Week 5: 3D Scanning & Printing

Group Work: Test the design rules for your 3D printer(s)

Design & Print 3D object

(which can't be made subtractively)

There were some examples in lab, including an articulated Maple Leaf - which I thought was really cool.

So I designed this beginning with a sketch and extruded the shape:

Then I split the shape in 2 parts and designed the "hinge" to join them:

Here's the final form with one hinge and a cross-sectional view to show how it works and why this design cannot be made subtractively

However, when I went to do a test-print, I saw that it will take several hours, which is not efficient when I really just wanted to test a part.

Redesign:

So I went to create a smaller version of the same idea to test. It wasn't so hard to do:

Here's the new sketch and the cross-section:

Printing was successful in 30 minutes. It worked, just the hinge was a bit loose because I had used 1 mm margin on each side

Subsequently I went to reduce the margin to make the hinge tighter. Unfortunately when changing the parameters of the sketches it changed the extrusions

That resulted in a failed print, but then redid it carefully and successfully, resulting in a more secure hinge:

For all of the above prints I used a Creality printer with Cura software.

Next step: LEGO Man?

Actually the element I produced ended up reminding me of a LEGO figure..

So I'm inspired to see if I can make a 3D-printed LEGO-ish figure with more moving parts..

I went to Thingiverse for inspiration and ideas, but unfortunately the designs there could be made subtractively also.

So I have to be creative for myself... I designed a figure-head and now have a Bambu printer available...

Here is the Bambu software interface, showing the slicing to see the interior of the print..

Bambu software shows the settings under "Prepare->Global" and also features a camera.