Printing the Impossible Flexi-Cat!!!

• Kathy Xu

This week, we learned about different types of 3D printing methods and how to load the prints on to the 3D printers. I chose to do the beginner level of the project because I’ve never printed using a 3D printer before.

Process:

I’ve seen 3d prints of flexible animals and many other objects online, and I thought it might be interesting to print something that is flexible and moveable with joints. That also makes it impossible to manufacture with other methods since the joints are so small and fragile. With that, I found this file online from cults3d.com by JTRONICS of a flexi cat!

After reading the instructions, I thought it was going to be a relatively simple project and planned to make two of my flexi cats out of SLA (because it would take a longer time) and three of them out of FDM.

I started with doing a test print on the Bambu Lab printer since the SLA ones were all occupied. I consulted a lab assistant with the settings of my print because the file suggested some setting such as 20% infill. These were the settings that I ended up using!

The final results were very cute! Using the exact same settings, exact same printer, and exact same filament, I printed the two other cats with FDM. Those two turned out to have some minor issues since the joints seemed slightly hollow, but they were pretty mobile and flexible so I kept them and decided to move on to the SLA prints.

The SLA printer was occupied for long hours and I consulted the lab assistant, who told me that it would be fine to upload the file and leave it in queue, which would make sure that it would be the next one printing.(there was only one before me that was already printing so i was first in queue) I uploaded the file with the following settings, and I didn’t add supports because the lab assistant also told me that supports shouldn’t be needed.

I came the next day to check just to find out that it is still second in queue and that something else is printing. I was really busy that day and had something right after, so I asked a lab assistant if they could make sure that the queue is running correctly and that my print would start printing after the current one. After that, I came back the next morning to check the prints and found out that it was aborted. Luckily, there was no one using the printer so I just made sure that it ran properly and went to my class. When I came back to check on it, it was done but was all connected as a solid piece on a base, completely immobile. I was really confused an asked a lab assistant, but they didn’t know what went wrong and suggested that maybe the printer wasn’t printing properly. I ended up starting to wash that one and trying another print on the other available SLA printer. However, both of them still failed after washing :(.  I consulted Dr. Wettergreen and Luke after the failure and learned that it was impossible for the SLA printer to make the joints for flexi prints work, since the points that are connected with be cured and stick to each other, creating a solid piece.

After that failure, I decided to print the last two pieces with FDM again, one with the Prusa printer and the other with the Bamboo printer at the same time to save time. There was a little error with setting up the Prusa printer because it kept warning that it wasn’t going to be a stable print, and I ended up having to add a brim to the print for it to be stable enough. It turned out fine, but it took some time to remove the brim from the bottom. Even though I tried with an x-acto knife, it was still impossible to completely remove the brim from the joints, which clogs it a little but does not stop it from moving. (yay!!)

Moving on to the bamboo printer, this was a very devastating process. The only printer available at the time was printer #10, and it crashed on me 4 times. The first time, the filament (which was newly installed because the previous one just ran out) was apparently wet and significantly messed up the print, making all the pieces break off.

The second time, with the help and suggestion from Hayden, I asked a lab assistant to help me switch it to the good, dry, white filament. It aborted the print and messed up the entire printer again because the filament was clogged and couldn’t be pulled properly.

The third time, I caught it on time but the print was still messed up 🙁 (I had to sit in front of the printer to catch anything that goes wrong). The print just kept stopping because it detected something disturbing the z-axis, and at some point it just spit out this long trail of filament onto the print and melted into the joints, which made me restart again.

The fourth time it actually printed but with extremely bad quality, the joints all melted into each other and broke the moment i tried to loosen them up from each other. (it looked fine when it printed and also when I took it out) I gave on bamboo printer #10 and I concluded and the printer was probably just not functioning properly. :((

I didn’t want to waste anymore filament and it was late night, so I decided to just do my last one on the Prusa printer too. This one turned out just like the previous one, with slightly clogged joints but they’re still moveable! Very happy that it finally worked and that there’s five deliverables!!

These are the final cats in their bubbles!!! (even though you can’t really see them)

Overall, I found it funny how my first print was actually the best one out of all. I really thought this was a task that you would get better and better at as you get more experience but maybe sometimes it’s just luck and the machine that you’re dealing with. Also, I really want to apologize for the late post, with this experience I would definitely leave a lot more time for 3d printing next time in case this happens again. I would also like to thank everyone who helped me, including the lab assistances, because they were really helpful when the 3d printers were crashing.

Picture of workspace after cleaned:

Cost Estimates:

Total: $411.42

Approximately $82.28 per cat!!! (very expensive cats)

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