Hello
Hi, I’m a junior Art History major and I’m very excited to be taking this class this semester. 3D printing is something I’ve been interested in since its very primitive stages. I have a background in the visual arts and love to paint in my free time. While 3D printing may be a new medium for me and much more “hands-off” in the actual manifestation of the work, it is captivating to watch objects be created right in front of you and I am very excited about the possibilities.
Houseplant
My grab bag word was “houseplant” so I designed a planter and an aloe vera plant. The idea was that the aloe plant would fit inside the planter and be an interactive print. Both prints were made using the Ultimaker 3 and took about 2-3 hours for both to be completed. The planter was perhaps too ambitious in design and complexity of the shape. I used the faceted sphere from Tinkercad’s shape generator which features many different angles and sides. As such, the print took nearly 3 hours on a relatively small scale. Each print was completed without any issues or setbacks, however, the aloe plant was too perfectly aligned with the planter and does not fit more than a few centimeters. My next print I hope to only have to reprint the aloe plant by scaling it down just enough to serve its purpose and use without being noticeably off-scale. Below are pictures of the design and printing process. Alternatively, I could print both as a single, combined design which would not be interactive.
Here are a few updated images of a more recent print. This one was made much smaller with the pot being scaled down to 50% and the plant 48% so that it would fit seamlessly into the planter.
20 Objects
(From top left to bottom right)
Puzzle cube
This was designed using sets of columns from the shape generator on Tinkercad. This print is a super small test-print that really showed me the importance of supports. The side of the cube that was the printing base was not well thought through as only three horizontal columns touched the raft base which created a decent amount of sagging throughout the print. On the next print, I will turn the cube so that all columns face the bottom of the print to act as greater support. Despite this setback, I am very pleased.
Egg Chicken
Tube Plant from Mario
Circus Tent
Screw-in Cone
Vase
Puzzle Sphere
Pencil Holder
Puzzle Sphere 2.0
Triangle Exploration
Floral Coaster
Name Coaster
Elevated Block
Floral Construction
Pencil/Plant Holder
Texture Exploration
Texture Exploration 2.0
Block Construction
QR Code Nametag
In this first print, I used a 10% infill which was great for a great test-print. However, the detail in the code has gaps where the filament did not fill in the lines completely. Hopefully, a larger infill percentage will solve this issue and give me the desired quality of the print. I also made a gap within one of the corners and I am very pleased with this print.
Pyramid Puzzle
Moving Parts
For this assignment, I decided to create a set of gears that can be rotated manually. Each gear is different from the others in height, shape, and number of teeth. I designed the gears with functionality in mind and with identical pegs and openings. I plan to print the gears individually alongside the base to allow the gears to function and so that it will be easier for me to reprint and resize each gear as needed.
Here is my final print which functions as I intended it to. My first two prints had some issues with the size of the gears and their fit onto the base piece. After some modifications (a new base and gear) the gears turn well and do not fall out of place.
Final Tinkercad: Giza Plateau
For my final Tinkercad project I decided to create a map of the geography and features of the Great Pyramids and the larger Giza complex. This is something I have studying in both archeology and art history classes so it was nice to be able to use more creative means on a subject I am so interested in. This was made with two main shapes; pyramids and squiggles. The squiggles I sort of manipulated into making the shape of the base, causeways, and other features seen in detail. To the best of my ability, the work is to scale and shows the most prominent or still-standing features that exist to this day. I plan to print this work on the Lulzbot (for the transparent yellow filament) and will update it further as that print is completed.
Here is a print of the plateau which took about 3 hours to complete. The detail of the causeways, temples, and other features aren’t as prominent or as neat as I would like. I’m not sure if this is due to the speed of the print, height of the features, or something that could be solved on a larger scale. Overall, I am pleased with this initial print which is about 3×3″ though I would like to develop this project more.
