Monday, February 3, 2014

Day 161 - Level 3 Menger cube on a filament printer!

Thank you, owens at Thingiverse!  You have made the impossible possible.  It was great fun walking this print around the math department today, since everyone there knows just how difficult it is to print this object on a filament-deposition machine.


Beautiful! As we said on Day 157, in hindsight the idea is simple, but genius is to dream it up and do it: print a Menger cube on its corner, supported on a stand that prints at the same time and can be removed later. Owens' create a clever design does just that, with a very well-made external support stand that leaves nearly no trace on the model after removal. To get a sense of just how great owens' model is, compare it to our first print of a Level 3 Menger Cube back in August, which was full of internal support material that will live in those tiny holes forever:


But don't think about that, because now we can print Menger cubes all day long with no worries and no support.

Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:240739

Settings: MakerWare .2mm/standard in about six and a half hours.