Day 73 - CGR Pontoon boat, full size

Our son printed his LEGO team's pontoon boat in full size today. Enough room for five minifigs, and it floats! The minifigs sit on LEGO-style bumps to stay in place. The color changes come from filament swaps and drawing on the filament with Sharpie before it went through the extruder.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day73_CGRpontoonfull.stl
Tinkercad link:  https://tinkercad.com/things/0qJ1rxtS2rl-day-69-cgr-pontoon-boat
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:179803

Settings: MakerWare low/.3mm on a Replicator 2 in 3 hours and 10 minutes, plus time for filament swaps.

Day 72 - Carabiner

In the interest of attaching things to other things, today we printed briscoe28's s-caribiner from Thingiverse. It's interesting how the flexible bit works; this is a very nice design, which I guess is why it was a "Featured Thing" on Thingiverse today!

Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/make:52773

Settings: Afinia low/.3mm in just over 10 minutes.

UPDATE: While it seems as if it would be fairly sturdy for normal light use, this *will* break if you fiddle with it too much.  Wondering if printing at 200% would make it sturdier...

Day 71 - Snowflakes, part 2

More snowflakes!

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day71_snowflakes2.stl
Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/3tb6CmIKKhg-day-71-snowflakes-part-2
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:178379

Settings: MakerWare low/.3mm to get these in one layer.

Day 70 - Snowflakes, part 1

Lots of tiny snowflakes for some kind of winter/holiday use.  The snowflake designs are from a vector-graphics snowflake patterns file on Zezu. In future days we will make these larger and add holes/hooks so they can be used as ornaments.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day70_snowflakes1.stl
Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/ij29eWQSLdz-day-70-snowflakes-part-1
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:178379

Settings:  MakerWare low/.3mm makes these one layer thick, which makes printing very fast (about 3 minutes per snowflake).

Technical notes: Today's print is a simple example showing how to import a picture you find online into Tinkercad, via Inkscape. Tinkercad can import .svg graphics files, but those can be hard to find - and even when you do find them, sometimes Tinkercad does not import them well (for example filling in concave areas). The method below doesn't always work for every type of picture, so if you have trouble getting it to work you might try starting over with a different source image.

Step-by-step instructions for trying to import a 2D graphic into Tinkercad:

1. Find a graphic that you wish to use. Many formats will work; in this example the file started out as a .jpg.  If you can find an .svg file you might be able to jump right to step 6 below. If doing that doesn't seem to work then come back here and do the rest of the steps.

2. Open the graphic in Inkscape.

3. Select the graphic with the arrow tool.

4. From the "Path" menu, choose "Trace Bitmap". There are some options you can set, but if your image is relatively simple with sharp lines, you should be able to leave the options as they are. In this example we also checked "Invert Image" so that the white snowflakes would get traced out as the main objects. In general, try it without this checked and if you get the negative of what you want, then go back and invert the image and try again.  Click "OK" and then close the "Trace Bitmap" window.

5. From the "File" menu, choose "Save As", and from the list of filetype choices in the lower right of that window, select "Plain SVG". Be sure to change the extension of your filename to .svg, and to note where the file is being saved on your computer, before clicking "Save".

6. From within Tinkercad, open the "Import" tab in the right margin and select your .svg file. It is usually a good idea to import at 30% of the size, since otherwise the image will be gigantic. Click "Import" and then be patient; it can take some time for the file to import, and it may look like a tiny speck for a minute as it finishes loading.

7. You can now use this image however you like in your Tinkercad designs! Be sure to credit the source of the picture when posting online about your object or describing your work.

Day 69 - CGR Pontoon boat

Today our 8-year-old son designed this boat in Tinkercad for an upcoming LEGO competition.  The picture shows the 50% scale model we printed today so full-size minifigs don't fit, but printed at full size there will be places for five LEGO minifigs in sitting position, complete with "bumps" to hold them on.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day69_CGRpontoon.stl
Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/0qJ1rxtS2rl-day-69-cgr-pontoon-boat
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:177036

Settings: MakerWare "low" with raft and supports, in about 45 minutes (at 50% size).

