Cura

Seed of Life

/ Sarah Collins / 4 Comments

My latest 3D project was to print a sphere with the Seed of Life Design on in.  I created it in Tinkercad; Seed of Life. On the bottom of the object I left a 12 mm hole for a LED light.

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It took me numerous attempts to get it printed.  Finally, I had to add supports to the sphere in Cura, the 3d slicing program, to get it to adhere to the plate.  Approximately 10 hours in to the 13 hours print, I noticed the translucent filament that the printer was using was about to run out.  I therefore replaced the filament with white.

Here is the final result.  The printer obviously needs some more adjusting.

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After I put the light in the bottom of the sphere, it look so good I made a video.  The video is posted on YouTube.  Seed of Life Video

Here are some pictures with the LED light.

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I posted the STL file on Youmagine for anyone to download.

3D Printing – The Easter Egg

/ Sarah Collins / 4 Comments

Yesterday, I designed an Easter Egg using Tinkercad.  Today, I printed the Easter Egg.  Creating the Egg in Tinkercad is easy.  They have a egg object.  Hollowing out the egg is easy; copy egg, reduce the size, make it a hole, align the solid egg with the hole egg, and group.

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Making the two egg halves with the crack was more complicated than making the chick.  The chick is two circles for the body, two circles for the eyes, two flatten and stretched trapezoid for the wings, the heart shape for the head, and Tinkercad’s  chicken foot object for the feet.

To see how I created the crack in the egg, check it out here.  Note:  I am working on other cool chicks, so the design my change.

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I probably could have made the chicken bigger, maybe I will.

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The egg was printed on Ultimaker 2+ printer.  I read that beta version of the Cura Software allows more control over supports.  Yay!

Tinkercad – the free, online 3D CAD app

Clackers

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It all started on Facebook and someone saying “Do you remember…”  Yes, I do remember Clackers, they were fun to play with, but dangerous (will at least in today’s world.)  We would get hit with one or both of the glass balls and go ouch or whoops.  However, in today’s world, they are safer than the Tide Pod challenge.

My 3D printer and I were not getting along, so we both took a break from each other.  After the Facebook posting, I decided it was time to put the print back to work.  And, one of the simplest thinks to design and print would be a ball with at hole in the middle.

I used Tinkercad to design it.  5cm ball with a hole in the middle.  I then did the thing I been regretting for a while, I cleaned, oiled and balanced the printer.  The first print failed, the item was not adhering to build plate.  Failure.  I rebalanced the build plate.  Failure.  I removed the build plate and cleaned it with soap and warm water and rebalanced the build plate.  Success, I had one ball for my clackers, so I printed a second one.

The string is only nylon string with a loop tied at the top and a knot at the end of each ball.

My family have official declared me weird.

 

Stand For Fluid Painting

/ Sarah Collins / 1 Comment

Fluid Painting can be messy.  You pour paint over the canvas and it drips over the edges.  What a mess!  I am not a clean freak, just a person working in limited space and I need my table to draw and do other things.  So far, I have limited myself to 4″ canvases, and I have a 3D printer sitting right next to my work table… I decided I would design and print a stand for my pour paintings.

The maximum print size of my Ultimaker 3d printer is around 8 inches, width and length.  The height can go up to around 12 inches.  So, this project was perfect.

The catch basin is 5″ square, or in my design world 127mm, and 1″ (25.4mm) high.  Just in case different colors dropped from the different edges of the canvas, I divided off the catch basin and add drain notches.  It didn’t need it, but I placed pegs to hold the stand, and divided off this compartment to keep paint off of the stand.  It took around 11 hours to print.

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The design was done in Tinkercad and export as a STL file.  The file was imported into Cura and where a .gcode file was made.  I used the “normal” setting because the “fine” setting indicated it would take 23 hours to print.  Therefore, some warping occurred because of the setting and because I select not to add a Brim support.

The stand was also designed in Tinkercad.  It is 3 inches high.  The break in the structure allows for air to flow under the canvas.  It took around 4 hours to print.

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The notches on top of the stand, allows me to put some other type of support under the canvas to lift off, in case I want to reuse the stand before drying is complete.

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The finished product.

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The colors, yes I used Color Shift paint by Folk Art and grab the black and 4 other colors.

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The test.

Ok, some of the holes leaked.  The center dividers should have been larger and I did not pour out of the basin as I expected.  I do not know if I am going to tweak the design and reprint it or not.  Probably.

