You can view my latest 3-D printing activity on printables.com at:
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Category: About Us
I have been doing 3-D modeling and 3-D printing since 2011.
I started out with a RepRapPro Mendel TriColour that I built from a parts kit and upgraded several times. This was a great printer, but was frankly borderline experimental. Everything had to be frequently adjusted by hand and successful prints were occasional (maybe 50% at its best.)
My second printer was a cousin to the first, a Prusa I3 MK3 (now an S) built from a kit that I got in November 2018. The improvements from the first to second printer include: auto bed levelling, filament run-out detection, magnetic spring steel flexible print plate, Bondtech dual gear extrusion system, custom E3D V6 all-metal hot end and resume on power failure. Basically, it has improved every area that could have been considered weak or unreliable through iterative engineering. The printer has been an absolute workhorse (currently at 29 kilometers of filament extruded) and my print success rate is more like 98%. Don’t call it fool-proof (they’ll invent a better fool) but it is a solid, consistent performer.
Over the last twelve years I tried a variety of (mostly open source) slicers with varying degrees of success. SkeinForge, Slic3r, Repetier, Cura, KISSlicer, IceSL. Prusa forked Slic3r into PrusaSlicer which is currently the best, most integrated, and extensively developed slicer option available.
I’ve made extensive use of Blender, OpenSCAD, FreeCAD, and a variety of other open source, free, and for-pay, commercial software over the years to do design, object repair, object modifications, customizations.
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layer.works
layer.works is a full-service 3-D design/make/teach education, consulting, and 3-D service provider, based in Central Alabama.
We do custom prototyping, mass production, training, troubleshooting, education, and consultation in additive and subtractive fabrocatopm amd manufacturing. We also do low-voltage custom animated LED light solutions.
A small sampling of projects we’ve worked on:
- Scale architectural models (entire building structure, furniture/cabinet installation visualization)
- Large-scale art installations
- 3-D models of topographical data (localized and regional)
- Woodworking and machining alignment fixtures and jigs
- Custom and hard-to-find automotive parts
- Templates for painting
- Guides for aligning and spacing assemblies
- Angle calibration gauges
- Custom enclosures for electronics projects
- Decorative figurines, vases, desk organizers
- Educational lessons for use in schools
If you have 3-D printing, 3-D design, large-format CNC (4×8 foot), or low-voltage lighting needs, send us an inquiry and we’ll get back to you quickly. Not sure if we can help you? Drop us a line with your needs and we’ll figure out what we can do or point you in the right direction.
We use and support Open Source hardware, software, principles, and methods whenever we can.
On Printables.Com – Our Profile
On Thingiverse – Our Profile