I want to start off apologizing for my images. Since most of my prints are in black, they might be difficult to see.

This week, we were tasked with 3D printing an impossible object using the 3D printers at the OEDK. My first idea was to print an impossible cage with a ball inside, but then the printer was stubborn, so that I decided to print a pair of rings forever locked together (until someone breaks one of the rings).  However, then none of my prints looked good, so I decided to make a klein bottle. I also tried a chair, but that was a bad idea on my part.

First I tried make a ball in cage.

First Print didn’t work.

I realized that the ball was to loosely connected to the bottom of the cage, so when the print makes a circle, the circle will move around to much, and it could get stuck to the cage again.  I then decided to make some interlocking rings.

The first try, I made them as seen in the thingiverse image below.

However, that put to much stress on the bottom of the small ring, even when I tilted it to maximum the bottom surface area and had the bottom of the top ring.  All of the rings could have there bottom easily determined from the uneven layering of those pieces.

Also, during these trial, I tried making an IKEA chair as insurance, but realized afterwards that that was a stupid idea for an impossible object.

Also Also, the maker bot 2 printer is evil and maybe not working right.  NONE of my 5 or 6 prints on that printer was successful, as most of broke the base of the ring from the raft in a similar fashion to the ball in cage.  This was wildly frustrating, and very mush a waste of time.

After all of the failed trials (I think I made 12 prints, and I only have 5 successful rings to show), I decided that the design was inherently bad.  I then had to search thingiverse for a working version of the klein bottle, as most of them didn’t have geometries that could be printed.  I finally found one, and I printed it.

The Klein bottle can hold water, but is built such that there is only one side, similar to a mobius strip.

The first one printed well enough, but I thought that it was printed relatively small.  I then decided to make a couple of prints scaled up.

A little secret about my final piece is one that you have to promise not to say.

Do you promise?

Cool.  There are some supports on the insides of the bottle that I have no chance of getting out. Shocking, isn’t it?

The final dimensions and settings for the bottle are as follows:

• 20.40 mm x 26.89 mm x 32.32 mm (85% scale of the file on thingiverse)
• Extrusion multiplier: 1
• Primary Layer Height: .2 mm
• 1 Skirt Layer offset 4 mm
• 15% rectangular infill
• 20% Supports (25% Dense)