I had absolutely no expectations when it came to 3-D printing and found many benefits and downfalls when I started and as I continued with different machines. However, as I journeyed through my project adventure, I realized there were so many objects I could try, such as the Hilbert cube by tbuser (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:16343) or Cube Spinning, Cage, Hyperboloid by Igbu (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3151990). However, I chose to pursue the Onix Pokemon after remembering my love for them from my childhood (and the fact that it moves, making it an impossible object on the FDM printer, and it was printer smaller on the SLA printer, making it hard to make for that print in a different method).

Step 1: Trial and error of trying to choose my final design

With a whole world of Thingiverse ahead of me, I thought it easy and simple to choose a design for this project. I was wrong (as is the normal trend with the projects). I first wanted to create a Hilbert Cube, which was a good impossible object to choose. However, one fault it had was that each hanging layer of it, without supports, would droop and the filament would look like it is not connected to the print. Another fault was that, when I auto generated the supports, there were so many interconnected supports in the design that when I started to post-process it, I got irritated and broke part of the Hilbert Cube. A fun time. After that failure, I decided to go a different route and settled on the Spinning Cube one. I actually never printed this since I thought it would need supports such as the Hilbert Cube because of all the more escalated vertical areas, and I did not want to go through the process of removing the supports because of the huge pain they presented the first time. Finally, I noticed that many projects contained moving parts, so I tried to think of something that consisted of many memories for me, and I remembered that Pokemon was a huge part of my childhood, so I chose Onix to be my final design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 2: Sizing and figuring out the settings and size I can reasonably make it for the FDM printer

I first printed Onix with the dimensions of 30 mm for x, 30.91 mm for y, and 7.88 mm for z. I utilized the default printer settings since I did not know what the heck I was doing for my fused deposition modeling (FDM) process with Original Prusa i3 MK3(S/S+) of 0.25 mm in layer height, 1 mm in wall thickness, infill density of 15%, printing temperature of 210 degrees Celsius, build plate temperature of 65 degrees Celsius, and a raft for the build plate adhesion type along with supports generated.

It was smaller than I expected and difficult to take off the raft, so I decided to double it in the hope that it can coil on itself and have it with no build plate adhesion type (props to Danny telling me that since I was so confused and he gave me the suggestion after I talked to him about my problem), and that worked! So, for the 30 mm print, I printed with the printing default settings on the Original with the exception of 0.1 mm in layer height, none for build plate adhesion type, and no generated supports. I proceeded to keep these settings for the remainder of my prints. When I also printed it to the bigger size of 60 mm for x, 61.83 mm for y, and 15.76 mm for z (the coiling one), I also printed an even bigger version to see what the limit may be, and this consisted of the dimensions 80 mm for x, 82.44 mm for y, and 21.01 mm for z. Ultimately, the biggest one was too big to fit inside the gumball capsule, but it still came out very well!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 3: Printing out many of my desired design (and having many failures along the way)

Although my prints came out quite beautifully, there were more prints than I expected that would start to mess up while in the process. These failures were evident when the PLA filament would start bunching up on the design and would not proceed to the correct positions for creating the Onix. I was very confused by this and still do not comprehend it as I would start it on a certain machine (example is PrinterA, which I did avoid for a bit because I did not want to learn how it got its extra caption of “Printer from Hell”), and it would not work on that printer, then I cancelled the bed/print, reprint on there, and it would work. Overall, a learning process I am still in process of trying to learn what goes wrong, haha.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 4: Scrambling for a new SLA printer

After I was sure that I am completing my FDM prints correctly, I started to worry about how to do my second printing method, stereolithography (SLA). I was told that there were two machines (formlabs 2 and 3) near the FDM printers and the Prusa SL1S printer for the SLA method. I wanted to try one of the formlabs printers as I was being taught how to do that one by Julian, but it was always so busy in the 3 days I had mine ready to print for, so right before class, I talked to Darrell about it and he mentioned that there is the SL1S printer we can use! After us talking it through, I decided to try it and it came out almost all correct! There were just a few areas that did not print well and did not connect for the entire piece.

