#3d printer stringing

[ragsy]

Printed and painted my Maggie heroforge :')

[nickistuffs]

Falling and Filament

Pairing: Harry x Designer reader (curvy or plus size whatever you feel they should look like. This is my preference 😌)

Summary: He loves watching you work but there will always be casualties

Word Count: 1.3k

Warnings: Minor burn injury. Fluffy 💗

✨masterlist✨ read the rest of Harry x Designer Reader there

...

Harry was always in awe of your artistic endeavours. Every time he thought he had seen it all, you’d surprise him with something new—whether it was sketching intricate designs, sculpting digital models, or, his personal favourite, watching you bring those 3D models to life. The fact that you could design something on a computer, print it physically in just an hour, and hold the finished product in your hands was nothing short of magic to him.

But today, instead of watching you create, he was watching you fix—crouched over your 3D printer, sleeves rolled up, hands skillfully unscrewing tiny parts as you diagnosed whatever issue had put a pause on your latest project.

Harry sat on the floor beside you, his chin resting on his palm, completely fascinated by the whole process—even if he didn’t fully understand what you were doing.

“I swear, Y/N, I think you could build an IKEA shelf in under an hour,” he mused, watching as you carefully adjusted a setting on the machine.

You chuckled, eyes still focused on your work. “That’s easy if you have the instructions and a little patience.”

Harry scoffed. “Yeah, except IKEA furniture is impossible—too many tiny parts, too many confusing details. How do you make sense of stuff like this?”

You didn’t even look up, just shaking your head with a small laugh as you continued your work. “Because I like problem-solving. Besides, once you do it enough times, it’s just second nature.”

Harry watched as you pushed a thin plastic string through a tube, demonstrating with ease. “What happened to your printer, anyway?” he asked.

“Oh, just some basic maintenance,” you replied. “The nozzle’s clogged, so I just need to swap it out.”

Harry frowned slightly, watching as you fed the filament through. “This is the filament,” you explained. “It’s what comes out of the nozzle to form the print.” You gestured toward the machine as a small blob of plastic sluggishly oozed out of the tip. “See? It’s clogged. It should be coming out in a steady, clean stream.”

Before he could ask another question, you grabbed a small tool and began unscrewing the copper nozzle with practiced precision.

And then—

“Ow!”

Harry’s head snapped up. “What? What happened?” His voice was immediately laced with concern.

You shook your hand out nonchalantly, blowing on your fingers. “The nozzle slipped. It was still hot.”

Without hesitation, Harry reached for your hand, gently cradling it as he examined the small red mark where the nozzle had landed. His brows furrowed, and without thinking, he blew softly over the irritated skin. “Be careful, Y/N, please,” he murmured, his voice softer now.

You smiled at his concern, shaking your head. “Harry, don’t worry too much. I’ve done this a million times. When you work with your hands, you get used to a few injuries here and there.”

“That doesn’t mean you should keep burning yourself,” he mumbled, still holding your hand like he could protect it from any future harm.

You gave his fingers a reassuring squeeze before pulling away to finish the job. With a few more careful turns, you secured the new nozzle into place, giving it one last check before straightening up. “And… done.”

Harry watched in amazement as you ran a quick test, the printer coming to life with a soft whir. The filament now flowed smoothly, a perfect, clean stream extruding from the nozzle.

You turned to him with a satisfied grin. “Now I can finish my other projects. C’mon, you can watch me.”

Harry stood, shaking his head in disbelief but smiling nonetheless. “You’re ridiculous,” he said fondly, wrapping an arm around your shoulders as you led him toward your workspace.

...

A little while later, Harry found you hunched over your latest 3D print, carefully slicing off imperfections with a precision cutter. He leaned against the table, watching you work.

“But I do wish you were more careful,” he said, frowning slightly as you dragged the blade along the plastic, removing small bumps from the surface. “You already burned yourself today, and now you’re using a sharp tool on a tiny piece of plastic.”

You snickered, not even looking up. “I actually do know when to stop, you know.”

Harry arched an eyebrow. “Oh yeah?”

You nodded, still focused. “It’s when I get too angry.”

That made Harry pause. “Wait—what?”

You giggled at your own ridiculousness, finally looking at him. “If I’m getting too frustrated, I know it’s time to stop before I accidentally take off a whole chunk of my model… or my own finger.”

Harry groaned, running a hand down his face. “That’s not reassuring, love.”

You just grinned and turned back to your work. “Relax, I have it under control.”

“I don’t know if I believe you,” he muttered. “You did just burn yourself like twenty minutes ago.”

You shrugged, pressing your lips together to hide another laugh. “That was a heat-related incident. This is a precision-related incident. Different categories.”

