u/deLanglade1975

So I picked up a halfway decent Box Brownie (brown leather) at a local antique store for $25 over the weekend. I pulled it apart, cleaned and lubricated the shutter, cleaned the lens and viewfinders, and did a little testing. First, i checked the shutter, and it runs about 1/45 second (20 cycles, slowest cycle 1/39, fastest cycle 1/51). I measured the three apertures and calculated out the f-stops to be f16 (all the way in), f21 (middle postion), and f35 (all the way out).

I ran a roll of Catlabs 80 film through it as a test, mostly because it was what I had handy. Conditions were bright, what I'd consider a f11 to f16 exposure on the Sunny Sixteen rule of thumb. House picture would qualify as a bright subject, in full sun. Picnic table with cat would was in full light, but not as bright. The film was semi-stand processed in Rodinal 1:100, direct contact print on Foma Fomaspeed Variant, Ilford #2 filter in the enlarger because I forgot to take it out.

At the tightest aperture, the negatives are underexposed, and at the widest aperture, the exposure is close to right - maybe a little overexposed for a bright subject. At the widest aperture, the shot of the cat in the shady ferns is badly underexposed. Photo of my (redacted) wife was wide open aperture under bright haze.

Lots of words getting to the gist of the question, but based on this test roll I'm thinking I would be best served to use a faster film. My napkin estimates tell me that iso 200 would be a bit slow for a Sunny Sixteen day, and iso 400 would be about right. Does this sound about right? I'm pretty happy with the results of the first test results, and wouldn't mind trying to make some intentional photos with the camera. Who needs multiple element lenses?

So I purchased a A1 about a month ago, and have had pretty good luck trying out the machine. Have been just using the presets supplied by BL for the filaments I purchased to start. PLA Basic printed great, both TPU for AMS and TPS 95A HF printed pretty good, and PETG Basic... PETG Basic would not print. Every test print I attempted had absolutely almost zero adhesion to the textured PEI plate I have. Even the test extrusions peeled up and basically could be blown off.

After reading the forums, I did all the regular recommended troubleshooting. I downloaded a very simple calibration block, nothing fancy, just a 25.4mm cube. I scrubbed the plate with soap, water and a brush, wiped it down with acetone, handled carefully with gloves. I dried the filament, 9hrs at 65C in a Creality single spool box. I reset the parameters for a generic PETG. I played with increasing the nozzle temp and bedplate temps. Still no success. First layer just won't stick, the initial extrusion just pulls right off the plate.

What finally worked? I slowed my print down. In Studio, I cut EVERY movement speed by 50%, every last one. And it worked. It more-or-less doubled the print time, which is to be expected. But I got a 24.5mm cube that is 25.48 +/- 0.03mm in all dimensions (mostly), with what I feel is pretty clear printing, no anomalies or weirdness, with 5/6 sides reasonably flat. Nozzle temp set to 265C, bedplate at 80C.

Except for one thing. The base of the block stuck to the plate pretty good, it took a PLA-like tug to snap it off. When measuring it, the base itself if warped, where the four corners pulled up from the plate by about 0.2mm.

All this leads up to a question, of course. Should I tinker with temp settings more, or take another angle? Possibly get a dedicated PETG plate? Glue before printing? Slow down the initial layers even further?

First actual project that wasn't a test print.

The original plastic on the Mitsubishi must have been made from Pringles lids that didn't pass QC. A few minutes in Solidworks, twenty minutes on the printer, and now the conditioned air goes where it's needed.

I suppose I could re-do them in black at some point, but the red does look sharp.