Table of Contents
Getting Started: Whistle Crew
Getting started with Whistle Crew requests:
Select a Whistle Design
Select a Design
For anyone that just wants to get started, we have a list of “good whistles” that this group has printed:
- Specific Helpful Models
If you are using someone else's design, please show respect to the makers of whistle models by attributing their work, boosting their models, and (if you are able) providing tips and/or subscribing. 3D designers help make our whistles possible. Specific whistle models are owned and licensed by their original creators. Please respect creator licenses on their respective model pages.
Want to use or make different whistles? That's fine by us. We're not the boss of you! The group is here to offer suggestions and information about what has worked well for us, not to tell you what to do. If you find another “good whistle” please let us know so we can add it to our collection.
Customizing Your Whistles
- Instructions for whistle stacking - by Whistle Rich
- Instructions for making a whistle brick (stacked print). They are detailed so anyone else can use them,
Test a Whistle Design
A “good whistle”
- is loud enough to be heard for several streets in an urban environment (> 90db or louder—some phones will test decibel level)
- will not require you to blow very hard to make a sound
- will continue to make sound if you blow into them really, really hard.
If your whistles don't do all three things, check the “Printing Whistles” section here in the wiki for troubleshooting tips. You can also talk to others in the chat before mass producing.
We suggest that you print a single whistle as a test before loading a whole plate of them.
Pick a Whistle Request
Check in chat to learn the process for reviewing and selecting a request. In general though you want to pick a request you can fill within a day or two. For many of us that might mean printing some stock ahead of time.
If you find you aren't able to complete order in a reasonable amount of time, please check in chat to have someone help with or take over the request. Once you agree to fulfill a request you can get into the fun part…
Print Those Whistles
In general it is good to have some whistles ready to ship and be producing more to back fill your inventory. Folks with multiple printers may keep fewer whistles on hand as they can produce volume quickly.
The page below will help you get started if you are new to 3d printing. Intro to Printing for Whistle Producers
3D Printer Pages by Brand
Optimize Your Whistle Production
- Optimal Bridging Angles - Avoid lengthy bridging on whistles by tuning settings.
Troubleshooting
Need help printing good whistles?
- Many whistles on the “good whistle” list have various print profiles for the major printer brands which have been stress-tested by members of the chat. It is often easier to use someone else’s optimized print profile than troubleshoot from scratch.
- Most of us have had good luck with Silk PLA over other filament, but experience varies.
- Sometimes a whistle starts going bad due to printer mishaps. We have found that it helps to merge items (in most slicers, by CTRL-clicking multiple whistles, or CMD-click on Mac) so you have less than 64 items on a plate. This allows you to skip the whistle that is going bad and not produce more spaghetti.
- We have a lot of experienced whistle printers in our chat. Drop a line and explain what you’re doing and what’s not working. Please be sure to include info like what kind of printer & filament you’re using.