3D printing
Parts I model in Blender and print on my Elegoo Neptune 4: cases and mounts for my hardware builds, a replacement crank handle for a factory machine, and a published tool case.
| Printer | Elegoo Neptune 4, 225 × 225 × 265 mm |
| First print | 3 April 2024 |
| Slicer | Elegoo Cura 5.6.0 |
| Material | PLA and PLA+ |
| Modelling | Blender |
| Published | 3 models on Printables |
I print the parts I model in Blender on an Elegoo Neptune 4, set up on 3 April 2024. It made the cases and mounts in my other hardware builds, the electronics bay of my RC aircraft and the propeller blades I tested for it, a replacement crank handle for a machine at a factory, and a rugged tool case that is the most downloaded of my three public models on Printables.
The first weeks, March and April 2024
Before the printer arrived I laid out its stand in Blender (31 March): three IKEA Lack tables joined by the printed feet, couplers, cones and corner stackers of N.A.L.E. (Not Another Lack Enclosure), a Printables design by Mike attempts. The bottom table holds storage, and the two above it form a double-height section for the printer with the spool on top. The printer arrived on 3 April and ran its first print that evening. The stand’s parts took the rest of the first week, 5 to 11 April, and on 9 April a replacement kitchen-cabinet handle, measured from the broken one on 29 March, came off the bed.
On 14 and 15 April I designed a print-in-place bearing and went through four versions of it. The same idea came back a year later in the crank handle.
Calibration, April to June 2024
The z-offset came first. I printed large test patches, adjusting the offset during the print and writing the value on each band (−0.63 to −0.69 mm on the first patch). After the printer moved a few metres to its new place, the second patch came out ragged from −0.71 to −0.75 mm. Levelling the bed by hand with a sheet of paper fixed it, and after that the right offset was easy to find.
The rest followed one test at a time: tolerance and negative-space tests in the first week, a PLA+ temperature tower and two retraction towers (30 April and 1 May), a filament-change multicolour test in May, then in June a bridging test I drew myself, ironing at 15, 20, 25 and 50 %, and a swatch for each filament. The material is PLA and PLA+, with the hotend at 200 to 230 °C and the bed at 45 to 60 °C. The slicer is Elegoo Cura 5.6.0; OrcaSlicer and PrusaSlicer got a short trial in June 2024.
Own designs, May and June 2024
My three public models on Printables all date from these weeks. The first, on 10 May, was a star from the filament-change test. From 15 to 18 May I designed a duct for a 120 mm fan that is not on Printables. It bolts to the fan’s four screw holes, tapers over 63 mm to an 80 mm outlet, and holds a hub cap in line with the fan’s motor on four spokes. A lower variant with arched spokes and a pointed hub cone followed on 18 May. The most downloaded public model is a case for the NB1100 deburring tool and its spare blades, published on 19 May: a remix of two rugged-box versions by Marek Zítka and 3DBirdy, with a top cover I redrew to the tool’s outline, assembled with six M3 × 20 bolts and nuts. Another maker has printed it and posted the result. On 2 June I published a bag clip of my own design, and on 16 June I modelled a replacement car clip on the original part.
A replacement crank handle, April and May 2025
A crank handle snapped on a machine at the factory where a relative works. The original turned on bearings. From the broken pieces and a photo of where it sat, I modelled a replacement in Blender. Between 13 April and 3 May 2025 it went through five versions of an all-plastic knob and two of a core for bearings, with a thread test and a helper part along the way.
The all-plastic knob prints as a single part: a grippy outer shell around an inner sleeve that sits on the shaft’s hex, with a 0.3 mm gap between them. Chamfered lips at both ends of the shell run in grooves in the sleeve, so the shell turns freely but cannot come off. It turns really well, especially with a drop of grease. The other design is a core with an 8.3 mm journal for two standard skate bearings pressed on. Both designs were tried on the machine, and several machines there take the same handle.
Parts for the other builds, April 2024 to January 2026
The printer also made parts for my other hardware builds:
- RC aircraft: control horns (April 2024), the motor mount (May 2024) and the electronics bay (July 2024). The folding propeller blades I printed in several sizes in April and July 2024 came apart at high RPM on the bench, so none of them ever flew.
- The other builds: the laser body (August 2024), the USB HID stick (November and December 2024), the Luckfox case in two versions (December 2024 and January 2025) and the LED lamp cylinder (January 2025).
- RC car: the board cases, the shocks and the motor cases, October and November 2024.
- Handheld radio controller: the shell, after a joystick fit test, February 2025.
- Sensor display: the case, first in October 2024, then a second version in December 2025, revised in January 2026.