Nov.16, 2012
3D artist Glen Southern has recently purchased a Makerbot Replicator 2 3D printer to output some of his digital creations. In the video below Glen walks us through how he use Cinema 4D to prepare and scale models to be sent to Makerbot Makerware for 3D printing.
In his recent blog Glen steps through his adventures with Replicator 2 and his first prints. The open, unwrap, setup process was pretty easy, but the printing journey was not as easy as he thought. After spending time to understand the software, rafts and supports, he got his first low res output.
Having gotten over the ups and down of week one with the Makerbot Glen stared with his own design - a giant Japanese Hornet. He sliced it at 270 microns at first to see what the results came out. The surface was pretty rough but little PLA strands even made the wasp look more real. This is a nice case showing we learn by doing. Did he make mistakes? Yes. Did he make discoveries? Yes.
(Images credit: Glen Southern)
Glen's tip: The biggest failures I seem to have are when the model does not stay stuck to the bed. Especially when you try to print at a 100 microns. The best way I have found is to always use the blue painters tape on the bed and to always add a raft to the model in Makerware. It does use more PLA but it makes sure that the model stays put.
You can follow his progress here. Glen is also sharing the scene file with a few free models and they are available here for download. If you have a 3D printer at home you might want to give it a try.
Posted in 3D Printers
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