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5. 3D Scanning and Printing- Cooper Cumbus, Amalia Bordoloi, and Jenna Chebaro

Group Assignment

  • Test the design rules for your 3D printer(s)
  • Document your work on the group work page and reflect on your individual page what you learned about characteristics of your printer(s)
Member Role
Cooper, Amalia, Jenna Documentation
Cooper, Amalia Resin Printer Overhang Test
Cooper Terms and Definitions
Cooper Bambu 3D Printing Workflow
Amalia Benchy
Amalia Infill Test
Jenna Torture Test
Amalia Resin 3D Printer Overhang Test

Files

Here is the initial design for the Infill test that was made in Fusion 360: Compressed stl file

Here is the updated design for the Infill test that was fixed in Bambu Studio: Compressed stl file

Here is the file for the torture test that was found in Connor and Landon’s documentation and made in Fusion 360: Compressed stl file

Terms and Definitions

Term Definition
Overhang Any shape that extends outward, above the previous layer, and doesnt have a support holding it up
Bridges Material that needs to be extruded horizontally between two points without any support from bellow
Clearance Clearance refers to the dimensions that ensure two components fit well together; may vary based on material and geoemtry
Infill Refers to the internal structre of the print; Infill can be optimized based of weight, strength and printing time
Dimensions The working area of the print in the x, y, and z axis
Wall Thickness Thickness of the design; affects the durability of the print
Surface Finish A post-processing technique that converts a raw 3D printed design into a finished product

Bambu 3D Printing Workflow

Bambu Studio

  1. Open up Bambu Studio and click on create a new project

  1. To bring the STL file that youve downloaded into the slicer you click on the cube with a plus sign at the top of the screen. Once this is added and its not to the scale you desire then you can click on the square with an arrow to resize the object

  1. Most likely your print will require supports. To activate them click on the support tab on the lefthand side of the screen. From thier press enable supports and then chosse the type of supports you want on the tab bellow.

  1. Once that is done you can press slice plate. This will cause the supports to apper and a window to show up that tells you the amount of materials and time it will take to print the object.

Bambu Printer

  1. Before you print, make sure that the print plate is clear of any old parts of anty past print. Also make sure the print plate is connect firmly and coreeclty to the print bed
  2. Afterwards you can press print file on the computer.
  3. Make sure you watch the first layer or 2. This is to make sure nothing goes wrong from the beginning and lots of filamnent and time is wasted.

Cleanup

  1. Once the print is finished, wait a moment for the print plate to cool down since its pretty hot right after the print
  2. Once the plate is cooled down, you can remvoe the plate from the bed with the help from of the tab on the front of it.
  3. To remove the print from the plate you can do one of three things. Number one is to just try and remove it from the bed with your hands (Do not reccomend). The second option is to bend the plate to have the print pop off the plate (Highly effective and dont worry the plate is flexible). The final option is to get or print a scrapper which can be used to push the print off the plate.
  4. To remove the supports you can do one of two things. Either you can use your hands, which is difficult and tedious or you can use tweezers to remove them.
  5. Finally rember to clean up the excess from the print by throwing it away and put the print plater back onto the bed afterwards.

Infill Test

First, in Fusion 360, I made a extruded a square and then exported it as an stl file.

I then imported it into Bambu Studio and ended up changing it to be a 25 mm x 25 mm x 25 mm cube using the scale tool.

Initially, I was planning on 3D printing the cube three seperate times with the normal pattern and only changing the infill density, but once I realized there are different pattern options as well, I decided to test three different patterns each at three different densities, creating nine squares total. I used ChatGPT to see if there was an more efficient way to change the settings for each individual object than just 3D printing them all individually. I had to turn on advanced settings, and copy and paste the cube eight more times, resulting in nine cubes. Then, I went to the strength tab, scrolled to the bottom, and changed the pattern and the density for each object separately. I made cubes with the Grid, Archimedean Cords, and Honeycomb patterns and made each type of pattern print three times, each with densities of 15%, 30%, and 50%.

This was my initial sliced cube with the Grid infill pattern and a infill density of 15%, the default settings:

This is a video of me clicking on each cube and displaying the infill settings in the bottom left corner:

This was my updated design after copying the cube and changing the settings:

I checked how the cubes would look halfway through the print under the Preview tab because my plan was to stop the print about halfway through so that the infill would be visible.

This is how the cubes would look from the side around halfway through according to the Bambu preview:

This is how the cubes would look from the top around halfway through according to the Bambu preview:

When the print was around 10% finished, I decided to time one layer of the print to see how the times compared for each of the patterns and densities.

It may not be completely error-free because I did my timing using the time stamps on a video I took of a full layer of the cubes printing, but this is a table of how long it took for each pattern and density to print:

Infill Pattern Infill Density Time (seconds)
Grid 15 3.32
Grid 30 4.69
Grid 50 6.90
Archimedean Cords 15 3.57
Archimedean Cords 30 4.83
Archimedean Cords 50 6.52
Honeycomb 15 5.98
Honeycomb 30 12.26
Honeycomb 50 21.46

The Honeycomb pattern took the longest by far compared to the Grid and Archimedean Cords patterns. In addition, as the density increased, the time for each pattern also increased, which makes sense because if there are more lines, it will take longer to 3D print and increasing the density adds more lines.

I ended up stopping the test when it was around 30% finished because the infill lines were very clear, and I did not feel that I needed to let it keep printing. I stopped the print halfway through a layer, which I should not have done because not all the cubes are exactly even, and the layer stopped halfway through one cube, so it looks a little bit weird.

Here is the printed test:

Benchy

On the Bambu Lab A1 3D printer, we printed a Benchy, a small boat designed to test the capabilities of 3D printers. It is often used as a first print to ensure the printer is working properly.

ChatGPT helped me come up with specific things that the Benchy print tests:

Overhangs – Tests how well the printer handles unsupported angles.

Bridging – Evaluates how well the printer can print horizontal spans without support.

Layer Adhesion – Assesses the strength and consistency of layer bonding.

Dimensional Accuracy – Checks if the printed dimensions match the intended design.

Surface Finish – Reveals issues like ringing, ghosting, or Z-banding.

Cooling – Tests how well the printer handles cooling for sharp edges and small details.

Extrusion and Flow Control – Detects under- or over-extrusion problems.

Bed Adhesion – Ensures the first layer sticks well to prevent warping.

This is the Benchy print I made:

As you can see, the boat printed very successfully and passed all the tests except for slight stringiness that can easily be removed.

Torture Test

3D Print

  • Convert exported .stl file to Gcode

    • Use a laptop by the printer
    • Open Bambu Studio
    • Import file
    • ClickBambu A1 2
    • Choose textured PEI plate
    • Choose PLA standard filament
    • Slice
    • Save file
    • Export GCode to printer

  • Print

    • Open the file
    • Wipe the printer down with alcohol
    • Click Print
    • Let the printer preheat
    • Record the printing process if needed

I noticed that the overhang went up to 80º with virtually no decline in quality. The shapes with larger dimentions had more detail and test was more detailed in a larger font. There were no unexpected results or complications.

Resin Printer Overhang Test

Mr. Budzichowski 3D printed Connor Cruz and Ladon Broadwell’s overhang test design on the Formlabs resin 3D printer.

This is a picture of the 3D print:

You cannot see the numbers very well in the picture of the print, but after the sixth overhang, it starts to fray and break apart a bit and gets progressively worse.

Group Documentation from Previous Charlotte Latin Groups

More Group Documentation from Previous Charlotte Latin Groups

Last update: March 4, 2025