The initial part that I chose did not satisfy the requirement so I picked a different part. I had printed it on the SLA printer. The ball on the inside of the mesh frame was connected so the ball was not able to freely move.

So with the new piece I selected, the SLA print worked well and I just had to remove the supports in order to make the piece move freely.

 

I also made 4 FDM prints with the same model. The first time that I did the print, I did not include any supports. This resulted in poor layering at certain angles within the spike.

To fix this with future prints, I added supports to remove these imperfections as shown below.

This projects taught me a lot about the differences between SLA and FDM printers as well as about what types of objects are best to fabricate with a 3D printer in general. I found that SLA is not great for printing moving parts because they often fuse together, but it does provide very smooth surfaces. FDM works much better for printing pieces with moving parts but you can physically see the layers and some angles do not print very well.

 

COST ANALYSIS: 

Machine use time: SLA(4 hours) and FDM(4 hours) – $20

Labor costs: 3 hours – $30

Material is very cheap when bought in bulk,

Total cost: $50