For this project, we got to explore how different 3D printing methods can be used to achieve different tasks. I really enjoyed this project as I enjoy 3D printing.
First, I had to choose an “impossible” object that I wanted to print. I settled on the Infinite Dodecahedron from SteedMaker on thingiverse.
I started off by printing the model at 30% scale on the Bambulabs printer. Once I got the print back, I realized that it was much too small for the capsule. After measuring what had printed, I tried 50% scale, and after that, I settled on 44% scale to fit inside the gumball machine capsules.
Different sizes of original print
Once I had the right sizing, I went to print out the object. Due to the nature of the object, I could not realistically use supports as these would have been impossible to properly remove from the inside of the shape. Hence, I had to print around 8 FDM iterations to get a set that looked good. As for the SLA printing, I printed 4 of the dodecahedron. One of them included supports and when it came off the printer it was clear that they supports could not be removed from the inner parts of the geometry without destroying the print. Two of them were torn apart in the process of trying to remove them from the print bed and one turned out really nicely.
Failed SLA Prints
While the printing for this object failed a lot, once some good prints came out, I was pretty happy with the object I had chosen.
After this, I wet sanded the FDM prints (and left the SLA print untouched as sanding had left scratched for others). It was sort of challenging to sand the prints and some of them almost felt like they left a dark stain on them while sanding. I think the issue was the very small details of the dodecahedron and the fragility of the structure due to the small connections. Finally, I noted the design process on slips of paper and put the prints into the gumball capsules.
Overall, I really enjoyed the project, but if I were to do it again, I would choose a different object that was better suited to be shrunk down to such a small scale.
Cost analysis:
I will not be including the cost of the 3D printers in this analysis (as I don’t feel that this cost thousands of dollars to make).
Bambu FDM filament – 300g * $20/kg (Bambu Website) – $6
SLA Resin – $150/liter * 100 mL – $15
Labor – $15/hr * 3 hours – $45
Total: $66
This is once again pretty relative to the time spent. It was hard to calculate the total time as I probably spent 8 hours at the OEDK but don’t want to count time spent waiting on the prints.