Harry let out an exaggerated sigh. “Bloody hell. You’re going to give me a heart attack one day.”

You just smirked, holding up your freshly cleaned 3D model. “And yet, you love watching me work.”

Harry crossed his arms, shaking his head but smiling nonetheless. “Yeah, yeah. Just don’t make me have to call for medical help, alright?”

You shot him a wink. “No promises.”

And with that, you turned back to your project, Harry staying right by your side, watching with equal parts amazement and exasperation as you worked your magic.

Later that evening, the two of you were curled up on the couch, a quiet moment settling between you. The TV was on, but neither of you was really paying attention. Instead, you were absentmindedly tracing your fingers over Harry’s hand, feeling the rough texture of his fingertips.

“Well, your work does have casualties too,” you mused, pressing your thumb lightly against one of the hardened spots. “Your fingers are so calloused from playing the guitar.”

Harry smirked, flexing his hand under your touch. “Part of the job, love.”

You hummed thoughtfully, still running your fingers over his. “And, you know… you fall a lot, Harry. I’m surprised you haven’t broken an ankle yet.”

Harry gasped dramatically, placing a hand over his heart. “How dare you?”

You grinned. “I dare because I’ve seen the videos. I’ve seen you trip over nothing—on stage, on the street, probably in your own house.”

Harry rolled his eyes, but his lips twitched in amusement. “It’s called commitment to the performance. If I fall, I do it with style.”

You laughed, shaking your head. “No, Harry. You fall like a baby deer learning how to walk.”

Harry groaned, flopping back against the cushions. “Unbelievable. My own girlfriend, bullying me.”

“Just speaking facts,” you teased, poking his cheek.

With a mischievous glint in his eye, Harry suddenly grabbed your waist, flipping you onto your back as he hovered over you. “Alright, let’s talk about your track record, shall we?”

You gasped in mock offense. “Excuse me?”

“Oh, don’t think I’ve forgotten about you burning yourself earlier. Or the time you dropped your phone on your face. Or when you tripped over your own 3D printer cord and almost wiped out.”

You let out an indignant squeak. “That was one time!”

Harry raised a brow. “It was last week, love.”

You groaned, covering your face. “Okay, fine. Maybe we’re both accident-prone.”

Harry chuckled, leaning down to press a kiss to your forehead. “Match made in heaven, then.”

You peeked at him through your fingers. “Yeah, yeah. But if you ever actually break something from falling, I told you so.”

Harry smirked. “And if you ever lose a finger to that cutter, I told you so.”

You both burst into laughter, tangled together on the couch, fully accepting that neither of you was particularly graceful—but at least you had each other to soften the blows.

...

I need to include more design jargon in this series.

[cryptic-forge]

Hope you don't mind me asking, but how do you do those animal dolls like the cat/owl? What kind of system do you use to make them poseable under the fur? I've wanted to make art dolls like that for a long time but never knew how to start. Is it possible to do without needing any kind of 3D printer?

yea absolutely. the only 3d printed parts are the face plates/ears/paws, and the inner workings are very low-tech.

first, the armature. i don't have any pictures on hand, but it's a long piece of sturdy metal wire, bent into the basic skeleton of the creature & twisted on itself so all parts have double wire. i reinforce the shoulders & hips with thinner wire and hot glue so the crossing points don't move around when the doll is posed. there's a small stone wire-glued to the hip area, working as a counterbalance for the long neck and the faceplate.

next up, the mummy bongade stage. i wrap the skeleton in strips of quilt batting, with hot glue at the tips of the legs & tail to keep it in place. after that, i reinforce it with string, and refine the shape by tightening or loosening the string.

after this, attach the fur with a combination of sewing and gluing. i use a lot of second hand fabrics that may have irregular shapes, and also freehand the skeletons, so both the fur material and the creatures themselves differ in shape. for that reason, i don't have any patterns.

lastly, i add on the 3d printed parts. i leave loops of metal wire visible at the neck and feet, and the prints have large holes to fill with hot glue, so When They Are On They Are On, and won't come off. after that, tidying up and trimming and all the stuff one might expect.

