During this process, I learned a lot about 3D printing and how to troubleshoot. There were a lot of issues with the printers that required assistance from many of the lab assistants and a lot of failed prints. However, it was great to have completed the final product and manipulate the articulated butterfly. Additionally, I am excited to employ this skill in the future and even in my current design classes. 3D printing comes in handy for many products, so I am grateful to have learned this skill.

Selecting an Impossible Object 

To select my impossible object, I explored Thingiverse for articulated objects. At first, I found a heart charm that rotated within each other linked here. However, I quickly learned that this did not fit the criteria of an impossible object because it was multiple objects within one. Thus, I searched again and found a butterfly. After 3D printing at full size, I realized that the width of the butterfly and the size of the antenna would make it difficult to fit in the gumball capsule. After trial and error, I learned that a scale factor of 0.6 worked best to fit in the capsule snuggly.

FDM Printing

To print using the FDM printers, I followed the instructions in the manual. However, the printers were very busy with some prints running around 22 hours. This made it very difficult to finish my prints. At one point, the print did not finish because the printer was clogged. A picture of the printing process and a picture of the final product is attached below.

Additionally, when using the Ultimaker, it was difficult to remove the supports and I ended up breaking the butterfly when attempting to. Finally, I was able to have all of my butterflies printed and supports removed as shown in the picture below.

 

Using the Resin Printers

To operate the resin printer, I relied on the help of lab assistants. I also learned that I needed to resize my butterfly on the STL file as pictured below.

The process also took a longer time than expected. There was one point where I had not allowed the butterfly to cure for enough time, so it was a bit sticky. Additionally, after curing, I attempted to bend the butterfly which ended up breaking the product. With the final product, I was not able to get the butterfly to bend, but I did not have enough time to redo the process.

With the final product, I was not able to get the butterfly to bend, but I did not have enough time to redo the process. The final product of the resin print is shown below.

Cost Analysis

• FDM prints (4 successful, 3 failed) = $0.35
• resin prints = $1.86
• labor = $240

Communal supplies such as the 3D printers, filament, resin printers, and capsules were not included.

Total Cost: $242.21