I began the process by finding a design on Thingiverse that I thought was cool and that fit the criteria for being impossible without the use of 3D printing. The chameleon that I chose has interlocking parts that move making it ‘impossible’.
3D Chameleon File
I chose to print the chameleon out of PLA using FDM and SLA. Since we had to maximize the usage of the space within the gum ball, I had to test sizing a couple of times before I got it right. The chameleon was a lot more flexible than I anticipated so I ended up increasing the size and then the overall scale was too large so I tried again and found a happy medium. I did this testing process using the Prusa FDM printers as the print time is quick and then moved onto the Bambu Lab FDM and Form Labs SLA printers when I was more sure of my sizing. The Prusa print also seemed more brittle to me as one of the legs broke off when I was removing the supports.
First print that was too small using the Prusa
For the FDM chameleons I decided to have a little more fun and add a second color to some of the parts of the chameleon. As expected for the SLA, there were a couple of places where the cured resin glued the interlocking parts together on the gray ones but all the joints except one on each was easy enough to gently coerce into moving again!
Printed FDM chameleons before removing supports
For the SLA printers, I printed the chameleons in resin first, then washed and cured them.
Printed resin chameleons
Washing, curing and removing supports.
Final product:
Final five chameleons
Chameleons in their capsules
Clean space after completing my project:
Cost of Production:
– PLA Basic Filament costs $27.99/kg from Bambu Lab. Each of my 3 prints used 8.36g plus additional practices on smaller prints is around 40g bringing the cost to $1.12.
– Tough 1500 Resin 1L from Form Lab costs $199. Each of my 2 prints used around 26ml of resin so the cost is $10.35.
– Vending Machine Capsules at $5.89 for 50 so cost is $0.59 for 5.
– Labor: Around 3 hrs of physical time uploading prints, ensuring they were printing properly, removing supports. At $15/hr that brings the cost of labor to $45.
– Overheads (covers OEDK general costs like Lab Techs, power, maintenance of 3D printers etc) at 15% of total cost at $8.56.
Total Cost of Production: $65.62
Filament usage for 1 FDM chameleon