[alllgator-blood]

I have ten billion WIP sketches I need to finish, but for some reason I stayed up from 9 PM to 4 AM conceptualizing, making patterns, sewing, painting and applying makeup on this stupid fucking felt squid......the detailing needs to be cleaned up cause there's only one coat of paint so far, but he's pretty much done

my neighbors probably think I'm insane because I was running around the yard clenching this toy kallamar in a death grip and flying him around like an airplane/putting him in the barbecue/poking him with a stick. I want to tie him to a string and recreate the opening of napoleon dynamite >:) ALSO I MADE HIM SMOKE OUT OF A STUPID CRYSTAL PIPE BUT PLEASE DON'T ACTUALLY USE THOSE, THEY ARE SUPER TOXIC LMAO MINE IS FOR DECORATION

I don't have any process pics because I had tunnel vision autism style and forgot the rest of the universe existed while I was working on him. BUT if you're curious I'll ramble below the cut

Okay I am not a seamstress by any means. I've sewn my entire life but very, very infrequently. I've done plushies, clothes, cosplays, fursuits, accessories, etc. but I only do one like once a year, so while I planned to make all 5 bishops, I'm not really sure I'll get them all done. The material cost was like 20 bucks tops so I'm not too upset if I don't finish them. I AT LEAST WANT TO GET SHAMURA OR HEKET DONE.

here is the concept sketch ft. heket's toes and shamura's fingers. I decided to do his pre-schism version so I could fit him with jewelry! I did him first because like I said I sew infrequently and don't know wtf I'm doing, everyone else seemed a lot more complicated.

So I basically just traced this drawing on a printer paper-sized canvas in SAI, and guesstimated how everything would look in a 3D space. His head is four pieces, one triangle identical to the one in the picture, two wide triangles that are sewn together in the back, and a circle for his chin. You can't really see it in any of the pics but he's literally like a black cylindrical stick with little tentacles sewn on where his mantle connects to his cloak. The leg tentacles are one piece of felt that look like tassels, where they're connected by a rectangle but branch off into individual pieces. He can't stand up very well, so his cape keeps him up (that's gonna be an issue for every other bishop too except heket cause she's gonna be ROUND). Mostly everything like the crown, cloak, head, etc. are cones so I just had to make a lot of wide triangles.

For the details, I just used acrylic paint that was watered down so he's not especially crunchy, and for the blush tone I used a makeup palette my mom bought me 10 years ago in hopes I'd get in touch with my "feminine side", but I grew up into a nonbinary butch lesbian so OOPS. Kallamar looks better with makeup than me anyway. I'm kinda sad I couldn't get his freckles as lopsided as I draw them but it probably looks better in plush form to have them even anyway....

I could just post the pattern so I don't have to explain this but 1. I am mentally ill about the thought of my kallamar being in someone else's house and 2. the original pattern had to be tweaked while I was working on him so the final pattern straight up doesn't exist, I winged it the whole time

OH and the jewelry is just scrap pieces I had laying around, I might repaint it all to be gold instead of silver + bronze. I used 20g aluminum wire for his armlet thing, jumper rings for his earrings + ring (+ a diamond dot from my mom's kits for the gem) and chain for the bracelet. I made him an amulet as well but it felt like overkill so I took it off. I'm probably gonna make him a plague doctor mask and medicine bag sometime because I think about nurse kallamar more than I probably should :') I've already sewn one as a prop for a toy raven before so it shouldn't be too hard

[otterloreart]

Takara Pony model file (.blender)

Linked is the file for the Takara pony I made (pictured above in pink). As a reminder, this is made from scratch and I don't have my own takara pony but I used as many references as possible. The joints are ball-joints but will require some additional work to use them properly, the joints need a bar across the opening to attach a hook and elastic to.

see below, black bar is a metal rod, blue S is an S-Hook and red is an elastic.

And this would be roughly how to string it, this is inspired by Dollightful's bunny doll but I also advise that the elastic between the legs be pulled upto the hoop as well if possible. The head is not a ball joint, the head + body and head + nose are meant to come together with a peg-in-socket. For the head, the tightness of an elastic should keep it on ideally, but honestly I don't know if the nose will stick in perfectly and might need to be glued, I'm not sure.

In addition to the ball-jointed takara pony, who is 9 separate pieces, I included a simple little sculpt of the "baby pony" takaras. These are just 2-part sculpts and don't need elastics or anything, they have a "peg" and "hole"

Takara baby ponies are already common on the market so I'm not sure if anyone will actually want the babies but I included it anyway. The eyes + nose are just cosmetic, the whole head is just one piece.

Anyways, a reminder that I don't have a 3D printer so I haven't tested it but feel free to download and play with the files and print them yourself if you have a 3D printer! Please credit and also tag me so I can see if someone prints them!

[charmsponies]

🩷💚 Custom Fizzy Takara Doll 💚🩷

Created using the 3d model made by Otteroflore!

