Definition of ITERATION
1: the action or a process of iterating or repeating; as in a procedure in which repetition of a sequence of operations yields results successively closer to a desired result
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ATTEMPT #1: iPad stand design using SketchUp (late September)
PROBLEM #1: Those non-manifold edges will get you every time. Despite his best efforts (and those of the netfabb repair), he could not produce a closed surface model.
SOLUTION #1: Cole redesigned the entire thing on TinkerCAD, which we've found very closed-surface friendly. In fact, the students almost entirely use TinkerCAD for their models, just because it produces such reliable stl files. Despite there being a hold up with TinkerCAD student accounts....
OUTCOME #1: The model was closed, watertight, and ready to go!
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ATTEMPT #2: Redesigned on TinkerCAD. Printed on the Makerbot (Oct 6) after a lengthy gcode generation. At 25% fill, this will be an estimated 17 hour 22 minute print job. I started it early (like 5 am early) in the morning. It seemed to be working quite well. Cole has really pushed our Makerbot to its limits... literally. Since the build took up the entire build plate, part of the raft even hung off the edge of the heated bed.
PROBLEM #2: By 11 am, the filament must have gotten pinched on the spool, since a student yelled out, "Ms. Mytko, something is WRONG with the PRINTER! It is just printing AIR!" Ends up, the feed tube is loose (since the plastic clamps that are supposed to hold it down were broken on day 1 ... I prefer to say they were "over-loved" by the middle school kids). In any case, with the motion of the nozzles, the tube was slipping down until it caused the filament to get caught in the spool. While our temporary solution of rubber bands had apparently been working for short-term prints, it appears this long-term print was going to be an issue. The tube seemed to slip down every couple of hours, causing the filament to pinch.
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