The latest version of Simplify3D is giving these strange top layer bulges. They seem to be bigger the taller is the feature. I'm using the new triangular fill and they seem to line up with the intersections of the infill.

+johann rocholl sent me these awesome prototype stainless metal corners for Kossel. The plan is to retrofit Trusty Kossel but I also want to reuse my linear rails... so have some extrusion choices to make.

Hotbot has a new Smoothie brain and is back in business after a long cold winter. Here he is working on my Dad's birthday present, an engraved Austin skyline.

New e3dv6 effector

New CF springs in the works for Kossel. I put cf springs from tape measures on Kossel a while back to balance out a suspended extruder. I think the force is OK but the springs are so heavy the inertia of spinning them quickly was dragging down the effector. These are extracted from badge holders don't know why they're so expensive. Do love cf springs though because you can easily adjust the force by making the wheel bigger. These will be super light and fast. Also instead of feeding them through a simple hole in the carriages I rigged up some tiny rc bearings.

Bottom middle top is slic3r 95% top infill width then 100% and back to 95%. Small esteps increase after middle one as well.

Can't figure out what's causing this ugly pitted surface finish. 

TIghtened up my "effector tube" into which I mount a flexible shaft based spindle/grinder on HotBot. I pushed the balls a bit closer to get more XY space, shrank the inner tube for a friction fit on the spindle, added some nut traps to strengthen the tension mounts, added vacuum ports (vacuum shoe coming soon) and just all around calibrated Kossel better so this part is more dimensionally accurate. I'm going to recut my Dad's Austin skyline and don't want to stand there with the vacuum cleaner for 3 hours like last time :-)

My Kickstarter perk from Diamond Hotend came last weekend, and here's what the parts look like! Actually the only slightly disappointing thing was the e3d "lite" heatsinks are all stainless, and quite heavy. Now I've got to figure out how to drive this thing!

Curse you Smoothie and your USB-B cables... Found a 3ft version for 17.99 ;-/

Back to normal after setting top infill extrusion width back to 100% from 95%

Linux is the most annoying thing ever.