Wip description and pics below the cut ^^

So I am a COMPLETE AND TOTAL NOOB when it comes to technology. and I made a lot of mistakes trying to print this Fizzy due to my own incompetence and also everyone online assuming you already kinda know something about 3d printing if you own a printer. We recieved a 3d printer as a gift and I knew Nothing about it so I reallly struggled trying to figure it out. Also my computer is ancient and had to download a like 5 year old out of date version of a 3d printing program (cura) to even get it to work. took an entire week and several failed tries T-T

FINALLY we got an attempt that was salvageable! And had to rip out all of the support beams from it. But even then there were some major mistakes:

It did not print hollow. Nobody online explained that if you want it to be hollow it wasn’t enough that the model itself had hollow parts, you have to turn off a hole setting in cura and mess with the infill or something

For some reason the bodies were Very Fucked Up? The middle and sides printed Weirdly to where, once the supports were all removed, They had no sides/shoulders. Wuh oh.

The way I combatted this was by taking extra filament plastic and a soldering iron gun to weald it on and do literal plastic surgery.

(A before and after) it looks like complete ass and is a little janky but. please be kind to her it was a major operation 😭😭😭

Then sanded things down a bit more. I know people say to sand it down until you can’t see the lines anymore but im an impatient motherfucker and only had a little bit of sandpaper so :P

Then it was painting time! Used my own fizzy to color match, painted her green with a white nose and a milkshake cutiemark. I also glued stick on gems into her eye sockets

Then the hairing! Used a sewing needle heated up with a lighter to easily poke holes into her skull! The lovely user minticat on Mlptp provided great reference images of what a takara’s hair length and hair holes look like, so I did my best to mimic that

Her hair is the closest color matches for fizzy that Shimmerlocks had: Cotton Candy pink, Angel white, Heart Throb 2.0 pink and Gusty green. Now the head isnt actually all that hollow (I hollowed it out best I could with my soldering iron but still not the best) so I couldn’t use the usual hairing method where you punch the hair in and then glue it from inside. I realized I needed to attach glue to the hair itself and then get it into the holes.

At first I was too much of a scardey cat to use my actual hairing needle in fear it would break on the plastic, so I tried a very infuriating method of putting glue on hair strands and painstakingly trying to push them into the holes with a pin. This was awful. I quickly gave up, braved up and grabbed my rehairing needle. Punched the hair in after applying glue to the hair, and it worked out surprisingly well!

All that was left was to 1) String the doll using elastic bands to tie the legs and arms into place but still make sure they were moveable. 2) GENTLY trim, wash and style the hair (using buggys special method of getting tiny curly curls. 3) Figure out the head

I originally wanted to make a neckplug for her out of clay as you see here but it didnt work too well. The plastic of the doll is much harder than the clay and it kept breaking after trying to put the head on. So I accepted I would have to glue the head on in place (It cant turn, unlike the arms and legs 😔) You can also see i used some clay to patch up a crack in the plastic that formed (which I had to paint over again)

FINAL STEP was making the dress!!! I forgot to take ANY pictures of that ùwú Not that pictures would be useful to you guys as I kinds fuckin winged it and made up a pattern as I went. I think its adorable, but in the future I would make it a little bigger (the back doesnt fit quite right). Maybe if theres interest I’ll fix up the pattern so its better and share another doll dress tutorial with the class? 😳 sound off in the comments below haha

[huhunder]

3Dprintum

Objectum attraction to 3d printers. Including, but not limited to, small, medium, large, plastic filaments printers (FDM/FFF), resin printers (SLA, DLP, MSLA). Yes, even concrete ones

The rainbow line represents ribbon cables/dupont jumper wires that sometimes are exposed, especially on FDM printers, or plastic/resin/other material that it works with. Depends on how you want to see it.

The darker lines are the layers of filament, because FDM printers print in layers, from top to bottom.

And stringing (the light strings that can be visible on almost white line).

Oversimplified explanation of what stringing is👇

What is stringing? Imagine using a hot glue gun to draw lines on paper. If you move the glue gun from one spot to another without stopping the flow, thin strands of glue will stretch between the two points. In 3D printing, the printer’s nozzle melts and extrudes plastic, and if it doesn’t stop properly when moving between different areas, it can leave behind thin, unwanted plastic strands—this is called stringing.

