Hello!

For my 3D printing homework I chose to make balls in boxes. First, I chose a file from Thingiverse.

I then scaled it so it would fit in the gumball capsules and set the layer height to 0.35 mm, wall thickness to 1 mm, and infill desnity to 25%. I was initially very excited to get to printing, but the FDM 3D printers collectively decided that they did not want to work the weekend before the original assignment due date, giving us some fun error messages.

After several hours of waiting in the OEDK while the lab assistants messed with the 3D printers, we finally got some of them to work. My first print was successful, but then… disaster struc. I left the OEDK to let my second piece print (since each one took awhile) and got an email from Charlie telling me my print had failed.

He suggested that I try printing with a brim (I was using a skirt before), and this seemed to help the print stick to the bed better, and the rest of my Prusa prints were successful!

One issue I had was that sometimes when I removed the brim from the bottom of the ball, it left a bit of a mark, but there didn’t seem to be a lot I could do about it due to the nature of spheres being difficult to 3D print.

Next, came time to resin print. I printed with tough resin on Printer 2, and got this:

After curing I removed the supports (which was very difficult because there were a lot of them). The supports left marks on the ball, but even after trying to carefully scrape at them with an exacto knife, the marks were still slightly visible.

Overall, I am happy with how everything turned out (even after the initial frustrations with the 3D printers not working), and was glad I got to learn how to 3D print. It was definitely one of my most anticipated skills to learn in this class.

Cost calculations:

Labor: 4 hours * $10/hr = $40

FDM filament (each print was estimated to be about $0.16 by 3DPrinterOS. Calculation includes failed prints): $1.60

SLA resin: $0.85

Time on Prusa: 10 hr * $0.21/hr = $2.10

Time on Resin printer: 3 hr * $9.40/hr = $28.20

Gumball Containers: $0.20 * 5 = $1

Total: $103.75