ABS plastic with plastic modelling accessories
Filed under: 3D printing, Development, Hardware, Plastic modelling
I’ve been building plastic models on and off since I was a kid, and very much so as of late, meaning that I have a lot of modelling accessories available at home.
I accidentally broke off one of the screw holes for the BabyNES Raspberry PI case (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:449877) almost instantly due to the bad print quality. Reading around I didn’t find any obvious glues to use except acetone. In fact, I found a whole heap of warnings that the fat plastic would probably be hard to glue etc. Hence, I decided to test Revell Contacta Professional glue (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Revell-39604-Contacta-Professional-Glue/dp/B000KJPUL0) and it worked like a charm from what it looks like!
Since this worked so well, I tried some Italeri putty for plastic models (http://www.model-making.eu/products/Italeri-putty-for-plastic-models-28-ml.html) to cover up the sides which shows a lot of layers and some defects. Except the putty smelling really bad, it tacked on really hard and dried enough in just a few minutes to be sanded down.
Since the above went so well, I went ahead and did some more tests by printing a set of battered barrels (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:535261) which turned out fairly crappy due to the print quality (mind you, much better than the first BabyNES case). Either way, perfect chance to test what could be done using those modelling tools/supplies. Here’s some before through after shots:
I think a lot of the plastic modeller materials could be used with ABS and possibly PLA plastics as well, especially where you want to make a structure, and then want to improve the details. There are much better printers out there with much better calibration of course, but these materials combined shows some great promise IMHO.
3D printing
Filed under: 3D printing, Development, Hardware, Personal
I started working at a new company a while back if I failed to mention it called Pelagicore, doing automotive in vehicle infotainment systems the right way with open source, working in the community etc. They have a 3D printer (Makerbot thing-o-matic) that’s been standing around for a while really grabbing my attention and I’ve wanted to find the time to use it since I started there. I finally took the time and am happy as a clam.
I made my first 3D print at work two days ago, first of three pieces for a BabyNES Raspberry Pi 2 case (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:449877), a small hatch. When I went on and tried building the two larger pieces I ran into troubles. Running out of time that day, I got around to try and fix it today. Disassembled the extruder stepper motor and realized a screw had dislocated from the vibrations. Re-screw it and assemble everything again, and this time, it worked! Got top and bottom parts done before leaving for home today and am fairly happy. They will do.
The print quality is pretty shoddy, a lot of settings needs to be tuned I guess, and the print speed was probably too high for the unit. Judging by the software installed, I should probably install newer software and redo the calibrations using those instead. Still, awesome to work with this 🙂
