For this assignment, we were tasked to 3D print an “impossible” object that could only be feasibly created by 3D printing it. I looked at the files available on Thingiverse and found the Gyro cube which is something that I’d always seen and thought looked cool. It’s like a cube with smaller cubes inside it. The interesting part is that they’re all cleverly 3D printed inside of each other, and this seemed like an “impossible” object to put the boxes inside each other without printing it layer by layer like how 3D printers do.

I initially learned how to use the 3D printer with a non-related test print on one of the printers, and I noticed that it was really difficult to get the support material off. I was worried that I was going to break the print every time I tried to take off the support material, but in the end, it turned out fine because of how careful I was. However, with my “impossible” object print, I knew that it would be delicate because the sides of the cube were so thin. Consequently, I looked at using one of the 3D printers in the wet lab. I chose one of them and used it to 3D print.

However, I didn’t realize

that the one I chose, which was the Object one, was the one where the support material is taken off using highly pressurized water. When I found out that I would have to spray it with water, I was worried that the water being shot at the print would break it. I tried it out anyways, since I had the print, and I was surprised at how the support material was soft and squishy unlike the rigid support material from the 3D printers outside the wet lab (Figures 1 & 2).

When I tried to use the water to spray off the support material, it actually did snap a few parts of it, but it turned out mostly fine, and the end product still looked really cool (Figures 3 & 4). If I were to do this print over again, I would have used the 3D printer that has the support material taken off using the acid bath rather than the water jet. However, even with these difficulties, I found 3D printing to be super cool and would really like to 3D print more things in the future.