This project was awesome. It was my first time working with a 3D printer, and definitely a rewarding experience.

I first wanted to do a print of one of my favorite video game characters, Donkey Kong. However, it did not qualify as an impossible object. I even consider the image below, but still was unsure if it was an impossible object to make by other means (maybe a laser cutter can do this).

I ditched the Donkey Kong idea, and decided to do a print of a cool geometric design. I ended up choosing this mobius bangle design that I found on thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:126984

The dimensions of the original file were very small, so I scaled it up before printing. I used a raft with supports, and the print turned out well. Post-processing to make the print look clean was the most time consuming. The raft and supports were difficult to take apart, but after doing so, the mobius looked great. However, it was still a bit small. See below:

I decided to scale up the original file by nearly 500% to get the diameter of it to be around 2″ to use for my final project. I kept all of the print settings the same. Here is the comparison between the new print compared with the 1st print:

I made 4 prints using the FLM printer, and did 1 print using the SLA printer. The SLA print looked really cool with the supports it had.

Here is a photo of the mobius using SLA print compared with FLM:

 

Cost Breakdown:

$0.87 for the 5 FLM prints (4 x $0.19 + 1 x $0.11)

$0.70 for the SLA print

$42 for 3.5 hours of labor at $12/hr

Total Cost: ~$43.57