Day 68 - Glow sphere #1

I love the look of gavi's Spherical lattice on Thingiverse, but don't have a resin printer to get the beautiful print that they do.  However, their low-res "visualization only" file is small enough to open in Tinkercad, so I sandwiched it between two spherical layers and printed in translucent filament as an LED light cover, for a small table glow lamp.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day68_glowsphere1.stl

Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/hguHLXhHIFt-day-68-glow-sphere-1

Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:177017

Settings: MakerWare "low" with raft but no supports, in 2 hours and 46 minutes.

Technical notes: You can think of this "sandwich" as building your own custom infill for the sphere. It worked better than putting the design on the inside or outside, both of which had printing issues. The model is built to fit around a twist-on battery LED assembly I found on amazon.com. You could use your own LED + 2 2032 batteries but it is relatively economical to buy them pre-assembled like this. 

Day 67 - The knot 8_19

The real reason for printing the knot 8_18 yesterday was to compare it to a print of 8_19, the first non-alternating knot in the standard knot table.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day67_knot819.stl
Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/icZH9zTcivd-day-67-knot-819/edit
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:175023

Settings: The same MakerWare custom knot-slicing profile used yesterday.

Technical notes: As always, this knot was made in Mathematica using Cantarella data.  Compare this model of 8_19 with the 3D model of 8_18. Can we see something in this optimal 3D configuration of 8_19 that would suggest it has no alternating 2D projections?

Day 66 - The knot 8_18

Our initial reason forgetting a 3D printer was to print mathematical models of knots, so today we go back to our roots and print a model of the knot 8_18 with our new translucent yellow filament:

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day66_knot818.stl
Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/9TtZc26k2Rc-day-66-knot-818
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:175021

Settings: MakerWare custom knot-slicing profile used in Day 9 and Day 11, on a Replicator 2.

Technical notes: This knot was made in Mathematica using Cantarella data, as usual. Opening the model in Tinkercad fixes the mesh enough for MakerWare to be able to slice it. You can also further repair the mesh with Meshlab and/or Blender if you need to, but for me just opening in Tinkercad is sufficient to make most of my knots work on the Replicator 2 or the Afinia.  It also gives me a chance to add labels so I can identify the knots later on.  Math people, you probably know why I am printing this and what I am likely to print tomorrow...

Day 65 - Condiment bowl with sharpie stripe!

Same bowl as yesterday, but this time we colored an 8-inch length of the filament with a black Sharpie marker before it went through the machine.  Beautiful stripe, worked perfectly!

Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/make:51971

Day 64 - Condiment bowl

The Condiment Bowl designed by petergross3 in Thingiverse has such a beautiful shape, mixing squares and circles. We had been waiting to print it until our new translucent red filament arrived, and today is that day!

Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/make:51907

Settings: MakerWare custom profile to get linear infill on the low PLA setting.

UPDATE: A good news/bad news kind of situation... the bowl apparently looked good enough for someone to think it was a regular bowl, but this caused the bowl to end up in the dishwasher. Now it is distorted along one edge, and not so nice. New plan: put the bowl in the dishwasher repeatedly to see what happens!

Day 63 - Tetrahinge

Trying to find a better solution for making polyhedral nets than the folding models from Day 44, today we have a hinged version of a tetrahedron.  The hinges are built to print together, fully assembled, using the "low" setting on a Replicator 2.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day63_tetrahinge.stl
Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/29dlcUYxlhU-day-63-tetrahinge
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:173299

Settings: MakerWare "low" setting in some amount of time that I forgot to make note of!

Stuff you might want to change: What I'd really like is to have modular faces that you clip together after printing, since then I could make much larger polyhedra.  Maybe another day...

UPDATE: This is now a "Staff Favorite" at Tinkercad. You're my favorite too, Tinkercad! :)

Day 62 - Quick hex bowl

Couldn't be simpler than this.  Needed a bowl, threw down Marissa's "wedge" shape script in Tinkercad, printed it as a shell on the Afinia.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day62_quickhexbowl.stl
Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/9rV054GfyPV-day-62-quick-hex-bowl
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:172764

Settings: Afinia 3D software with .3mm default fast and "shell" setting.  This causes only the bottom, sides, and top to be printed, and I stopped the print just before it got to the roof.

