Dear Reader,
Today, was an exciting day! I finished the editing process for my 3D scan, meaning I could move onto a test print. Moving to a new programme, called Prusa I made the final edits. Prusa allowed me to make final tweaks, such as cutting the bottom off the scan to ensure that it was flat on the plate for printing. It also allowed me to scale down the print and choose the infil. Different infills have different properties such as, hardness and durability, these factors can affect the speed of the print. I chose the grid infill, which you can see in the picture below (top left), I mainly chose this infil to cut down the speed of the print.
The test print is much smaller and therefore was faster and cheaper to print, it also meant that I wasn’t committed to a large print and could work out what adjustments need to be made for the final print.
Supports weren’t necessary for my 3D sculpture due to the modifications that I made in Artec, which made the print self-sustainable.
Before printing the scan the nozzle of the 3D printer had to be warmed up to eject the previous plastics, however, even though I did this at the start of my print there was some residue buildup that bobbled up on the plate and affected the start of the print. This was rectified by quickly removing the excess plastic before it damaged the print. Following this there were a few technical difficulties, that arose from the bottom of the print not being flat enough and this needs to be addressed for the final piece. Luckily this didn’t compromise the test run and after adjusting the nozzle to be closer to the plate to squash down the plastic, it became sturdier and the print recovered.
I had to watch and monitor the start of the scan to make sure it was printing successfully and watching my scan materialise into an object was both mesmerising and fascinating. The complete print took about 3 and a half hours to finish, so I didn’t see the end result until the following day. Seeing my sculpture come to life as a 3D object was extremely rewarding after all the time I had spent planning, preparing and working on the digital construction.
