- This topic has 4 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 7 months ago by
.
-
I haven’t seen any chains done in 3D prints, although that could be because I haven’t been looking. Curiosity got me trying to get it to work with mixed results. 7mm dice for scale.
The big chain and supported image are the same one. The links were great about a third way up, after that they all fused together. Looks like the further from the build plate it is the less accurate and diffused the print becomes. Links were visibly thicker where they fused compared to the lower ones. I was also pretty clumsy with supports resulting in a lot of supports intersecting with about a quarter of the links. To take this further and make it work I’d reduce the tilt so more of the print is closer to the plate or shorten the length, adding more turns. Links are about 6mm long.
The medium (4mm links) and small (3mm links) chains came out surprisingly well. I was much mroe careful with the supports. They all came out fused together but not by much despite haivng smaller clearance between the links, probably because they were much closer to the build plate. It took a little manipulation of pulling and pushing the links (before final curing) to breake the joints, its how the small chain broke. They’re not as clean and doesn’t flow as well as the big one, probably because they were printed at 50um for speed while the big one might have been printed at 15um or 25um.
No anti-aliasing. I expect them to fuse together more if it was used.
Overall I was pretty happy with the experiment all the way down to the little one. The smaller ones are a little stiff but they could be arranged into more natural look and would be glued in place for strength anyway if I was using them on a minis. Even for 28mm I’d go with the smallest one, the big one looks like it belongs on a ship.
Tired is enough.
Mor experiment, this time with UV resin. I wanted to copy part of a model kit, not wanting to destroy the part in the scratchbuilding process. Had some left over resin in teh vat I didn’t feel like throwing away.
First I wrapped the part in plastic wrap to protect it form the resin and so I can remove it easily. In hind sight I could have covered it with latex masking fluid for higher fidelity. I used an old brush to paint UV resin on, and gave each layer a minute blast of Vampires Bane™. After the layers were visibly thick I cut off the excess wrap before prying the resin off. It worked pretty well but one side wasn’t as well shapwed as the other due to wrinkles in the wrap. Next time, masking fluid for sure.
Next was some cutting and trimming an joining the two halves togeter, no glue invilved. I was too laxy and used UV resin for the join. Lightly sanded the model to take down th highest warp/bulge and also highlight pits. I used the same resin as filler, painted thin layers of resin and gave them a few minutes of UV each until I was happy with the contours.
One thing I noticed about these resin is they gas when exposed to Vampires Bane™. It was kind of fun watching the vapor rise from the thing and I used it as an indicature of the state of cure. I wonder if this helps it separate form the film/screen on the printer. For some reason no matter how long I expose the resin to UV it always feels tacky even some residue on the surface.
I’ll definitely use this method for future aircraft canopy. I’d made an inside copy of the model in that case. Not yet comfortable with the method enough to use UV resin as a general filler. Surface tension always leave raised borders around the resin that had to be filed down.
Tired is enough.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
