Prior to this project, I have used 3D printers before but only the Prusa 3D printers, so I was excited to use a different type of 3D printer. For my project, I used the Prusa 3D printer and the SLS FormLab printer.
Choosing a Design
When choosing a design, I was inspired by my friend Walsh’s piece from last semester – an articulated octopus. I wanted to recreate the idea but with a different animal, so I chose an articulated butterfly. Luckily, I was able to find one on thingiverse. Below are images of the design.
Prusa 3D Printer
Since I was already familiar with the Prusa 3D printers, I decided to make a few prints using this printer first. I first measured the size of the gumball to scale down the butterflies to the right size. The gumball had a height of about 50 mm, so I scaled my butterfly down to that size.
Left: measuring the gumball; right: adjusting the dimensions to 50 mm in length
When making the first print, I decided to add a raft as support. However, when the print came out, I noticed two things 1) the butterfly was too small – I knew that I could make it bigger so that it could take up more space in the gumball. 2) the raft support was difficult to remove. When I tried to remove it, I ended up breaking the butterfly.
Left: adding a raft support; right: result of the print
To fix these errors, I scaled up my design to 75 mm in length. Additionally, I decided to not use any supports this time – I did two of these prints. The results were a lot better! The butterfly fit snugly in the gumball. One of my prints was perfect; however, one of my other prints had a small error – the right antenna of one of the butterflies was slightly messed up. I concluded that, since I didn’t use any supports, the first few layers might be more prone to error. This could make a big difference, especially for my print, because the antenna are quite thin in the design.
Left: the right antenna is a bit messed up; right: the butterfly fits well in the gumball!
Because of this small error with the right antenna, I tried messing around with the supports again. The next time I did a print, I used a brim support. I figured that the brim supports would be easier to peel off than a raft support; additionally, it would print out a first layer to really ensure that the print was adhered to the bed and therefore might help with the accuracy of the antenna. The result was a lot better! A photo is shown below.
I continued doing this for a few more prints. There were still some times when removing the brim was quite difficult. In fact, I broke a few of my prints while trying to remove the supports.
Broken butterfly 🙁
Eventually, I was able to get 3 consistent prints from the Prusa 3D printers.
SLS FormLab 3D Printer
I went to the OEDK one morning to check on my Prusa 3D prints, and I asked a Lab Assistant about what other 3D printers I could use. He said that if I wanted my articulated pieces to turn out well, I should use the SLS 3D printer in the wet lab. This was really exciting because I’m pretty sure not many OEDK students have used this printer before. After doing some research on this printer, I’ve learned that it uses powder to fuse particles together to mechanically create one solid part.
I worked with someone else in our class to make the most out of one print, so we uploaded multiple prints to one file (image shown below).
With the help of the lab assistant, we were able to set up the printer. The print took about 3 hours and took another 2 hours to cool. Unfortunately, I was not able to be there for the post-processing of the print. However, I heard from Katherine (the person I worked with) that they used a vacuum and brush to remove excess powder from the prints.
Results from the SLS FormLab printer
The texture of the butterflies were very smooth, and I noticed that the prints were more “flexible” and articulated in nature in comparison to the Prusa prints.
My final 5 prints include 3 prints from the Prusa 3D printers and 2 prints from the SLS FormLab printer.
Reflections
One thing I noticed was that the butterflies in which I used brim supports for on the Prusa printers were “stiffer” than the butterfly in which I didn’t use a support for. However, I didn’t want to continue printing butterflies with no supports because I knew the results would be inconsistent given the mistake with the antenna the first time. I also think that, because the prints were so small, it was more difficult to get the prints to be more flexible and articulated, especially on the Prusa printers.
I learned a lot about the impact of supports in 3D prints and the differences between different types of supports in this project. I’m also really glad I got to learn how to use a new form of 3D printing!
Cost
- Prusa prints: $0.36 x 3: $1.08
- FormLab prints: $1.32 x 2: $1.64
- 5 hours of labor x $10 per hour = $50
- TOTAL = $52.72
