Warts and Seams

[ednisley]

more people would likely read your blog than if you wrote a book with the same information.

Once upon a time, I did write a book:
http://softsolder.com/2011/10/03/the-em ... unleashed/

Which convinced me to never, ever do that again.

Perhaps the M2 and Thing-o-Matic posts on my blog will help other folks... [grin]
http://softsolder.com/tag/m2/
http://softsolder.com/tag/thing-o-matic/

[pyronaught]

more people would likely read your blog than if you wrote a book with the same information.

Once upon a time, I did write a book:
http://softsolder.com/2011/10/03/the-em ... unleashed/

Which convinced me to never, ever do that again.

Perhaps the M2 and Thing-o-Matic posts on my blog will help other folks... [grin]
http://softsolder.com/tag/m2/
http://softsolder.com/tag/thing-o-matic/

Well at least you got endorsed as a "national treasure" by the esteemed Steve Ciarcia! I used to love Steve's Circuit Cellar articles, back in the day when I used to play with circuits in my own cellar. I remember he had a book on building a Z-80 computer from scratch that I got from the library. I later used the Z-80 to build a microprocessor based IC programming device for my senior project in college. Then I graduated into a world where all the jobs seemed to be in software development so I went into that instead of electronics design. One of these days I might start playing with AVRs though if I can think up a good project.

[pyronaught]

I did find one other variable which played a significant role in creating the warts-- the extruder temperature. I had it set to 245, which turned out to be too high. When I lowered it to 240 the wart size decreased a lot and also the trails leading away from the warts disappeared altogether. Even at 1mm coast and no wipe I'm getting significantly smaller bumps and seams on 240 than on any group of settings I tried at 245.

The reason I had it set to 245 is because when I was using the white MakerGear ABS with 240 it was jamming the extruder and air printing. Not clogging the nozzle, just putting enough back pressure on it that the extruder gear was carving a divot in the filament after which it would no longer feed. Going to 245 cured that problem by lowering the viscosity, and on the white MG ABS you don't get the wart problem at that temp so it must just have a slightly higher working temp than the black.

[jimc]

yes a little cooler makes less liquidy and ooze a little less. there definitely is a temp variance between colors of filament from the same manufacturer. the cooler it extrudes the less layer adhesion you have so its just finding that balance.

[ednisley]

Well at least you got endorsed

Don't believe everything you read...

[pyronaught]

Well at least you got endorsed

Don't believe everything you read...

Ha, well you mean Steve never said that or it just isn't true? I take it that book project didn't pay to well. I always wondered how much money one could make writing tech books. I think those electronics tech books had an era that seemed to end in the 80s with the death of the Heathkit company and Radio Shack turning from an electronics hobbyist store to an obscure electronics retail store. I remember getting a speech synthesis chip from Radio Shack back in 1986 and etching a PCB for it to plug into my Apple II computer at the time-- all made from parts they had in the store. Now you're lucky if you can find a simple switch in that place. I think electronics as a hobby has kind of undergone a rebirth now though with the internet making it so easy to source parts, look up datasheets, ask questions on forums and find endless circuit plans online. The days of having to have a wall full of data books from each chip supplier are sure gone, which is a good thing really. The software has certainly gotten better too. When I got out of it everyone was using OR-CAD running on DOS and auto-routers were an expensive add-on.

[ednisley]

I take it that book project didn't pay to well

Over that book's lifetime, it made me a multi-thousandaire... [grin]

[pyronaught]

I take it that book project didn't pay to well

Over that book's lifetime, it made me a multi-thousandaire... [grin]

As in single digit thousandaire? Did you ever figure out what your hourly pay worked out to be for writing the book?

[ednisley]

what your hourly pay worked out to be

At this late date all I recall is Steve's advice going into the project: nobody gets rich by writing tech books. There may be exceptions, but ... these days, they're few & far between.

That said, my Circuit Cellar and Digital Machinist columns help feed my tool jones, plus having hard deadlines prevent paralysis by analysis. Works for me.

[pyronaught]

I think it's hard to make money writing any kind of books unless you are a big name novelist like Tome Clancy or Steven King, or some celebrity who just sticks their name on the book and doesn't even write it themselves most of the time.

I did alright publishing how-to information on making fireworks in the form of a subscription based website. Not having a publisher eat up the lions share of the money generated helps a lot, but the down side is that it is hard to get people to pay for online content. You have to be publishing information that is really hard to find any other place, and then throw in extras. On my site I also included a formula database with interactive calculations, a chemical database, a forum and some other stuff. I haven't been adding new articles to it in a while but it still tends to generate the same amount of money each year that it always has due to selling existing material to new hobbyists. I can't make anywhere near enough to live off of it, but I don't have to put much time into it anymore and it funds my own tool and supplies too.