Tag: 3dprinting

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Bambu Lab A1 mini Gets Messy

The Bambu Lab A1 mini I got in June 2024 hasn’t had and real failures until now, in January 2026, which is pretty darn good. Occasionally a print would fail, but I’d say over 98% of the time it just prints without issue.

The other day I hit print, walked away, and came back to… no print. Weird. I hit print again, or maybe I forgot to hit print the first time? I figured I forgot, and it was user error. Ah, no. I came back to the blob you see above.

In the old days this would have been disastrous, perhaps needing quite a bit of teardown, maybe requiring a heat gun or torch, and I was ready for that, but… I didn’t really need any special tools at all! (I used a needle nose pliers and some small forceps.)

I heated up the extruder and managed to get the blob off, and then allowed the machine to cool and got the hotend off. It was actually too easy. Is this printers in 2026!? There’s a mess, but hey, not too bad…

The area where the hotend clips in had some filament as well, which had to be cleaned up and removed.

It was just too easy! It’s like they added a non-stick surface to the thing. I suppose that shiny metal is exactly that, a surface that filament will not stick to.

And cleaning up the hotend was again, almost too easy! Hell, I fought in the Printer Wars back in the 2010s and it was nothing like the world we have today. I put almost no effort into getting the filament mess off of things. Damn.

Up and running, printing again, after like 15 minutes, and half of that was probably heating up the extruder and then letting it cool down.

The world may be going to shit in 2026 but at least the printers got their shit together.

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Cat Treat Puzzles

There are two cats at our house. Chooch, who is chill and cute and amazing… and Bubbs who is destructive an asshole and… amazing. In a different way. Like, he fucks with things. He gets bored, I guess. Especially at around 2am when he messes with stuff in the bedroom so we lock him out, but then he does crazy shit. So Dana got this Catstages Kitty Cube Cat Interactive Treat Puzzle Toy to try to occupy him a bit. She said it’s the easiest puzzle toy she could find, just to get him started.

It does keep him busy for a bit, so that’s good. And he knows he get treats when he plays with it. But also, 3D printing, so I went looking for ‘cat toy treat puzzles’ and found a few. And yeah, I missed the Cat Toys Contest back in 2023.

I printed Cat Toy – Treat Dispenser Puzzle and chose the Removable Axle for Cat Treat Dispenser Puzzle to go with it. I wasn’t sure what size holes to go with for the treat barrel, as it depends on the size of the treats. I ended up adding a little hot glue on some of the holes to make it more difficult for the treats to fall out. I may even cover up a few of the holes to make it even more difficult.

Overall, this one is a winner though! Bubbs will spin it and get treats to come out. Chooch, well, not so much. She isn’t that smart. But she is smart enough to sit nearby when Bubbs gives it a spin because sometimes a treat will fly out and she’ll get it first!

I also printed Tumbling Treats Egg (Cat Toy) but they don’t seem to be as excited about this one. It requires a good smacking to get treats out, and I think they treat it to gently. I did enlarged the hole with a step bit hoping it might be a little easier for them. We’ll see how that goes.

I have not yet printed Sliding Cat Treat Puzzle but it looks pretty promising, so that might be next in the print queue.

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Aventon Level 3 MIK Adapter Plate

Remember when I got an ebike? It came with a rear rack, which is handy. I added one (along with a bag) to my old Trek, and I used it all the time. I found that commuting to work often required me to move things, and a milk crate on the back worked well, but the zip ties meant it was a pain to put on and take off, so a quick release mount is a good option.

And guess what? The Aventon Level 3 might be MIK compatible. I say “might” because it’s tricky…

I asked Aventon for specs on the rear rack that ships with the Aventon Level 3 and they could not (or would not) provide them. I ended up modeling a version of the rack so I could virtually model something for it. (Note: The model is not perfect, but worked for my needs.)

Meanwhile I found this MIK adapter plate on Printables so I thought I would give it a try. (I loaded the STL file with the rack model I created and it looked it would fit.)

Does it work? Yes, but… But it’s 3D printed. This means you can make one for a very low cost as compared to buying one. (Here’s the real thing, at $40 USD.) I used ASA filament and a roll is $30 USD so I can print about a dozen adapter plates…

The first one I printed was actually PLA to make sure things worked. I used it with the milk crate on my bike rack and it did work. I destroyed it when I grabbed the crate to move the bike. Bad idea! The ebike weight over 65 pounds. I just ripped the adapter apart.

I printed one in ASA and that one broke as well, so I modified the model to make it stronger, but that one flew off my bike when I took a fast corner. So I learned a few things. First, I am riding an ebike, often going over 17mph on rough Milwaukee streets. I can’t always avoid potholes or other street damage so I bump and bounce occasionally. On a heavy bike with a heavy rider on bad streets the 3D printed version might not hold up.

The most recent failure involved the little part that uses a spring to click into place. I realized I should have printed the part sideways instead of flat. I re-printed, and with more shells and infill and it’s held up so far, but I’ve added a bungee cord to be safe.

I may go back to printing with PLA modifying things a bit. maybe creating a better locking mechanism than a spring loaded wedge part. I really think that’s the failure point, and it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure something out. The next alternative after that is to scrap this whole idea and come up with my own mounting solution. In theory it should be quick and easy to install and remove something from the rack, but it should hold well enough to not fall off… how hard could that be!?

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Fixing a Watch Band (Again!)

Remember when I fixed my watch band? Well, it didn’t last. The replacement (from my old Fitbit) lasted a few weeks, but it also broke, so I went back to using rubber bands, until…

I thought to myself, just 3D print one! And I thought about doing it with TPU. But then I got lazy and just made one with PLA. I figured I would give that a try first, and… it does work!

I think I was convinced it needed to be soft and flexible but the PLA one has been under daily testing for over a week now and it might be just fine. The tricky part is I needed to make it just a little bit larger that the piece of metal it needs to slide over to get onto the band. But I didn’t want to make it too much larger. The size is a little annoying because I wish it were smaller, but without the flex of rubber or silicone or whatever, that isn’t happening. (And TPU probably wouldn’t have much stretch anyway.)

Just in case you need to do this too see the Watch Band Holder files in my OpenSCAD repository. Cheers!

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3D Printed Sign Handle

Sign Handle

Sign Handle

I designed a sign handle I could use for the protest signs I’ve been making lately.

Sign Handle

It’s a handle and backing piece. The two pieces bolt together using 8-32″ bolts (or 4mm bolts) and clamp around the sign. If you have concerned about wind you can hot glue the backing piece to the sign to add some solid support.

Sign Handle

I made the back piece larger & taller and glued it in place after a particular windy day! (You can see a little bead of hot glue sticking out of the top of the back piece in the photo above.

Sign Handle

The handle part is hollow, but you can print the whole thing without support. This is one of those prints that is more functional than beautiful, and as long as it works I don’t care how nice it looks. (I mean, it still looks good of course!)

Sign Handle

My signs are typically around 18″ x 12″ and I use cardboard of varying thicknesses. The only thing I don’t like about it is that I didn’t have the right size bolts so I had to cut some down to not stick out too far. (If the bolts stick out too far they could cause damage, and uh… well, no one wants that, right?)

Sign Handle

You can get the STL files from Printables.com – Sign Handle and you’ll need to make your own sign! (Or find some here!)