INTRO
In celebration of my roommates and I starting our journey to foster a cat, I decided to 3D print some feline related impossible objects.
wobbly cat
Strategy
After looking for a bit on thing verse, I identified two objects that are possibly impossible/I would like to print. The two prints were Flexi Cat by feketeimre and LASER CAT -Voronoi Style by Roman_Hegglin. I ended up printing both as I was not sure which one would work better. The plan to to print 4 on the FDM machines and 1 on the SLA printer. Although I know now that each printer type is better for certain types of prints, more on that later.
vORONOI cAT!
FLEXI CAT!!
Making
The first couple prints I had to adjust and get used to the 3D printer OS system. I thought that the parameters were a little limited so I ended up using the prusa and cura slicer. To save time, I printed all 4 FDM objects at the same time. I wish now though I had done it on separate printers so I would have a wider range of printer colors.
Slicer layout
The FDM prints turned out well but I think the Flexi-Cat prints were scaled down too much and the articulation was lost. The Voronoi Cats also lost some detail in the printing process but turned out well overall I think.
Flexi cat + Voronoi Cat
For the SLA prints, the flexi cats lost all articulation which was expected due to its size. However, the Voronoi cats turned out super well and the level of resolution was really incredible.
SLA Voronoi Cats wit supports
reflection
Although I had 3D printed in the past, this is the first time I’ve really had to tune and adjust the 3D printer to make the prints come out well. This was also my first introduction to SLA printing which was really exciting and helpful to learn.
Free MY friends!!
Cost Breakdown
It took around 3 hours to print about 0.25g of PLA which would come to a cost of $4 and I estimated 1$ for the SLA print for a total of 5$. I’m not sure how much the capsules costed but lets just sat $0.25 each for a total of $1.25. All together, the project costed $6.25.
