3D Printing

Week 7 Blog - 3D Printing

For this week, we were tasked to design an object that cannot be created subtractively so I decided to make a ball inside a open box. The ball in the box cannot be made subtractively as the ball that I will be making is bigger than the hole on the box so if made subtractively, the ball would not fit inside the box. 

Firstly, I create a simple 7cm by 7cm by 7cm box in Fusion 360. Then I sketch a 5cm by 5cm square on each surface of the box and extrude it.

After doing this for all the surfaces, the body should look like this. 

Now for the ball, I create a ball with a diameter of 6cm and move it to the inside of the box.

This is my final design.

This is the stl file for my design: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KugCYHwQEAu-EFgCU1pQYUrSnNi8ap1R/view?usp=sharing

Next, I save the file as a stl file and import it into Ultimaker Cura which is a slicer software. I added support (Support Placement: Touching Buildplate) and added a outline (Adhesion Type: Skirt). Support is needed since the ball will be inside of the box so the ball has to be on the platform inside the box. The platform will then be removed after the print. The infill I use is 20% as I wanted the product to not be hollow but not very strong so I feel that 20 % is enough. Everything else remains as default.

After slicing it, I realised that the estimated completion time was 16 hours long since it was 7cm x 7cm x 7cm. Fortunately, all I have to do is to lower the scale of the product to 23% so that it will fit the maximum time frame of 1 hour. 

After an hour, this is how it looks like:

With Support

The final product:

Hero Shot:

Reflection: This is my first time trying 3D printing out and had a very pleasant experience with it. I learnt about the characteristics of 3D printing and am very excited about using the 3D print for our half boiled egg project. I used to think that 3D printing is very difficult, however after being able to design using Fusion 360 and learning about the Cura Slicer Software, I think I am able to use the 3D printer with ease in the future. However, I still need to know about the operating procedures and shutdown of the printers so that I would be more competent in using the 3D printers and be able to print independently.  Hence, I will go search more about the 3D printers we have in W319 and read its manual on its procedures.