For my impossible object, I wanted to find a model that had some movement. For this reason, I selected an STL file of a chainmail sample that seemed interesting and decided to first test its abilities by printing it on the Prusas. To do so, I uploaded the STL to 3DPrinterOS, queued it on a printer, and then went over to the Makerspace to start the print after slicing it with a raft for support.
After an hour or two, the print was complete and I pulled it off the bed of the printer by bending the removable bedplate. After taking the supports off, I tested its flexibility and was happily surprised with its ability to fold in half. I also confirmed that it fit into the containers provided to us. Pleased with the results, I loaded the STL into the Formlabs slicer “Preform”, auto-generated supports, and then copied and pasted this onto the same bed 4 times. I uploaded the file to the Form3, primed the printer, and ran the print. After a few hours, I came back and loaded the completed print into the washer and ran it for 15 minutes. I then removed the pieces by scraping them from the base plate and then loaded them into the curing chamber. After another 20-30 minutes, the curing was complete and I removed the supports using wire cutters. Since there was still some sticky resin in the nooks of the part, I ran it through another wash cycle which seemed to help.
Overall, I’m really happy with the results and think that this could be a really fun fidget toy.
cost analysis
Resin print total per part: $18
Extruded print total per part: $15.15
