This assignment made me realize how 3D printing is changing the prototyping landscape. Due to its simplicity, 3D printing allows everyone to be inventors. Never before in human history have people been able to turn ideas into tangible objects in such a short amount of time.

I began the assignment by going onto Thingiverse and searching for various objects that I thought would be interesting and fun to make. After searching for a while, I found an object called a Mobius ring. It is essentially a Mobius strip designed into a ring. Normally, it would not be impossible to make using other manufacturing techniques. However, the ring I printed is two interlocking pieces.

Once I chose the Mobius ring, I decided to use the FDM method. I chose to use this method first because I have never 3D printed anything before and I was curious about how support material functioned. Also, I figured that since the OEDK has more of these printers than the other types of 3D printers that I could try printing the Mobius ring using the FDM method and then use a different method if it failed.

When I downloaded the file onto the M2 printer, the ring was larger than the print bed. To resolve this, I scaled the ring to have a three-inch diameter. Then I sent the print to the printer. At first the printer did nothing because the print head was heating up. Then it began to move back and forth, “printing” the ring. However, after watching it do this for two minutes I realized that nothing was coming out of the print head. At this point, I got Jeremy and he cleaned out the print head and I reprinted the ring.

When the print was done, I thought it had failed.

The object was the general shape of the ring, but it was covered in excess material. However, once I started removing the material I realized that all of the extra material was support material. After removing all of the support material with pliers and scissors my Mobius ring looked exactly like it was supposed to!