Recently, I've been spending time on knowing more about 3D printing. Given the great opportunity by the good people at
Aalto Fab lab, Charlie and Ali, the prints were made possible. The model is based off a design by
Borja Montoro called Giacomo.
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| Makerbot print on the left and Form 1 on the right. The white print has been primed and sanded. |
The first test was done using a fused deposition modeling (FDM) machine, a Makerbot and the 2nd, the Form 1, uses stereolithography(SLA). Both are currently price ranged and classified as a desktop printer.
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| Problem areas in the earlobe, moustache and chin. |
The main learning was that different printing techniques required different ways of prepping your file. For both machines any slight overhangs with respect to the ground plane required supports. Hence the moustache, chin, ears in this case had problems printing. For the Makerbot, it preferred a closed model than a shelled one. The software for Makerbot generated its own honey comb internal structure and supports. Resolution was either at 0.15 or 0.10 mm
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| unsuccessful prints on the left of the amazing 14 cm one. |
The form 1 also required supports, however the file was better shelled with a hole or hollow in the core. Also since resin cost more, it made sense to hollow the model and save on material. Automatic supports were generated for the main overall print and little supports were manually placed for the problematic overhanging areas like the collars and moustache. The resolution was at 0.05 mm.
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| form1 Print still on supports. |
Currently, I'm still learning much about 3d printing and hope to update more on specific details.
Other 3D printing techniques that don't require supports were not available to me at the point of printing.
In short, it was important to know the final output and then use the printer/ printing technique that best support it.
