2025 Summer Projects Update!
It is about time for another project! As I post this, it is July 2025. It’s hard to believe how fast the year is going. I have been on a bit of hiatus in terms of content, due to a lot of things going on- thought I’d share some general update on that before I get into 3d printing content.
Home Repairs, The Maker Corner, and General Updates
The Maker Corner is located in the basement of our house, which we built 20 years ago. It has been a good house overall, but we’ve had ongoing issues with water entering in the front of the house. Later last year I noticed a bit more extensive damage after moving around some insulation and discovered a bit of rotted wood in the joists, sill plate, subfloor, etc. along with an occasional trickling down of water after a heavy rain in the basement corner. This has been an ongoing problem, and I’ve had 4 different companies (including the builder) trying to help us manage the issues. I was at my wits end but finally found a local restoration company that was willing to help dig in and address the root cause of the problem. Without going into a lot of detail, it took several weeks and thousands of $$’s to troubleshoot the issue and remediate the problem. However, the fix seems to be good and the Maker Corner is back in business.
I also typically take a bit of a break during the summer and get a bit more active outdoors. This year, I continued gardening and designed a few self-watering pots for plants, which have been working great. I also picked up a new FPV drone and have flown a few times, though I haven’t been getting out quite as much as I would like. Our youngest daughter recently graduated high school and selected a college, so there has been a lot of travel and preparation for that over the past few months, with a college move in the near future.
The LDO Box Turtle
My most recent project, finishing up in the Spring, was the LDO Box Turtle Series. It was a very fun but challenging project. Unfortunately, I was unable to get it working reliably with my Voron 2.4 setup. I kept getting hot end jams after 3-4 color changes. After a significant amount of troubleshooting, fine-tuning, and asking around in the Discord, it appears that my hot end (Rapido V1) is just not ideal for the Box Turtle. After clearing one too many jams, I decided to move on and table the project. I hope others are having better luck than I!
My Next Project… Prusa Core One
My friend John, who you may recognize as the man behind 3D Printing World is a fantastic designer. Though we live in the same general area in NW Ohio, we first met at MRRF many years ago. I remember being very impressed by one of his early RepRap printer designs that I got to see in person, the Mulbot. He’s designed several other printers since then, including the Mulcore and Muldex IDEX printer. If you’ve ever printed a retractable light saber or sword, there is a good chance it was one of his models. He happens to be a top designer on many sites, including Thangs, Printables, and probably others. Earlier in the year, we drove up to RAPID + TCT in Detroit and got to talking about Prusa, which we both have been fans of for a long time. Anyways, as we got to talking, John asked me if I would be interested in building his Prusa CORE One. I am a big fan of Core XY printers and couldn’t pass up the opportunity!
Stay tuned… I am looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and doing a build series on the Prusa CORE One!
