This week assignment is about creating a 3D model which cannot be made subtractively,
test the "limits" of the 3d printers and scan an object and eventually try to print it too. I made few experiments with different 3d printers and 2 scanners.
The first assignment of the week was to try to find out the maximum precision of the printers, concerning the wall thickness and the precision extruding the layers. In order to reach this goal we decided to print a calibration test downloaded from Thingiverse, with this model you can test your printer's precision of extruding thin layers, printing on
different angulations and bridging, with just one test. For the test we used an Ultimaker2 with PLA filament, we made 2 prints, in low and high details. Unfortunately the print wasn't perfect, there were just few differences in the 2 tests even if the high setting print was 1.3 hours longer, this was probably caused by the bad condition of the filament.
For this assignment i have decided to use two different 3d model software, Rhinoceros and Solidworks.
It was the first time with both and i really appriaciated their performances and features. I found rhinoceros a really good product, easy to understand and reliable, a good compromise between simplicity and performance, on the other hand we have Solidworks, a powerfull software with tons of tools and perfect for complex engineering objects, a bit more complicated but excellent.
I decided to inspire my 3d model from a rework of an ancient idea of Archimede,
I have always been fascinated on his ideas and creation, remembering that we still have a lot to learn from the old masters.
I replicated the turbine in Solidworks: there are two different ways to make it, first you can do it using the revolve rail command around an axe like the photo shows, the second is using the Fibonacci's golden spiral equation through the 3d sketch command, with this selection you can create the helix, and the comand loft bends will do the rest.
I saw an interesting sketch on thingverse and I decided to reproduce it.
I've made the turbine with the Makerbot Replicator 2, a large and fancy printer, really easy to use to calibrate, thanks to his large screen and the simple GUI.
Although I prefer th Ultimaker 2
, the Replicator2 gave me a really good result, the print lenght was about 4 hours with raft and brim, the turbine has been made without supports. Because of the really long completion time of the printing i didn't have the time to print my Archimede's turbine, I'll put anyway both files and put into practice the other print as soon as possible.
I used two different 3d scanners this week, the first is the Fuel3d scanner,a really great machine, powerfull and accurate, perfect for anatomical parts.
Using an array of 3 Xeon bulbs synchronized within 100 milliseconds, Scanify is able to capture scan data quickly.
This makes it suitable for scanning subjects that would tend to move during a scan i.e. humans. I tried to use this scanner for few hours trying to make some shots of faces (Thanks to Hanna and Chris for the cooperation!), unfortunately i had several issues managing the software, this machine it seems to be unapt to objects, the light reflection is not enough to for create a good scan.
For the second attempt I used Autodesk 123 Catch, using my phone camera, I made multiple shots of an object in any possible angulation, using those photos the software should create a good reproduction of it.
I uploaded more than 60 photos to make this scan, I'm not totally satisfied of the final result but this was just my first attempt, in the next days I will try to get a better result.