Week 6

Print, Print, Print...

Printing the Snowflake

I started by printing my first print of snowflake design. However, I messed up the width in the CAD software which resulted in the rings and laps only having a width of 0.1 mm. This print was unusable.

The middle part was ok regarding its thickness, however, I didn't like the flexibility of the black filament. I updated my CAD design, changed the filament and printed again.

For the seconds attempt one of the laps was not printed properly.

It printed the element again on a different printer.

"Mass" Printing

For mass production, it printed the elements in batches of 4 each with 0.15mm quality settings. Each print took around 1 hour and 20 minutes. I managed to print 4 batches. However, during the print 1 batch turned out unusable due to printer problems. Another element from a different print also couldn't be used for my final structure due to printing issues.

This left me with 11 usable elements which I connected together.

The connected structure was very sturdy and also flexible. I was able to bend them together to form a tube structure.