing. Chris: Suggestion that the Ultimaker is a higher risk since it's made of wood while the Enders are a lower risk. Some confusion about whether leaving a print unattended means 5 mins or overnight.,

Discussion about fire risks. Suggestion of downstairs solvent cabinet for the resin printer.

Connor Wood: As someone who works in software, wouldn't trust the firmware alone to always behave perfectly

Fair Use / Timeslots

Suggest we find a way to make timeslots bookable, but more flexible than HMS is for the current tools. For new materials it's helpful to have time to experiment. Maybe just a whiteboard if not something in HMS for people to informally manage time among themselves.

Hopefully friendly and open communication on Slack would allow the 3D printer users of the space could self manage

Discussion of clashes. How to avoid this if someone has commuted to use the printer. RFID access is a long term goal but will hopefully help that. The suggestion of using Slack to manage it might help in the short term.

Discussion of various systems that could solve this. Unfortunately this is never quick in our experience so better to rely on people's good behaviour to solve the problem.

Andrew W: Suggests there are systems in place if things really fall apart to provide arbitration.

Overview of proposed Guidelines

1. Do not hack printer hardware or software
   1. - do not hack the printers - seems like a no brainer
2. Do not run the printers beyond recommended speeds/heat settings
   1. do not run beyond recommended settings - same as anything else in the space - do not abuse the machines
3. Do not remove filament or sd cards that don’t belong to you
   1. also same as anything else -MIKE what if printing has finished?
   2. members can self organise to borrow filament and remove prints for each other.
4. Remove prints within 10 minutes of prints finishing. If you cannot do this please do not print
   1. Better to say something like "Remove prints as soon as possible after they finish. If you find a print is cool and hasn't been removed it's okay to remove it"
   2. members can self organise to borrow filament and remove prints for each other.
   3. (re number 6, removal needs to be prompt as members have left prints on the printers for many hours even days! its not fair to expect others to carefully remove prints,cards and filament an "look after it". its not something we do on any other tools. )
5. Remove your filament and sd card once your printing is done and tidy up your area- roll into 4 somehow
6. 3D printing team members need to self organise, post in the channel that they'll be doing this, don't want the trustees to have to police th
7. Maybe members should only use the second printer for short prints, not leave them unattended
   1. suggests this should maybe be by prior arrangement only
8. 1 member using 2 or more printers at the same time is not permitted.
9. Do not use the printers to create illegal items, weapons or “adult toys” . Cosplay weapons/nerf are allowed
   1. There was a question about why Do not create adult toys was proposed?
10. No using the printers in a way that causes damage, inconvenience to others or brings the space into disrepute.
11. The space does not guarantee the availability of printers
12. No unattended prints longer than 7 hours (ultimaker has separate rules)
    1. Change to 8
13. No overnight unattended printing until safeguards are put in place

Options / Extras

Swap out the ultimaker with the ender 5 and set it up as a "print and go" machine with filament and charge for it per hour. 

Douglas: Raises the case where an issue was using a printer connected to a computer. More useful for a test print/calibration than as a common case, generally less reliable than printing from SD generally.

RE: No print farming, is there some way to set up a print server. Octo Pi works quite well for me at home, how we manage it in the space might be an issue. Might be good to set up with local access to avoid encouraging unattended printing. Can run on a cheaper Rock Pi or on a PC. (edited) 

Donations of SD cards welcome

See also

• 3d Printing Area Discussions Feb 2023 Notes