[emnesoi]

FIFTY TO SIXTY THOUGHTS NOW

aaaa scary

ok i will comply but only because now this is a bit instead of just random

fuck i just knocked my phone over while i was taking off my headphones

i should take out the trash

tea is cool they should make more tea

oh right i was getting drunk i totally forgot and i have half a spiked drink at my desk

i wish my teddy bear would sit up well but the ds's between its legs mean it falls over a lot due to how the leg joints work

wow i have three ds's on this desk right now that's weird

my friend left her pocketknife over and i should really give it back to her

it's a really nice pocketknife but i dont wanna use someone else's pocketknife so i should ask her where she got it

fuck coming up with 60 thoughts is hard

i need to take more instant photographs i have one i took of a friend's tsukihi plush on the bulletin board over my desk

why did i say "friend" you know exactly who im talking about

is it weird that i have a bulletin board over my desk

theres a little shelf under that bulletin board and on it i have two 3d prints, one of a marker switch from myst and one that's a lithophane of the cover of the downward spiral by nine inch nails and i think it's interesting that despite the fact that i asked a friend to print the lithophane years before i got a 3d printer you could reasonably assume i printed both of them

wow that was a thought that took way too much time to expalin

theres a lot of guitar maintenance equipment at my desk which is weird cuz i typically do that stuff at my couch rather than here

jesus christ theres too much stuff on my desk

i dont even need this string winder cuz there's a better string winder literally right next to it

i think ive used that tuning pipe like once

theres also an ace ring right next to them and i think that's funny

when i bought this flashlight i was debating whether to get this pretty decent one or a really fancy expensive one and a friend said "get the expensive one and brag about it on r/flashlights" which immediately convinced me to get the pretty decent one

i also have a set of security screwdriver heads at my desk which my dad got for me and i remember him telling me that he went to the hardware store asking for security heads and they scoffed and went "if you could just buy those they wouldn't work" so he went home and bought two sets off the internet and i thought that was funny

i hope you're reading this in the tone of Jory in that one episode of the ten minute power hour where Arin sits him on his lap and painstakingly grills him about his favorite pokemon and it gets really awkward

wow that sounds really weird when i describe it like that

fuck im not even halfway done

if i had a nickel for every thought im gonna post here i would have $3 which isnt very much money

i got a humidifier recently because it's really dry in my room and im not used to anything in here moving besides me so i keep seeing the stream of fog fog out of the corner of my eye and going AH ! INTRUDER !

that's not a bespoke thought for this thread i posted that on a discord server earlier today does that still count

it's annoying how i have to turn off my vpn whenever i try to go on rateyourmusic because it thinks im trying to ddos them or something

i dont even rate my music i just go there to get an overview of what an artist's most liked albums are so i can get into them easier

that's why im getting into current 93 through sleep has his house rather than thunder perfect mind despite the fact that i think literally everyone except rym agrees that thunder perfect mind is better

though now that i look at it they're only 0.01 off so its not like that discrepancy is that weird

with all of the bonus tracks bandcamp has, thunder perfect mind is as long as swans' soundtracks for the blind and i think that's funny

long albums are cool and i should listen to more of them, some of my favorites that ive listened to recently can't fit on a cd

it's funny that "fitting on a cd" is my criterion for "long" when i havent been an active cd collector for quite a while, i guess that just kinda wormed its way into my brain

oh we're getting enough text in this post to make the editor lag that's scary i hope it'll be good for another 23 thoughts

hey 23 is the number of thoughts i had last time i commented on how many thoughts i needed to post

shit, no it wasn't, it was 26, i really should have checked

wow i hope this is interesting to read

how many words is this at this point i need to check

it's 875 as of that last thought not including bullet points, i think that's more than the number of words ive written for my actual writing in the past few weeks

since pages hold around 250 words that means you would need four pages (ceiling) to write as much as i had written by thought 41

will people understand what i mean when i say "ceiling" i hope so

i wonder how many words this will be when im done

i think i can estimate with that other word count

since 41 is roughly 2/3rds of 60, that means that the amount of words this will have at the end will be 875*1.5 which is 1312

holy shit that's the based number

i lied it's 1312.5 i just rounded it down so it would be the based number

wow it's REALLLLY starting to lag now i wonder if the text editor's unoptimizedness is exponential for some reason

at this point im in the 50s and you asked for 50-60 so i could reasonably stop here but i kind of already committed to 60 so i can't really

i wonder if this is what you expected when you sent this ask

probably not but i mean i don't know what else you could have expected, maybe just me brushing this off aloofly

i wish i had more money so i could buy more music

it's kind of weird that i buy music right like whenever i talk about this to people theyre like oh i just use spotify or youtube or whatever but im weird and neurotic and like owning things too much

it is so laggy now that sometimes ill make a typo and then correct it and then only see all of that happen like 10 seconds later

i wonder if it's weird that i can correct typos without actually seeing what i typed like i just Know

oh shit im nearing the end now i gotta make this count

i wonder what "making this count" means in this context like how would i make the final thought "epic" theyre just thoughts this has been a total stream of consciousness it's not really building to anything

kitty nyaaaaan

[acarrcreations]

I've spent the last 5 days putting together and painting this 3D printed model based on the Rayman 3 promotional Leptys statue!

