IntroductionYou can tell I've been doing too many college reports when I start my blog post with an introduction :P So I've been very silent on this project for a long time now. As you can see, the last time I posted was at the end of October last year. It's now June and I have made progress, but hardly as much as I would have wanted to. Without realizing, I started doing more and more things and that made me think I haven't got enough for a month's update this month, I'll write something next month. I then went on to think maybe I should just write an update to sum up what happened over winter. Time went on and without realizing it, it's now June and I still haven't said anything. I feel like now is the time to explain some things and say what's going on with this project of mine. Winter (November 2016 - February 2017)The basic gist is that my 3D printer started becoming more and more of a hassle. We came to the conclusion that the general temperature was the issue. Winter made it harder to get our bed up to temperature. Overall we kept having more failed prints and we hardly made any progress over the winter period. With constant wires needing re-soldering and having to keep re-adjusting the bed level, we decided to build an enclosure to try trapping the heat in. We thought this would allow us to get the bed up to temperature and allow for better layer adhesion. This was the case, until spring came around. Spring issues (March - May 2017)Now that the general temperature was rising, I started to encounter issues with... you guessed it, over-heating. The 3D printed ABS parts that were part of our printer started melting and coming apart. We tried changing the hot-end holder from our previous metal hose-pipe make-shift solution to the 3D printed replacement part I got last year, after our first one melted. Me and my father thought the original one melted cos back then the little fan on the hot-end wasn't spinning and the heat produced to melt the filament for extrusion was also melting the ABS holder. Sadly it happened again, even with the fan working now. Other issues arose, such as the brackets for the bed melting, expanding and letting the barrings slide out and the z-axis barrings holder snapping in two, slowed down the process of getting 3D printed parts done. What have I actually been doing all this time then?It's not that I haven't got anything to show from all this time of occasionally being able to print, and most times not, but I still don't feel like I've made much process. This is especially true for new parts. I still haven't got any one part complete yet. I am close to completing the palm and fingers, but I haven't even finished the arms. I've decided to forget about the head for now and I've only just started modelling the chest and shoulders of the suit. I'm doing more a more things now and hence spending less time on this project. This is mainly because of 3 things: College work, my social life & my other hobbies. I've only realised recently that I'm trying to do too many things and that I don't even have the time to learn more about game development, the one job I'm aiming for in life. In less then 2 weeks, I'll also be going to America for 4 weeks for an awesome holiday, but this just presses the issue of my time management even more. I'm gonna have to cut-down on hobbies and re-orient myself more towards my academic & job oriented future. Sadly this Iron Man project is one of those things that will need to be cut. So what's the plan?What I want to do is put this project on hold. Now it's my summer holiday, I should have more time to spend on such hobbies and projects like this one, but only after my 4 week trip to America. I'll be resuming this project in late July, early August, but on a much smaller scale. What I want to at least achieve is a fully functioning arm. I'll then be able to double this from my other arm too and have something complete to show for all my effort. Only at that point I'll decide what I want to do. Most people I know wanted me to get onto the chest piece ASAP. It was last year when I first heard this. Since then the collectors edition Iron Man helmet came out which is pretty awesome. It doesn't fold up, but if I got that and added it to my arms, I may be encouraged to complete the chest as well. It may be the case that after I finish the arms and hands, that may be the end to the project until I pick it up again after a few years, or maybe the distant future. I just want to at least complete the arms and hands. That is my goal now. The next time I'll post another update on this blog will probably be at the end of July, possible some time in August. I hope to carry on monthly from there until I complete the arms and hands. I expect my last post with the completion of the those parts being around September time, when college starts up again. So for now that's it. Look forward to a big update on what I actually have achieved since last October in my next post!
UPDATE: The project is now on hold. Return date of the project is unknown due to me working on game projects for my college work.
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Author17 year old college kid who felt his course was too easy for him. Got bored one day and started making a real life iron man suit. Archives
June 2017
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