This weeks project tested our 3D printing skills. I sped through the task this week, but still encountered a few hiccups along the way. The first task was to find an “impossible” object file online. In this case “impossible” means that to manufacture this object in any other way besides 3D printing would be extremely challenging, but simple on a 3D printer. I found a file on Thingiverse of a little mouse with an articulated tail made by the creator Olgigi. Once I downloaded the file, I chose the two types of 3D printing I would use to manufacture my five mice. I was a little dissapointed that our SLS printer at the OEDK was out of commission for a while, but I was excited to try the new Bambu Labs FDM printer and the SLA printers as well. I did a test mouse to see if I chose the right scale and once that printed. I could arrange 2 more mice on the build platform and start the print. While that print was going, I turned my attention to the SLA printers. I started off with automatic supports to lift the mice off of the build platform and hit print. When I came back, A lab assistant had washed and cured the print already and I was dissapointed because there seemed to be some extra resin not quite washed off that had cured in each of the tail segments, so the tail no longer articulated. Upon closer inspection of the now hamsters (the tails broke off as I tried to wiggle them) I noticed there were also a lot of tiny auto-generated support pieces caught in the tail segments. To mitigate this all together, I decided to print a mouse directly on the build platform. This worked wonderfully for the first mouse I printed, but I put the mouse in the cleaning bath to remove extra resin and the tail got caught in the mesh basket and broke off again. I printed the same file and when I came back my mouse had sliced and sheared apart. I think this is due to printing it flat on the plate, and the mouse being caught on the resin pusher that Formlabs uses and therefore causing it to shift and slide. After a quick cleaning mesh, the printer was back in service and I printed my second mouse. I was extremely careful this time before curing it, but after it cured the mouse had a fully articulating tail. All that was left to do was assemble my band of mice and put them in the gumball capsules for another person to enjoy!

Cost Analysis:

FDM Prints (3 mice): 

4.26m of PLA filament- $0.25

SLA Prints (2 mice):

13 mL of clear v4 resin- $149 for 1L- $1.94

13 mL of Gray Pro resin-$199 for 1L- $2.59

TOTAL Material Cost- $4.78

Labor costs- 0.5 hour setting up and printing all FDM prints. 0.5 hour setting up the SLA prints. 1 hour washing, curing, cleaning out the bed of the SLA printer. If we estimate the salary of a 3D printing Technician to be 16 dollars an hour, the total labor cost is $32.

The TOTAL cost for 5 mice is: $36.78