3D Printing - First Prints

Well, it arrived the other day.

My 3D Printer.

It's taken me a few days, and a few failed prints to get the hang of this thing. It's not really the printer, it's me testing the limits of this thing by not knowing what I'm doing.

The first thing I printed was a 3D Benchy because that seems to be the thing to do when your testing your printer. It turned out pretty well and has already disappeared into @landonator's toy box somewhere.

Since the first print went well, I decided to try and do something a little more challenging. So, I refreshed my blender skills with this tutorial on YouTube. Here's my finished result for...

Test Print 1

The model itself was pretty quick to do, but the rigging of the mesh took a whole day because something was going on I couldn't figure out. I ended up re-doing the rigging a second time after giving up. The second time it took no time at all, but I was so fed up with the model at that point I just made a quick pose to try and print.

It didn't turn out.

The first attempt looked like it was doing really well but I selected the wrong infill type as I was messing around so it wasn't very strong. That, coupled with the really skinny arm and leg sections caused all four appendages to fall off as I was trying to remove the supports that print with it. They were a lot harder than I thought.

So, the second trial ended up being slightly more successful, but not quite.

Test Print 2

As you can see, I got the rigging working for the fingers and thumbs so I made him holding a Steemit logo. I also made his legs and arms thicker and attached the arms to the body to support them. That turned out good, but I still lost the legs while trying to remove the supports again. I really wasn't having a good time trying to remove that stuff. I was thinking of getting an X-Acto knife or something but until then all I had was larger knives and some files to do the job. After the fact I realized the printer came with some really small and sharp cutting plyers - doh!

So I reprinted the same model a third time to see if I could be more carefull with removing the supports. Turns out I couldn't. I lost the legs again.

Back to the drawing board.

The last time supported the arms, they turned out good after that. So all I had to do was support the legs with something, somehow. I thought I could make him sitting on a stump or something like that, so I drew it up this morning.

Test Print Number 3

I had a good feeling about this one and I was right. The stump supported the legs enough and, while taking my time a lot more, I was able to remove all the supports without breaking anything. So now I have a model already rigged up that I can make him holding anything I want.

And here a reference photo for size and what's left of the failed tests.

Now that the testing phase is done, I'm turning my attention to some repairs around the house. I've got everything from tonneau covers to VHF radio chargers to eventually print off. I'll also have to get some paint for finishing these off. I'm sure it won't be the last ornamental print I make with this thing and the paint will really bring it to life.