3D Printing

3D Printing 

 

This practical is to give us the experience of 3D printing, where we are supposed to 3D print something that is not easy to carve or laser cut using Fusion 360. Hence, while keeping this in mind, I decided to print a ball in a box, which is something that is not able to reproduce easily by other means. 

Steps that I took to create this on Fusion 360:

💬 First is to create a box of 25 x 25 x 25 mm 

💬 Then create a sphere of 32 mm in diameter

💬 Then select the sphere and move it until it looks like that 

💬 Select modify then combine, the box, body 1 as the target and then the sphere, body 2 as the tool. Select cut as the operation and keep tools before selecting ok. 

💬 Next is to create a copy of the sphere and then remove the old sphere. According to Fusion, this new sphere that I copied is my body 5. (explain) 

The reason that we have to do the copy the sphere and then delete the old one is linked to the square due to the cut operation that has been applied earlier. Hence, if we copy and resize the sphere, we would not have to do the step of positioning the sphere again like the previous step where we had to move the sphere. 

💬 Reduce the sphere diameter by 2mm. 

💬 To connect the sphere, firstly it is to raise the sphere by 1.5mm in the Z direction. This is to ensure that the bottom of the sphere is on the same level as the box in order to print the sphere. 

💬 Next is to create a new small box of 12.5 x 0.1 x 0.1mm and use the join operation and connect it to the box 

💬 Finally, it is to join everything together. 

By creating the small box, and joining it with the actual, it is to trick the printer into thinking that the ball and the object are the same object.

💬 Final Product in Fusion 360 

💬 Next is to convert the file into an STL file in order to print the file 

💬 Next is to put the file into Ultimaker Cura to 3D print the ball in box 😀

Now, all that is left is to 3D print the file 😀

Some of the photos of the printing process: 

Videos:

From the looks of the photo and the video, everything looks like it is going according to plan, but, there is always something that would go wrong, and also why the product in the photos are in different colors as I tried printing my design on all of the three machines that were available for us students to use at that time, and each of the machines had different colored filaments. 

Some of the things that went wrong were that when I printed the file, about a few minutes in, the bottom of the ball would not adhere to the print bed, and it moved out of place, making a huge mess of the PLA plastic and it technically became a ball of mess and I had to stop the printing process halfway. 

Another thing that went wrong was near the end of the printing process, the sides of the box would break and it would become another ball of mess. 

To try and help with these problems, I increased the temperature of the print bed from 50 degrees to 60 degrees to try and help the ball adhere better, also by ensuring that the print bed had no leftover residue, and also by adjusting the file in Cura to ensure that the ball would stay in place while printing. I would also need to thank the seniors that were there in the lab at the same time as me as they helped me a lot during my time there and also they were the ones that taught me how to operate the 3D printing machine. Thanks to them helping me, I at least have one successful one that I printed. (Although I spent close to 3 hours in the lab 😅)

Photo of the final product: 

💭💬  Reflection: 

Through this activity, I learnt a lot, especially how to operate the 3D printing machine and the different ways that I can try and troubleshoot the printing does not go smoothly and also of the different functions in Cura. In Fusion, while I was designing the file, I also realized the extra steps that I had to take to ensure that it would print smoothly, and one example would be that I had to raise the sphere to the same level as the base of the box. After many failed attempts, Dr Noel and Mr Ting also came in and said that it may be that the filament that affected the printing and caused me to have many failed attempts and that it was not my file or my fault that I took so long just to print one successful one. Overall, this is a valuable lesson and experience that I can take to when I do my final year project. 

Fusion 360 file:

 

 

References: 

Instructables.com. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.instructables.com/Impossible-Object-With-Fusion-360-Box-and-Ball/> [Accessed 30 December 2021].