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I did get a cup (one ounce) out of the basin.  It should go nicely with another pour.

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3D Print – Caboose

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Even though it is the last car on a train, it is the 3rd car in my train series, the Caboose.  After looking several train cars, I redesign the wheel attachment.  I named the train the “Midnight Express” because the entire train will be print in black.

I place items inside the car.  Table chairs, stove, sink, bench, barrels, crates, and platforms to look out the top windows to view the entire train.

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The ladders are not fitting together quite right, but these are delicate.

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The next car will be the passenger car.  I believe the train will need a box car and a cattle car.  Do I need a tank car?  Were they in use when trains ran off of coal.  May be a log car and a sleeper car.  There many of choices.

Object Size (W, D, H): 27, 136.43, 62.51 mm

Caboose in Tinkercad

Tinkercad – the free, online 3D CAD app

3d Print – Coal Car

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This is the 2nd train car I designed in my effort to print a train.  The first car was the engine. Link: Train Engine

The Coal Car was fun to design.  Instead of spending hours on Tinkercad finding the right shape for the coal container (I didn’t want a box),  I duplicated the same shape and just slightly increase the size until I had the height I wanted.

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The joint to connect the Engine with the Coal Car actually worked.  It was tested previously, but to see it function was amazing.

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Object Size (W, D, H): 25, 55.97, 42 mm

 

Tinkercad – the free, online 3D CAD app

Coal Car

3d Print – Train Engine

/ Sarah Collins / 7 Comments

One of my projects in the 3D Printing world is to design and print a train; Train Engine, Coal Car, Passenger Car, Cargo Car, etc.    I am not particularly into trains, but I thought it would be a fun project.  I’ve based the size of the train after Gn15 Model Train scale.  It specifies a train track gauge of 16.5 mm.

Only two of the cars have been completely designed and just finished printing the Train Engine, after several false starts.  The train is not a copy of any one train.   I used components I liked from many trains and incorporated them into the design.

A colored version of the Train Engine can be viewed on Tinkercad link: Train Engine.  Minor modifications where made for a successful print of the train.  The train was printed using supports (everywhere settings).  The carefully removal of the supports took time.

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The wheels of the train were printed separately because I wanted them to be able to spin.

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I even put chairs and gauges in the car to give the train character.  The grid on the platform was not part of the designed.  It was remnants of the support structure.  Instead of smoothing it out, I thought is provided a nice effect.

Train Engine:

Print Time: 3 hours 53 minutes
Filament: PLA – 4.11 meters 33 grams
Layer height: 0.1 mm
Shell Thickness: 0.8

Object Size (W, D, H): 33.468, 151.55, 60.503 mm

Wheels:

Print Time: 55 minutes
Filament: PLA – .45 meters 4 grams
Layer height: 0.1 mm
Shell Thickness: 0.8

Once I completed the entire train, I will make the .STL files available on youmagine.com.

Tinkercad.com deserves created for provide me the resources to create!

Tinkercad – the free, online 3D CAD app

3D Print – Birthday

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There are plenty of March birthdays in my family.  I needed cards.  Someone suggested buying gift cards for my dad.  So, I needed some gift card boxes.  Out comes the Corel Draw, the Silhouette, and the Ultimaker 2 to handle two of the birthdays.

Dad’s Birthday!

I used Corel Draw to create the background, then I printed it on metallic photo paper.  I designed the rest of the card using Silhouette Studio.

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I designed the gift card box in Tinkercad getting the dimension from a credit card.  The box was printed on the Ultimaker 2 using semi-transparent filament.

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Print Time: 3 hours 45 minutes
Filament: PLA – 5.22 meters 41 grams
Layer height: 0.1 mm
Shell Thickness: 0.8

Object Size (W, D, H): 100.001, 164.001, 12.701 mm  (Both pieces printed together)

Amanda’s Birthday!

I used a template for Amanda’s card and cut it on the Silhouette.  However, I did design the envelope since no envelope was a good size..  Alas, I didn’t get a picture.

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I tweak the gift card box after the other one was printed to make the top smaller and fit better.  It was printed using pink filament.

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Print Time: 3 hours 45 minutes
Filament: PLA – 5.25 meters 42 grams
Layer height: 0.1 mm
Shell Thickness: 0.8

Object Size (W, D, H): 100.001, 163.501, 12.701 mm  (Both pieces printed together)

The boxes was printed with the top and bottom laying flat on the printer bed to make the boxes smoother.