three thousand dimensions
[foray into the monstrous]
happily [or not so, for some], the stratasys printer got back online by the end of last week. john gave us a little primer, which goes a little something like this:
stratasys printing:
takes input as STL files (apparently it likes ASCII mode, whereas the zcorp has a predilection for binary files). unless you want your thing to print for a day and a half (quite literally), keep the z-values low, and your thing small. in the insight software, scale your object using STL -> scale. on screen, navigate through menus and things using the << >> buttons, and make sure settings are what they should be (as posted). click the green flag icon to start conversion of the STL file for the printer. click the button with the little horizontal lines to sift through the stack of layers that are created from the process to see if everything looks good with the binding material and if there's wiggle room where you intended it to be. to toggle between the object and support, go to STL -> display.
start communicating with the printer! click thing on screen that looks like a box talking (ok, ok, it's an arrow) to another bigger box.
now, to the machine: push ENTER and make sure that the support material temperature reaches 235. ensure the foam pad is agreeably smooth and secured by pins. now, the purging process to make sure the heads are smooth as silk. push LOAD when you see MODELING material appear on the LCD. the head should jog forward and the nozzle starts going. when the thread that emerges is whitish and smooth, push LOAD again to stop. to clean the support nozzle, push MODEL SUPPORT, and then do the same thing with the LOAD buttons. when done with this whole thing, make sure the modeling nozzle is back in the lower position.
ah, how cathartic. everyone needs a good purging.
pushing PAUSE puts it to absolute (0,0) in the (x,y) direction. you can press arrows to reset it if necessary. to adjust the z, press Z-AXIS and then use the up-down arrows. you want to bury the modeling tip about 1mm in the foam (ever-so-slightly below the surface).
make sure the printing is ok: the support material should be piped out in an outline first, NOT a raster. if this is not the case, make sure all is well; press PAUSE. on a good day, the support draws the outline and then fills in by rastering.
the nozzle heads we use are the ones with 2 rings on them, a T12 model. claim to have 1mil resolution; seems like for moving parts, the tolerance hovers around 20mil.
we had initial problems of the stratasys suddenly shutting off repeatedly. cause was ascertained to be overheating of the interior envelope, so leaving the door ajar seemed to do the trick.
the experiments
so although the zcorp dazzled with its petite stature and color capabilities, i didn't want to deal with particles in the lung and shattering [hearts] pieces. i'll play around with it soon enough, but set my eyes on the stratasys because of its durable ABS. or so i first thought.
spent some time playing around with 3d studio max and fell in love with it's intuitive-like-blender-is-not quality. played around with the primitives and thought an abacus might be something cool that dealt with interlocked moving parts and become something remotely useful. also made a bracelet to match (resembles those tasty candy necklaces we all know and love) for fun, and tried out a torus knot to see how it'd print.
design files
time is of the essence. on the stratatys, two objects:
my abacus (resized to 50%) 4" x 2" x 1/4" (relatively flat) and the knot about 2" x 2" x 2". they're laid side by side. the estimated printing time is 13 hrs. (!) the reason it took so long was the height of the knot.
i wasn't there to witness it, but i heard my abacus was so fragile it snapped in pieces while support material was removed from it before the bubbling bath. the remains:
reprinted the abacus at a larger size. much better; the beads resemble cheerios. however, the plastic is quite noticably stringy around the beads. the rectangular frame, however, is sturdy and clean-cut. my hunch is that the printer doesnt do terribly well with small areas with high curvatures. the torii of the beads are probably curvier than the printer can handle to print cleanly.
and the knot? it turned out gorgeously. check it out!
happily [or not so, for some], the stratasys printer got back online by the end of last week. john gave us a little primer, which goes a little something like this:
stratasys printing:
takes input as STL files (apparently it likes ASCII mode, whereas the zcorp has a predilection for binary files). unless you want your thing to print for a day and a half (quite literally), keep the z-values low, and your thing small. in the insight software, scale your object using STL -> scale. on screen, navigate through menus and things using the << >> buttons, and make sure settings are what they should be (as posted). click the green flag icon to start conversion of the STL file for the printer. click the button with the little horizontal lines to sift through the stack of layers that are created from the process to see if everything looks good with the binding material and if there's wiggle room where you intended it to be. to toggle between the object and support, go to STL -> display.
start communicating with the printer! click thing on screen that looks like a box talking (ok, ok, it's an arrow) to another bigger box.
now, to the machine: push ENTER and make sure that the support material temperature reaches 235. ensure the foam pad is agreeably smooth and secured by pins. now, the purging process to make sure the heads are smooth as silk. push LOAD when you see MODELING material appear on the LCD. the head should jog forward and the nozzle starts going. when the thread that emerges is whitish and smooth, push LOAD again to stop. to clean the support nozzle, push MODEL SUPPORT, and then do the same thing with the LOAD buttons. when done with this whole thing, make sure the modeling nozzle is back in the lower position.
ah, how cathartic. everyone needs a good purging.
pushing PAUSE puts it to absolute (0,0) in the (x,y) direction. you can press arrows to reset it if necessary. to adjust the z, press Z-AXIS and then use the up-down arrows. you want to bury the modeling tip about 1mm in the foam (ever-so-slightly below the surface).
make sure the printing is ok: the support material should be piped out in an outline first, NOT a raster. if this is not the case, make sure all is well; press PAUSE. on a good day, the support draws the outline and then fills in by rastering.
the nozzle heads we use are the ones with 2 rings on them, a T12 model. claim to have 1mil resolution; seems like for moving parts, the tolerance hovers around 20mil.
we had initial problems of the stratasys suddenly shutting off repeatedly. cause was ascertained to be overheating of the interior envelope, so leaving the door ajar seemed to do the trick.
the experiments
so although the zcorp dazzled with its petite stature and color capabilities, i didn't want to deal with particles in the lung and shattering [hearts] pieces. i'll play around with it soon enough, but set my eyes on the stratasys because of its durable ABS. or so i first thought.
spent some time playing around with 3d studio max and fell in love with it's intuitive-like-blender-is-not quality. played around with the primitives and thought an abacus might be something cool that dealt with interlocked moving parts and become something remotely useful. also made a bracelet to match (resembles those tasty candy necklaces we all know and love) for fun, and tried out a torus knot to see how it'd print.
design files
time is of the essence. on the stratatys, two objects:
my abacus (resized to 50%) 4" x 2" x 1/4" (relatively flat) and the knot about 2" x 2" x 2". they're laid side by side. the estimated printing time is 13 hrs. (!) the reason it took so long was the height of the knot.
i wasn't there to witness it, but i heard my abacus was so fragile it snapped in pieces while support material was removed from it before the bubbling bath. the remains:
reprinted the abacus at a larger size. much better; the beads resemble cheerios. however, the plastic is quite noticably stringy around the beads. the rectangular frame, however, is sturdy and clean-cut. my hunch is that the printer doesnt do terribly well with small areas with high curvatures. the torii of the beads are probably curvier than the printer can handle to print cleanly.
and the knot? it turned out gorgeously. check it out!
posted by christine @ 8:13 AM
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