 

Saying this, the next day I came back and I ran my finger (with a glove on) across the bed and found what I thought was debris, so I alerted a Lab Assistant, and apparently the screen was torn, so that is how the printer became out of surface. It made me very sad as it only took my design 22 minutes on that machine in comparison to the around 6.5 hours (without supports) it would take on the formlabs printer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 5: Battling the SLA resin printer

Let the destruction actually begin now. I was trying to time the correct time and I found that I would have to come around midnight that night, so I put my plan in action by creating my file and sending it to SplendidMole so I could just press go. However, nothing ever happens that easily. I came back and pressed print, and the printer said the tank was not inserted into it when it clearly had the resin tank residing in the printer. So, I had the lovely time of looking up many videos of the formlabs resin printer and trying to figure out why that error was still present. Finally, I managed to wiggle (I know, not professional, but it was like 12:45 am and I was tired) the tank and it must have snatched something to make sure it was inserted! I was more proud of myself than I thought and I also learned much more about the printer than I thought I would at first. In addition, I learned from other people’s prints that SLA does not print well for moving objects, so I made it a lot smaller (30 mm in x width) for it to easily fit in the capsule. Afterwards, I washed and post-cured my Onix:)

Step 6: Joining in with Jhalak for SLA prints!

After I printed that one smaller Onix on the SLA, I wanted to try printing a bigger one, so I printed one of 40 mm in the x orientation. I joined in with Jhalak and we incorporated our designs on one file to try and save time for the SLA print, but it still took such a long time (~8 hours), so we started it and it would have been done around 1 am. We went ahead and started it and just had to wait!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 7: Post-Processing the SLA and finding a new purpose:)

I came back around that time to wash and curate them, and it was going well the next day until I was still breaking off the supports and the Onix broke in half:( It made me sad, but it did reinforce the notion that I am going to have a 30 mm Onix in the x orientation be in the gumball capsule as a ring! I first post-processed the SLA print with some cutters and the hard bristle brush to try and smooth it as to where it will not poke someone as it is put on! Also, I lost the tip of the Onix as I was showing someone the ring, so that was something unfortunately is different from the other prints and I wish it did not happen like that:/ It looked sooooo well on me, so why not it be worth $0.25 or $0.50?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 8: Model Baby!

Here are some pictures of my precious creations! 4 of them are created from the FDM process and 1 is made from the SLA method. Work it! Rock on!

The red cap was intentional as I wanted it to look like a normal Poke Ball!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 9: Finding my costs and how much my objects are worth

$0.18 per FDM print: $0.18 x 4 prints = $0.72

$200 per each 1 L grey pro resin for the SLA printer and each 1 L can print around 120 to 14o figures, so $200/130 is $1.54 per SLA print: $1.54 x 1 print = $1.54

Labor Cost where 2.5 hours for each FDM print (10 hours) and 10 hours for single SLA print (20 hours of printer running where I can’t print anything else on it): 20 hours x $7.25 (minimum wage in Texas) = $145

Cost to use machine: $1 per hour = $20 (https://all3dp.com/2/3d-printing-cost-calculator-great-websites/)

Total to make these 5 objects: $187.26

Although this looks like a huge cost, if I just let the machine run while doing other things, then it would still be a good deal. Because many of these items are free at the OEDK, if I was just to pay for the resin and filament I used, then the total cost would have been $2.26!

I wish that I read into SLA printers more before starting this project because although the software is intuitive, it still took much more time to understand what I needed to so in order to import, make sure the design is already scaled, how to switch it to the correct printer, and inserting/removing the resin tank when need be. Also, I wish I paid more attention at first to what would need a raft, skirt, brim, or none as it would have made more sense for the different objects I printed in the first place if I understood each concept better.

Overall, I really enjoyed the project and I would do it again for sure!