So having thought about the problem I reckoned that the gear on the stepper motor was probably the problem as the belt seemed tight enough. Popped it off and it did look a bit ill defined. So what to do? Print out another gear off course 🙂
Then have another crack at the print.
 
And we have a winner!
Here is the original scan
Yep. seems like I have a problem with the beds Y axis slipping during printing. I am not sure if its the poor plastic gear or the belt slipping but it only does it in one direction which makes me think belt slippage.
Here is todays print which I would have been happy with if it hadn’t slipped half way down her face.
Ok not really 3D printing as such but interesting left field thinking from the pages of New Scientist :-
WOULD you dare to let a 3D printer ink your next tattoo?
During a recent electronics workshop at the ENSCI-Les Ateliers design school in Paris, a group of students decided to swap a MakerBot’s extruder for a pen.
Within a few hours, they had modified the printer to draw simple, short-term doodles on skin. Not satisfied with temporary tattoos, the students added parts from a standard tattoo machine. The result: a printer that can give you permanent tats.
After the invention was tested on simulated skin, volunteers lined up for the honour of being the first to get inked. “A lot of people were excited by the idea of being the first human tattooed by a ‘robot’,” writes team leader Pierre Emm in the instructions they posted online.
The design is created in regular modelling software. So far, the printer can only draw simple outlines like circles. The hardest part is ensuring the skin is kept taut and flat. Human skin is flexible and curved, which makes accurate printing more difficult.
“The idea really isn’t to replace the tattoo artist: you can’t replace their eyes and brain,” says Samuel Bernier, their instructor. “What’s interesting is to open the discussion.”
This article appeared in print under the headline “Permanent tattoos inked by hacked 3D printer”
Got in a new batch of white PLA and it has very different properties to the first batch I had. I am having to print with a much lower temperature than previously and it seems more blobby. It seems to retain heat much more as well which causes the edge that is furthest from the fans influence to lift really badly then the print head crashes into it and dislodges the print. I need to find a better fan duct.
Today printed a fully functioning ready assembled adjustable spanner.