Technical notes: This was also a test of Sain Smart purple filament in the Afinia. It works fine but there are two things to note: First, the print is shiny almost like it was made of PLA instead of ABS. Second, this filament definitely gave off more fumes/smell than the usual Afinia premium and value line filaments. Perhaps I need to change the temperature?

Day 61 - Hilbert steps

Okay, so maybe Day 60's model was maybe based on a Hilbert curve, not a Peano curve. So, we may as well make another model out of it. This one also keeps its form when picked up and has vertical steps to track the path of the curve.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day61_hilbertsteps.stl
Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/3jOnC0fn4bB-day-61-hilbert-steps
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:172294

Settings: MakerWare low/.3mm allows the curve path to print in one continuous line, with the filament path width matching the model path width.

Day 60 - Peano curve

Today we have a space-filling Peano curve with a dish-like indentation just because it looks cooler that way. More dish-y and more space-filling-y than the H-Tree from Day 57! The model was made in Tinkercad using an image coded by blog.disktree.net.

It's fun to watch the Replicator trace out a space-filling curve, so here's a short video of the first layer:

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day60_peanocurve.stl
Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/91KlFCcna1X-day-60-peano-curve/edit
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:171911

Settings: On MakerWare "low" setting, each layer of the curve prints as one continuous curve!  It takes a bit over an hour to print.

Technical notes: The image of the Peano curve was opened in Inkscape and then "Path/Trace Bitmap" was applied before saving as an .svg file that Tinkercad could import and extrude.

Stuff you might want to change: This model is not stable for use as a dish that you want to carry around; since it is one continuous path, it unfolds quite a bit when you pick it up! However you can get the Peano curve part of the design out of the Tinkercad link and put it onto something more stable. Perhaps tomorrow...

Day 59 - Chainmail tests

A sister-in-law of mine makes really intricate chainmail jewelry by actually bending tiny loops of metal. It's beautiful. For a present I printed her three samples of 3D-printed chainmail patterns. (Although her real ones are uncountably more beautiful and complex!) The designs are from TrenchCoatGuy's amazing Byzantine Chain, Box Chain, and Jens Pinds Linkage models on Thingiverse.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day59_chainmailtest.stl

Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/gOGgVqzBCP0-day-59-chain-mail-test

Settings: Makerware special profile as described in Day 9 of this blog.  The Byzantine took 28 minutes, the Box Chain took 24 minutes, and the tiny Jens Pinds Linkage took just 8 minutes.

Stuff you might want to change: The support material takes forever to pick out and the model tends to stick together. The special profile helps - with no support the model has broken bits with angel-hair, and with standard supports the model is too solid to pick apart - but it still isn't enough to make this viable for me on a Replicator 2 machine. I think scaled-up models would probably work better for my equipment. Beautiful models, though, and amazing that TrenchCoatGuy could create them!

Day 58 - Cos Plate

I need a small cookie plate for a reception.  And maybe PLA isn't FDA-approved but frankly I think most people would probably eat a cookie that was sitting on the table with no plate at all, so a PLA plate is probably okay.  Just in case, however, here is a plate the minimizes cookie/PLA contact, because of the waviness of the plate - based off the cosine curve. This was made in Tinkercad using Brandon Cole's wonderful community shape script "Surface". Until today I thought this made only the pond-ripple type of surface shown in the picture. In fact, you can modify the equation of the surface to be anything you like!  So here is a cookie plate based on the surface z = cos x (or actually, z=4*cos(.2*x), if you want to be precise.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day58_cosplate.stl
Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/4kcP5VJ7rAL-day-58-cos-plate
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:170795

Settings: MakerWare low/.3mm with a raft to keep things steady. With these settings the print takes about an hour and 20 minutes and the majority of the plate is just one layer, with the plate printed on its side; no supports needed at all.

