A popular option with 3D printing is to have the printer pull a loop or two around the print before starting. This serves several purposes: it cleans the printhead for one thing. It also marks the area of ​​the print bed that is in use and many people use it to adjust the leveling if necessary. However, the small pieces of plastic do add up. [Makers Mashup] decided to try something different and now uses what he calls the runway and kiss method.

The runway turns out to be a piece of blue tape and the kiss in question is like the chocolate kind and doesn’t involve pressing your lips against the mouthpiece. There is a wizard that generates startup code for you that has the clean style if you want it.

Is it better? That’s probably a matter of opinion. You still end up with tiny droplets of plastic to recycle or throw away. If you use the skirt for other purposes, you may not find this very useful. But maybe it’s just your cup of tea and costs nothing to try – assuming you have a roll of blue tape hanging.

You may not care about the bed level of a skirt if you have a really flat bed or really good auto leveling. If you’re really bothered by skirts hanging around your store, maybe you can just automate them.

This post Tired of 3D printed skirts? Try Kisses

was original published at “https://hackaday.com/2022/03/16/tired-of-3d-printed-skirts-try-kisses/”