Someone very kindly went out of his way to print one out for me so I could give painting it a go!

See the original model and info here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5279438

More pics and my process under the cut...

It arrived in pieces which slotted together really easily and just needed a bit of glue. I've never worked with something 3D printed before so I was looking forward to putting this together.

It was really light and fragile so that worried me when handling the pieces and sandpapering them, especially where there were parts that were really thin, such as the hair and the hoodie strings.

I sandpapered down the sharp edges and bits of plastic that were still stuck on. I was hoping I could sandpaper down the layer lines that are left behind by the printer, but the model has so many tiny details which I didn't want to lose.

Cleaned it up as best as I could, assembled the pieces and gave it a plastic primer coating so it was ready for painting. It stands at roughly 17.5cm.

Unlike a clay model, I wasn't used to having to put so many layers on. Usually a base coat is enough, but with plastic the light shines right through the model (can't really see it in photos) so I ended up spending a lot of time putting multiple coats on paint on.

During painting I noticed a tiny piece on the bird's head at the top was missing.

At first I thoguht there was no way I could fix it with clay because the figurine was made of plastic and would melt in the oven, but I figured I could eye-ball the shape and attach it on later. After a couple attempts I managed to get a similar looking shape made of clay glued on and sandpapered it to shape!

I know the big promotional statue itself has the ball at the top be a blue colour, but I couldn't help but find it kinda dull to look at. After looking up how the leptys statue looks in-game, I realised that in the game it changes colour from blue to purple and has magical swirls so I figured why not let's paint something like that instead.

After a couple coats of varnish and a felt bottom to protect surfaces, it was done. My photos don't do it justice, but I'm pretty happy with the result!

[kamisheep]

Mutual, why in the name of fuck is your hair like a fishing line in that comb? Or like string, or those clear noodles.

Can I eat it tho?/j

I mean you can but I have accidentally swallowed 3d printer filament before and it’s not very pleasant

[upmala]

a few months ago, my flatmate’s friend gave me a 3d printer he wasn’t using.

i got my buddy who’s into 3d printing to calibrate and set it up for me (he was very surprised when the contraption actually printed stuff successfully) now, i don’t know much about 3d printing, and i’m not too interested in learning about it, but he told me i’m supposed to watch it while it’s printing, at least for the first few layers (and periodically check in to make sure it hasn’t caught on fire)

so i’m observing it intently, following its every move. i can tell there are problems happening (stringing and rough texture), but i have no idea what to do about them (the printer is chinese and the settings are minimal), so i kinda just… sit and watch problems happen.

the results are okay, and they probably could be better if i cared enough to research them, but for now, i just live like this.

[cryptic-forge]

Your dolls are absolutely GORGEOUS. I've been wanting to get into creating printed dolls myself, and while the sculpting and printing step seem pretty straightforward, I'm struggling to understand the joint shapes, connections, and stringing systems. Do you have any specific guides or recommended creators from when you were just getting started?

unfortunately i haven't used any guides, so there's nothing i can recommend.

BUT here is a very rudimentary post i've made about stringing dolls, and this one talks a little bit about joints. i'm happy to elaborate on both topics if you have specific questions.

if you have access to a 3d printer, you could also download some free bjd models from thingiverse, print them, and examine the joints. it's also good practice for evaluating what works and what doesn't, because some models are pretty good and others extremely janky.

[the-bjd-community-confess]

For anyone curious about resin printing prices, I just thought I'd share my 2 cents as a hobbiest printer.

Resin printing requires a lot of PPE (more than filament printing afaik, though that requires some too)! Protective equipment alone can run upwards of $100 dollars. I spent time hunting for good prices and my setup ended up being around $130. You need stuff like nitrile gloves to handle the resin with, masks (ideally a good particulate and VOC filter so you can sand with the same mask you use for fumes), ducting to vent the fumes out somewhere (and everything else venting involves), and so on. There's lots of little things, and they'll add up fast.

There's also other equipment you'll need besides just a printer. Resin printing requires post processing requires something to wash the print in (usually IPA) and something to cure it with (UV light). You can re-use IPA and cure in the sun, but how you choose to process the resin afterwards is still an up-front cost to consider. You'll need containers to store the IPA to save it in, and you'll need a funnel with a good filter in order to save extra resin from prints. (Up-front costs for long-term materials saving. if you skip those, you'll pay more replacing them in the long term.)

In order to have a setup that's comfortable instead of only functional, many people will want extra supplies for their battle stations, like mylar boxes (like indoor greenhouse tents) to contain fumes and hide the printer from sunlight, and silicone mats to protect surrounding surfaces from resin. And omg, you can see how this is starting to take up a lot of space...

