3D Printing

 For this assignment, I was tasked to design and 3D print a design that could not be easily created subtractively, so I decided that this was the best opportunity to bring my previous design to life! I am referring to my USS Enterprise keyring that I created so long ago! It was perfect for this assignment since it would be hard to create this model subtractively since there are so much curved surfaces such as the nacelles and main body along with the saucer section of the model. So it was much easier to create it using 3D printing. 

All I had to do was delete the keyring base of the model and I was good to go! 

This is the model that I was going to use for 3D printing.

The design is below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x8lyuhUxBO5z4qENMJUYauR9wKejkRCV/view?usp=sharing

Next is to slice the model in Cura. To do that, first is to export the model created into a .stl file.

Next is to open Cura, and on the top left of the screen, there is a button with a file image. Click it and it will open your files and search for your file name that you created from Fusion 360. Next to the file button is the 3D printer option. Select the 3D printer that you are using, for me, I will be using Creality Ender-3.

After selecting your file, your image should appear on the grey platform like so:

By right clicking, you can click the select all models button to manipulate the model using the following options:

1. Position
2. Scale
3. Rotation
4. Mirroring
5. Mesh Type
6. Support Blocker

For the model of the Enterprise, I used the scale option to double the size of the model and using the default settings along with supports, I sliced the model to get an estimated time for the print.

However, on the preview screen, I realised that a lot of time was going into creating the supports for the model rather than building the model itself. This was wasting quite a bit of time and material. (Supports are colored in cyan.)

So I tried to flip it upside down to see if it would reduce the time taken and it did! And under 1 hour!

And as you can see, much less support is needed. All that is left to do is to save it to the sd card and we are good to go!

3D Printing

Unfortunately, I was not able to obtain any white filament to print with, so I used red instead. This is going to be a red Enterprise...

I managed to snag a picture of the design being 3D printed in the early stages of the print.

And this is when the print is done.

After struggling with removing the supports, the model is finally finished, however as you can see, the top of the model is quite rough.

To resolve the issue, I sanded down the model and smoothed out the edges. This is the finished product.

This assignment was quite a fun one. I was able to bring my design into reality! I learned new things like how to use Cura to be able to 3D print my design on a 3D printer. One thing I would change if I could do this again is to lift the model up slightly above the print bed. For the saucer section of the model that was on the print bed, the supports were particularly stubborn and refused to be removed, and I only managed to get rid of them after sanding the model. The 3D printing process was surprisingly short actually, I expected a tedious process to get from design to reality but actually it was pretty easy. All I had to do after inserting the SD card into the printer was select the design I wanted to print and it just started printing. Simple as that. This activity is such a memorable and fulfilling one from learning something new to creating something of my own design. If I could, I would definitely do it again.