3D printing is something I’ve always been interested in. I was lucky enough to learn about 3D printing and programs in elementary school, but I only ever knew the basics. With this project, for the first time I found myself having to consider more than just simple principles liek (examples gp here), but also important design princples such as setting dimensions accordingly with a constraint in mind (the gumball capsule) and just how durable my print needed to be considering that someone would play with it and keep it.

I chose to print a recursive dodecahedral frame. It is a dodecahedron with smaller dodecahedrons inside of it, making for extremely complex internal structure.

Unfortunately, my FDM pieces were not stable enough to be printed in a Bambu. Due to the frame like nature of my piece and its size, the parts were too thin to be compatible with FDM printing.

However, I was able to successfully SLA print three iterations of the piece. Clear resin worked best, as I tried using a resin that was more flexible and the print collapsed. The supports were ridiculously hard to remove, so I resorted to removing the outermost supports, what I could reach in the internal structure, and left the rest because they meshed well with the actual piece.

Cost Estimate:

FDM Printing: 1 print (4 hrs), (2) parts (~100 grams), (PLA) ~10¢/g, $5/hr | ~$21

SLA Printing:  (3), Clear Resin, ~10 mL used, $1/mL | $10

Total: $31