That's not even touching the cost of resin itself! even really cheap resin is going to be over $10 a kg. and if you want more than one color, you're either going to need to buy lots of UV-proof chemical bottles to store your different custom mixed colors, or you'll need to buy more colors. (If you mix your own, you'll need dyes.) You'll need to acquire elastic to string the doll, and you'll usually want to purchase metal s-hooks. resin has many strengths as a medium (high detail, etc), but unfortunately, it is brittle, which makes it a poor candidate for tiny objects under a lot of stress. so, 3D printing the s-hook is usually not a good idea. (Unless you're paying extra for, like, some siraya tech tenacious, or something like that. but even then, I'm not sure it's the best choice.) And if you want to assemble the doll with magnets instead of snap fits, you'll need magnets too.

TL;DR Resin printing is a high-investment hobby. It might be cost effective if you're making ten dolls, but if you want one or two, it won't save you money or time. (I still think people should try making their own dolls if they're interested!! :) It doesn't have to be about money. Making your own custom dolls is a rewarding experience! But it's not a cheat code to avoid the cost of this hobby.)

~Anonymous

[awkwardgtace]

A Normal Afternoon

Day 13 Banter! I went back to the other prompt I got from @da3dm for this one.

Rhys is playing some game while tangled up in his string, his human brothers joke back and forth with him

A Normal Afternoon

Felix sighed as he stared at Rhys. The fourteen year old borrower was currently hanging upside down in front of his face, tangled in the thread he used as a rope. With narrowed eyes Felix poked at the young borrower, more amused than he was letting on. This was at least the fourth time today Rhys had done something like this. He was just waiting for the request to get him unstuck… again.

“I will defeat you Sir Grump!” Rhys shouted. Felix raised an eyebrow.

“Oh?” he smirked. “Why is that?”

“I’m the hero this world needs, the one it deserves!”

“So you’re Batman today?” 

“Fool forgetting the one who’s defeated you so many times!” 

“I think defeating me would mean you don’t get tangled in your own string all the time.” Rhys squeaked, getting a real smile out of Felix.

“I was bitten by the tiniest radioactive spider the world’s ever seen and it made me who I am!”

“Oh so it’s spiderman today.” He shook his head, letting out a sigh that made Rhys start spinning around. 

“You can’t beat me by making me dizzy Sir Grump. I have you trapped right where I want you.”

“It looks more like you’re trapped while I’m casually sitting on the couch under a vent.”

“That’s what I’ve lured you to think, that confidence is your downfall.”

“Why am I Sir Grump anyway? I would think you could pick a better name now that you know more about me.”

Before Rhys could answer, the door to the house opened and Ryder walked in. His black hair had been let down, falling around his face as he carried in a heavy box. More of the things for his 3D printer, or random things he thought Rhys could enjoy. Shockingly the cat tree had gone over fairly well, it helped they didn’t tell him it was a cat tree. 

“Meticuloso. My arch nemesis, you think teaming up with Sir Grump will help you!” Rhys called out. Ryder looked up confused. Felix nodded and Ryder finally noticed the borrower hanging upside down next to him. A grin slipped onto the man’s face as he walked over. “I can beat you both no problem. This trap is nothing to worry about.”

“I thought I was trapped,” Felix quipped. Ryder fell onto the couch next to him. Rhys hung just between them, Ryder slid down a bit so the borrower was between both their faces.

“When did I become an enemy? I thought I was your ally yesterday?” Ryder laughed.

“You can’t fool me Meticuloso, I knew your plan all along. Secretly conspiring with Sir Grump to… to uhm… to…” Rhys trailed off a bit. Felix gave Ryder a look, they were in it now.

“Ah, you’ve caught me in my dastardly plan to take over the world. Only Sir Grump could aid me in my wicked ways.”

“I knew it! I’ll stop you. That’s why I’m spiderman!”

“What is my role in this exactly?” Felix had narrowed his eyes with a smile.

“You’re making the uh… the… The clothes that’s going to take over everyone’s minds!”

Ryder burst out laughing. Felix crossed his arms and leaned closer to Rhys. Like this he could see the tiny bags under the miniscule eyes. The mirth started to leave him, but the grin on Rhys made it hard to be upset. They’d been trying to lock up all the sugar, but it looked like Rhys found his way in… again.

“I think the first thing my dastardly clothes will do is make borrowers hyped up on sugar sleep,” Felix smiled. Ryder made a dramatic gasp next to him.

