3D Printing

The printers I have owned:

Some things I've printed:

Replacement Bungee Hook: The tip of the hook on my dad's bungee cable used for securing gear broke, and it seemed like a prime opportunity for a quick and strong 3D printed replacement! I designed the hook as two halves secured together by captive nuts, which I first learned of as a prototyping method from my industrial design projects saw plenty of in my assembly of the MK4. The embedded nut provides threaded fasteners strong threads to pull against, translating the clamping force through the larger surface area of the nut's body rather than onto a printed or formed plastic thread. I took measurements using calipers to establish the general size and shape, then added in pockets for nuts and screws. The final result (printed in PETG for strength) can be easily installed and removed without damage to the hook or cord.

3D model files made in Fusion 360, with screw and nut components pulled in using the McMaster-Carr tool. Thanks to the added hardware in the design file I was able to get a successfule print on my first attempt!

Patrick: My first print project making use of the MMU3 (Multi-Material Upgrade) add-on to the MK4 printer, which allows five different filaments to be loaded at once. This project taught me how to diagnose multiple printer issues including misshapen and broken filaments, loosened set screws, and aligning the Bowden tubes. The final print sits at over 6 inches tall and took over 18 hours to print!

Jack O' Lantern: A print I made to learn more about T-spline modeling techniques, following this beginner guide. I learned some basic tools of working with T-splines, like Edit Form, Thicken, and Split Body to separate the stem from the base. I quickly learned to watch for self-intersecting faces, and to recognize that narrow surfaces did not play nicely with thick walls.

V2: Initially I gravitated towards a pedestal type design with a button stuck in the base, for no reason other than it's how I added lighting in the first print. However, I realized it would require a reprint of the larger base and would leave the pedestal in full view even when not lit up. Instead, I opted to redesign the stem lid to dovetail into a piece with a pocket to hold a battery. This meant the new stem could be used with the old (or any other) base, and would prevent the need to fiddle around inside to turn off the light.

Soccer Ball: A print I made to learn more about spherically symmetric models, which I now know are pretty difficult. My first attempts to work backwards from a sphere were unsuccessful, so I read a bit about the geometry of the shape. The distinctive Adidas Telstar design evokes a polyhedron called a truncated icosahedron, which is the triangular faced, twenty-sided Platonic solid with each vertex cut flat. These cuts form the twelve black pentagonal faces, with the remains of the original triangular faces becoming white hexagons.

I found this helpful tutorial on how to make an icosahedron through a circular pattern and mirror of an easy to model portion, which gave me my starting point. I was appalled to find that Fusion 360 does not have the ability to define workplanes using a normal axis and point like Inventor does, which forced me to create sixty construction points along the edges to define my planes instead. The animation workspace of Fusion 360 also lacked access to named views, making manipulation of my model less controlled. Although I originally planned to round the faces by lofting them to an external sphere, I realized that a single sphere size would not intersect all faces the same way. I ended up leaving the faces flat instead.

UD Blue Hen: Printed as a decoration, and as a way to learn about programming pause heights to change filament colors.

Tetrominoes: Printed as a toy to visualize Tetris setups and make use of a variety of filament colors.

Curved Connector: Printed as a component of a subsystem for my Junior Design project. I created a helix path that met my specifications, then swept a cross section along it to create a ramp with a smooth and continuous downward grade.

Electrical housing: Printed as a replacement for the purposes of home renovation.

Stanley Figurine (Figley): Printed as a prop for cosplay purposes. The model was lifted from the assets for The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. My first resin print, from which I learned ways to better optimize my gcode: print at an angle, add a drainage hole, and place supports more thoughtfully.

Front and back of the painted model. There was time to apply two coats of white primer, let it dry for three days, and apply two coats of acrylic paints. Next time I make a prop like this, I will be sure to start much earlier!

Garden Gate: Printed as a functional gate latch for our backyard garden. The one that came with the garden was tiny and pathetically fragile, so I designed and printed some oversized parts to make it more durable and easy to manipulate.