Day 57 - H-Tree dish

Here is a small dish whose pattern comes from a level 5 H-Tree, which is a fractal space-filling curve. It is designed so that a Replicator 2 on "low" will trace its path with one layer all over the curve.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day57_htreedish.stl
Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/k9DA6nElq1W-day-57-h-tree-dish
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:170257

Settings: MakerWare "low", in an hour and 18 minutes.

Technical notes: This model was made in Tinkercad with an imported .svn file. The original drawing of the H-Tree comes from a .jpg from a Princeton site and was converted to something Tinkercad can handle by using "Path/Convert Object to Path" and then "Path/Trace Bitmap", then saving as .svn. The bitmap technique does not seem to work for all images but it worked for this one; perhaps because the lines were a bit thick?

Day 56 - Hairdo hardware #1

I have a lot of hair and almost nothing is strong enough hold it up reliably. So today we begin a quest to 3D print something that can do the job! We'll start with takigama's Hairtie and Chopstick Hair Clip on Thingiverse just to get a sense of what is possible, and modify from there on future days.

Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/make:51072

Settings: MakerWare "standard", without rotating the objects at all.  These are very well-designed to print without supports.

Day 55 - Customized bowl

Today we print a beautiful low-res bowl made from gelstudios' wonderful Customizable Bowl Factory on Thingiverse.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day55_customizedbowl.stl

Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/kaRx835Eur5-day-55-customized-bowl

Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/make:50941

Settings: MakerWare "low" at 70% of the size in the file, with supports on because the bottom of the bowl has a lip around the edge.  The print took just over two hours.

Stuff to change: I wish I had used the linear fill, since the hexagon fill pattern interferes with the visibility of the large faces of the low-res design.  Or maybe this is a model best done in an opaque filament?

Day 54 - Monitor tags

These little tags are to put on the top of your computer monitor as reminders.  You can also lightly clip a small paper to your computer with these. I'll also use them in class as participation tags - when a student contributes in class they can remove their tag - but at home I'll be using them to remember to buy milk or go to an appointment in time.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day54_monitortag.stl
Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/f1tQ8p8SpHm-day-54-monitor-tag
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:168632

Settings: Afinia .3mm default fast in 13 minutes each, printed upside-down so that supports are not needed.

Technical notes: These are designed for the new iMacs which have very thin edges but get thicker in the middle, which is why the tags have a "V" shape.  Other monitors might require more right-angle-shaped tags.

Stuff you might want to change: You could add a design or hole in the front face, or put a shape on the top, to indicate specific things you want to remember.

Day 53 - Sine remake

One of my calculus students earned a perfect score on this week's exam!  So I made a present to hand back with her test. I hope she likes the sine function. 

The design is a remake of eduardoviruena's f(t)=sin t model on Thingiverse. I couldn't get that model to slice and print correctly, and the only part of it that would import into Tinkercad was the curve. So I remade the axes and also flattened the bottom and top of the curve.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day53_sineremake.stl
Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/coHU5yIqXyr-day-53-sine-remake
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:168101

Settings: MakerWare "standard" in 6 minutes, on the glass.

Day 52 - Tiny frame #2

Another tiny frame... this time for holding flatter things or maybe a very, very small picture.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day52_tinyframe2.stl
Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/kPB1hjBn1LJ-day-52-tiny-frame-2
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:167566

Settings: MakerWare "standard" in about an hour, with the usual hex infill (which shows through the translucent filament to make a nice pattern).

Day 51 - Tiny frame #1

A friend of mine likes to glue together picture frame corners to make very tiny frames for very tiny pictures.  I have a couple for my bathroom but wanted to make some more.  Here's one with a 20mm-sided cube area in the center for displaying a very small model or object (in this case a Settlers of Catan settlement piece).

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day51_tinyframe1.stl
Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/bPPjXZLjQ7O-day-51-tiny-frame-1
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:167009

Settings:  MakerWare "standard" with no raft or supports, in 1 hour and 26 minutes.

Technical notes: I put a nail recess in the back but the frame and its contents are so light that it holds up very easily with blue poster gum, no nails required.

Day 50 - Escher trefoil

Today we printed kenji1206's Escher's knot from Thingiverse.

Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/make:50427

Settings: Afinia .2mm default normal, in 1 hour and 52 minutes.

Day 49 - Dodecaloop

P wanted something for his office and it is AWESOME. Forty rhombic dodecahedra of awesome. Printed from emmet's Dodeca Chain Loop on Thingiverse.

Thingiverse file: http://www.thingiverse.com/make:50382

Settings: MakerWare "standard" with no raft or supports, on the glass, for 4 hours and 4 minutes.

Day 48 - Do it now!

Here is a bar to put over important documents that you need to deal with as soon as possible, so that they don't vanish into the black hole that is the top of your desk.  Made in Tinkercad with Inkscape for the letters.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day48_doitnow.stl

Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/iINfAnHiVJ5-day-48-do-it-now

Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:165410

Settings: Standard MakerWare setting in under 30 minutes, printed upside-down on the glass (no tape). 

Day 47 - Hanging pencil cup

Just a small pencil cup for hanging over the side of a box. Yes, this is another thing for the JMU 3-SPACE classroom, which opens on Monday! After that I can get back to printing for "home"...

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day47_pencilcup.stl
Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/4lxp7ipNUIR-day-47-hanging-pencil-cup
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:164975

Settings: Afinia .3mm fast in 37 minutes.

Technical point: I printed it right-side up so it needed support for the handle, since that seemed better than printing it upside-down and needing support for the base.

Day 46 - Salt bowl remake

I love the look of Kulitorum's beautifully simple Salt Bowl on Thingiverse, but I couldn't get it to slice with MakerWare so I remade it in Tinkercad from a truncated sphere shape.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day46_saltbowl.stl
Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/2OiCq2cES4t-day-46-salt-bowl-remake
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:164556

Settings: MakerWare "low" in just under an hour.

Technical notes: With the translucent blue filament on hex fill we could see the fill through the bottom of the bowl, so we started over and printed this with "sparseInfillPattern": "sharkfill" in the profile (and also "doRaft": false). Sadly the fill was no longer visible on the bottom with that profile, but it did make a nice pattern up the sides that looks better than the regularity of the usual hex fill.

Day 45 - Tree frog sample model

Various levels of MorenaP's nice Treefrog model on Thingiverse:

Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/make:49943

Settings: Afinia 1.5mm "Fine".  This models is particularly nice because it is built to not need any supports at all other than the raft.  Prints beautifully.

Day 44 - Triangular polyhedra nets

Today we used Tinkercad to design 2D nets that fold up to regular 3D polyhedra, specifically the tetrahedron, octahedron, and icosahedron which all have triangular faces.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day44_triangularnets.stl
Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/66ZiQ7gjVMl-day-44-triangular-polyhedral-nets
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:163459

Settings: Makerbot Replicator 2 on "Standard", which is .2mm resolution, in 11 minutes for the tetrahedron, 22 minutes for the octahedron, and 38 minutes for the icosahedron.

Technical notes: The nets are made to have .2mm (one layer) base thickness plus another .2mm (another layer) for the faces themselves, which are inset just a bit from the base layer so that fold lines develop naturally. Thicker nets did not fold very well and tended to snap along the edges.

Day 43 - CGR Catan trophy

And for the winner of Catan, a trophy! The current winner in the house gets to display this tiny trophy on their shelf. This was made by our 8-year-old son by modifying Josh Goldenberg's Championship Trophy on Tinkercad.

STL file: http://www.geekhaus.com/makerhome/day43_CGRcatantrophy.stl

Tinkercad link: https://tinkercad.com/things/eoe4ebtUgjj-day-43-cgr-catan-trophy

Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:162897

Settings: Afinia .2mm default normal, in 49 minutes.

Technical note: This was our first test of Afinia's Value Line gold filament. It's definitely not as nice as their Premium Line filament - sort of rough and stringier - but it prints up okay and even has a sparkly type of finish. This particular model printed with only a little of support under the "C" and some very tiny support lines in a couple of other strategic places.

Stuff you might want to change: A heat embossing tool might clean up the rough spots?