“That’s truly awful,” he shook his head. A single finger was brought up to poke Rhys. It sent the borrower swinging while circling in the air. “I can’t imagine a worse fate than having to be still with too much sugar.”

“Fiends! I’ll never allow this to happen,” Rhys started to squirm. Felix and Ryder shared a look, he was truly stuck this time. “Sugar is all important. The best way to be awake at all times! I’ll never let you force borrowers to sleep!”

“I’m going to get some scissors.” Ryder stood up and walked off, Felix was left with a spinning Rhys desperate to get away.

“You know Sir Grump doesn’t exactly fit if you’re going to have me making clothes.”

“I won’t lose to you.” Rhys was grunting in his efforts to get away. Ryder came back, falling back onto the couch and sitting up straight. Rhys paused to stare down at the scissors. “Your threats won’t work on me! I-I won’t be tricked.”

“You know it’s only to get you down.” No matter how much Rhys trusted them, sharp objects terrified him. Especially if it was in one of their hands.

“You won’t win Meticuloso. I can g-get down on my own. And I’ll stop your dastardly plot with Sir Grump.” Felix finally brought his hand up to make Rhys lie on his palm. The borrower flipped over, but it was clear this time was worse than the others. He kept Rhys’s focus.

“So if we get you down you run off and eat a ton more sugar so you continue not to sleep? When’s the last time you slept?”

“Uhh… a few days I think.” Rhys offered an innocent smile. Felix saw Ryder lifting his hands up. If he kept Rhys busy it should help stop him from panicking. Tweezers could work to get the string around him, they just had to get him down first.

“A few days of no sleep and Sir Grump and Meticuloso are the best names you could come up with?”

“They sounded better than Captain Fashion and The Creator.”

“Those sound more like hero names.”

“Exactly why it wouldn’t work for you to be my arch enemies!”

“I told Ryder he shouldn’t show you those hero movies.” A fake gasp from the borrower squirming in his hand. It still shocked him how small Rhys was. That he actually trusted them too.

“You’d take my education from me? How else am I supposed to learn about the world? Remember I’m just a fourteen year old uneducated borrower.”

Felix rolled his eyes. “If you keep using that excuse on me we’re finding a way for our dad to come teach you. He still works as a substitute teacher sometimes, he should know how to teach even you.”

“But I don’t wanna meet other humans and you guys wouldn’t force me cause you're my brothers and you love me… right?”

Felix’s face softened and a snip sounded a few inches above Rhys. Ryder smiled as he pulled the scissors away and set them on a coffee table. Felix took that as his chance to lie down on the couch, putting his legs over Ryder’s lap. His brother let out a groan, but didn’t move. 

“That is true, guess it would be hard to force you to meet him if we love you,” Felix smiled. Rhys looked a bit scared in his hand.

“Don’t worry Rhys, I wouldn’t let Sir Grump sick a human on you for something as awful as school,” Ryder winked as soon as Rhys looked back at him.

Felix didn’t say anything. He got himself comfortable before setting Rhys over his heart. His youngest and smallest sibling squirmed again, arms coming free. Tiny hands met the skin on his palm. He curled his fingers in and surrounded Rhys, a slight squeeze of reassurance.

“You both really wouldn’t just show me off to other humans, right?” Rhys asked.

“Not unless it was the only way to save your life,” Ryder said. Felix squeezed Rhys again, a silent way of agreeing. Rhys squirmed even more.

“Can you untie me now?”

“Nope,” Felix popped the end of the word. “If I get you untangled now you’ll sneak off and eat more sugar instead of sleeping. Take a nap, you can be batman later.”

“I told you I’m spiderman!”

Despite the shout Rhys stopped squirming. It didn’t take long for Felix to notice the tiny body relaxing against him. The smallest increase of the weight over his heart. Ryder leaned back to stare at the ceiling, Rhys was a much heavier sleeper than he realized.

“You think he’ll ever agree to meet mom and dad? Or even Del?” he whispered. Felix shifted his hold enough his voice would rumble against Rhys less.

“It’s up to him. Dad would love these games he wants to play, so would mom,” Felix smiled. “They loved all the crazy games you used to come up with.”

“Yeah they did…”

They sat in silence after that. Felix could faintly hear Rhys snoring in his hand. It would be nice to give such a lonely kid a bigger family. Actually learning to read, maybe even write. Using his curiosity for something other than chaos. Ryder had mentioned Rhys was eyeing the 3D printer lately. Until Rhys allowed it things would stay as they were, and they weren’t bad this way either.

[myothertardisisonthemun]

> Re calibrating 3d printer

>Does a stringing (retraction tower) test

>Updates profile based on results

>Moves on to bridging test

>What problem do i get?

>Stringing