printing the Tic-Tac gun

My friend Mike posted an etsy link to a Tic-Tac gun for sale on his facebook page.  I looked at it and realized I had seen it before on thingverse.  So I went and looked it up and decided to make one.  The version I printed is here: TTG2 Elite - they sell pre-printed versions at their etsy store 

The print is pretty straight forward - I did 0.2mm precision - it may do better with finer detail, but I didn't want to spend the time not knowing how it would turn out.

The two sides came out very clean.  

The test fit was excellent.  Made me regret not doing finer detail for a smoother print.

Assembled and loaded:

I had the M3 20mm screws and nuts already on hand.  I ordered the 6mm springs recommended from the thingverse page.   Did have one printing defect with the overall build.  The screw for just above the trigger didn't seat deep enough so I was unable to thread the nut on the other side, so there's one screw thats a 25mm instead.  So the gun doesn't lay flat if you set it on that side.  It would be easy to fix with a soldering iron to melt the hole a bit.  I may yet do that before I send it off to my buddy Mike.

As you can see in the test fire, it doesn't quite launch them as well as you'd hope.  I suspect there's 3 things at play here #1 the catch that holds the tic tac in place is restricting the mint from exiting while the bolt is trying to push it.  #2 my print didn't come out quite smooth enough to allow the bolt to slide well.  #3 the entire thing is meant to be printed with PETG not PLA.  I'll try to reprint in PETG if I have the filament and time.  The bolt sled might be improved with some silicon lube on the bolt slide.  Not sure what to do about the latch that keeps the tic tacs from falling out - Pulling the trigger faster/harder helps

A real use for one of my gadgets!

 So I buy a lot of gadgets because I think they're cool.   This year I bought a USB Snake Inspection Camera, I had originally intended to find a leak under one of our bathrooms but that didn't go well at all and was pretty much a bust.  Ended up having to cut a big hole in a wall and find it the old fashion way. 

But this past weekend I found another opportunity and the camera came up big.  The new Airpod 3's from apple aren't great compared to the previous generation in my opinion.  The Sound is way way better.  I love what I'm hearing compared to the previous ones.   Because they shortened the little stick coming out and made the part that goes in your ear bigger, they're more awkward to handle.  Especially if you're used to the previous ones which are more svelte.  Anyway the smaller "stick" means its easier to miss the hole on the charging case.  Which means you can fumble them.  And if you're sitting in the back seat of a car with bench seats, it can go down the hole for the seatbelts.  

Hard to find things that go down the seatbelt hole.  Unless... Unless you like to accumulate gadgets and have a snake camera!

 

I thought I found it right away, but turns out that's just a piece of bright foam from the seat.   But further down I found the unmistakable "L" of the left airpod.

And all the crumbs and stuff that have fallen under there.  Yuck.  Anyway, USB snake camera saves the day.  It had gotten kinda "up and under" the seat brackets so you could not see it without the camera.  Additionally the silver sheet metal behind it made it even harder to see.

The moral I take away from this story:  Buy more fun gadgets.  Just in case.