Official 3D printing thread.

Lagduf

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I'm just a sucker for those early robot and automaton designs. Stuff like the iron giant, the day the earth stood still, etc. I really liked the design of the robots also in the game Stray. What I like about robots, like these, is you can ascribe whatever personality you like to them. Are they ominous watchers plotting to kill man, gentle giants seeking to become human, or merely slaves to their programming? You never know.

I need to go read some Asimov robot stuff.
 

Lagduf

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Anyway I think I finally "get" 3D printing. I sat down for like 15 minutes the other day and drew up on paper how I wanted to design the articulated arms, then I took that to Fusion 360, and it took me about an hour because I still suck with the program, but then I had it modeled and sliced. Sent to the printer, fucked around watching YouTube and reading a book, then the print finished and I (after lots of sanding) assembled the arm. Pretty cool from an idea I had floating in my head over the past few days. Just now it took maybe all of five minutes to tweak the geometries of the arm to get what, I think will be, a better fit and require less post processing.
 

FAT$TACKS

Not Average Joe., Not Average Homeowner., Not Aver
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I need to learn how to use something like Fusion 360. I did design and print something, but I used the basic 3D builder that comes with Windows.

I did up a mech scale dropship for Battletech.

Here are some crappy pictures.

IMG_20230127_165657884_HDR.jpg

IMG_20230127_165708048_HDR.jpg

I didn't really do a good job optimizing it for printing. It's not hollow.. The thrust pods are resin prints. Once we get some good weather I'm going to prime it up and try to paint job it.

Just making it and seeing how things fit together going from the computer to irl and finding out print tolerances and such was a learning experience. I think I could do a much better one if I were to do it again now.

Also, I know some people can't stand photos of things on beds so I made sure to bust out the pink sloth blankey and put this on a bed. I tried to get my foot in the photo but it would have ruined the artistic integrity of the photo.
 

Lagduf

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Nice, looks awesome. Fusion seems oriented towards more mechanical type shit. I'm going to download Blender and give that a try as well.

I didn't know Windows had a basic 3D modeling program. I wonder if there is one on Mac OS? I'm over here in Mac land on a M1 Mini.
 

Lagduf

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I was thinking spider or scorpion bot but clearly this is a crab bot. Don’t have feet for it yet.

I might make a spider arm type backpack. I need more filament.

14D9C079-CEF1-4BB1-9C40-65744CBBCC99.jpeg2FEC2A67-332E-436D-9F46-02F7BAC3CCB2.jpeg
 

Lagduf

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Shit pic, sorry. My house has uniformly poor lighting and it’s night time.

6D37E294-1ED4-4892-A759-3F10B5306F7F.jpeg

Haven’t worked on this guy in awhile. Made some feet. Made a top “shell” - it’s got some holes so I can put some arms on it.

So I just need to design like a shoulder socket to work with this and some kind of claws.

I kind of want to make a big claw and a little claw for some asymmetry.

I will add some eyes, but I’m thinking they’ll just be spheres on stalks. I’ll probably just glue them on.

I’ll have to fire up my resin printer because I want to print some greebles/bitz to add on to it. Painting a flat, unbroken surface for a miniature sucks.
 

Lagduf

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Also thought maybe the top could have a clear dome with a brain inside. Maybe that’s too 50s pulp sci-fi or like the spider dudes in Jabba’s palace (they were a sect of Monks in the old EU - not sure if Disney changed that in the new canon.)
 

Lagduf

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So I recently learned of the existence of 3D Print Mills. The build plate is basically a conveyor belt, effectively giving you an infinite print length on a single axis. Super, super, super cool. Especially for really long prints. I think they're neat for repetitive prints or printing multiple of the same thing over and over again. Guess these were all the hype a few years ago, and kind of a niche application, but I think it's still really cool.

Saw a guy who was printing a chain and he had modified the g-code so there was a start link and an end link but the g-code was written for the middle link to repeat indefinitely. Then when he had several meters of chain printed he was simply able to select "end loop" on the printer and it finished the current link and went on to print the end link.

Maybe not new to 3D printer enthusiasts, but new to me, and seems pretty damn cool. I'll have to look more in to it.

Here's an example of Creality's 3D print mill:

creality-cr-30-3d-printer
 
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