Firstly, thank you all for your help with finding an iconic Rarity pose. I believe the one that we’ll be going with is the one with her standing proudly with one hoof raised.

Secondly, the models are coming along great, we’ve got it rigged especially nicely from what I hear from my partner, she’s in the lab now as I fiddle with my nozzle.

Let me rephrase that.

I was soaking my nozzle.

…

One more time, I was soaking the brass barrel & brass nozzle with the PTFE tubing in draino. Turns out Draino (Lye, Caustic Soda, doom juice, ect…) does in fact NOT work. Nor does Acetone on PLA. The solution, you’re gonna laugh.

Measuring cup full of boiling hot water. Softened it up, with a little elbow grease and a glasses screwdriver, I was able to dislodge the plug in the PTFE tubing. Turns out I just really need to screw that bad boy in there about another centimeter. How I missed this the last time, I don’t know.

I was able to free the brass nozzle from the brass barrel (finally) and I discovered that I had not one, but TWO jams in this sucker. A piece of ABS from my first attempts at printing was floating around and must have just finally gotten lodged in the nozzle/barrel junction.

It’s sitting in Acetone right now to melt that away. Then back to boiling water to finish the unclogging. Right now, I have a pound of ABS, and a few samples on hand for PLA. The question is now, with a freely cleared machine, I have the choice to use either, once again.

It all comes down to the hot end. Basically, a test tonight will determine if it can in fact reach the 230 C needed to get good flowing ABS, i want to try it. If it in fact cannot, then we use PLA. Why is this a question? Well in dismantling the extruder, I found that one of the heat resister (that’s the heating element in my machine) had a wire snap a little too easily. I might not have done a proper solder job to it at the time, meaning it might not have been able to properly heat up. It could also be a pretty junk resister. It could also be a setting deep within the software that’s misfiring.

But if after tinkering with it a bit tonight to find out what the dealy-o is, I’ll determine if it’s ABS or PLA that’s the better choice. Without a good enough power supply to provide for my heated bed, I can’t use it, and thus ABS won’t stick very well. EXCEPT I have a bunch of acetone with abs dissolving in it as we speak, creating the ultra-sticky ‘ABS juice’. I can literally paint that to my printing bed, and it’ll create a nice thin surface of abs that will heat up very quickly and bind to the first layer that comes down. Basically, no heated bed right now, but lots of super-sticky bonding liquid.

Or I can use PLA which requires a lower temp that I know my machine can do, can bond without need for a heated bed or special juice. It needs a fan on it so it can reduce it’s temp fast enough for the second layer to stick firmly (it’s in a molten state coming out, if it’s too hot, it just blobs all over instead of providing a strong surface.) I have a jet engine of a box fan that does the job nicely.

What’s the difference to you, the customers? Well, actually, not much. Both have their advantages. PLA is rock solid, but a little brittle. ABS is a bit flexible and has more give meaning it won’t break as easily, but it’s easier to scuff since it is softer. Both have their upsides and downsides, both for you and for me. Yay materials.

And you probably thought my other tumblr would be the one to tackle all this science-y stuff huh? Well. It will, in fact, while I’m waiting for these things to take place, I am in fact working on some cool vectors for both the new AskASmartPony layout AND for something super special.

That’s your update for today. Please don’t spend the rest of the day face down in the mud.