#flashforge printer

[3dlabcafe]

[PRINTING] TOTORO

So, the first models I ever want to print from my 3d printer is a figure of Totoro. 

But Totoro has fat belly (yes, he needs to go on diet!), thus it means some kind of under cutting. And he also has quite some details, such as eyes, teeth, some dimples on his chess, etc. Therefore, printing is not as simple and straight forward as the straight-walled deer ring (see my previous post on it here).

It took me 5 prints to get a figure closed to what I expected. I put all five of them on the cutting mat with the printed squares of 1cmx1cm for you to see the size.

For the first three prints, I used Replicator G as the slicing software. It took about 2 to 3 minutes for G-code generation. Not too long, but it was relatively slow compared to half a minute for Makerware, which I used later.

Then the biggest problem I've got was the melting issue. As you can see from the photos, the lower layers where we have the under-cut, is where the layers tend to melt and collapse. On my third trial, somehow a piece of kapton tape was peeled off and the model was even knocked off, turning into a mini sculpture of avant-garde spaghetti. 

So I decided to try Makerware though it is not the software recommended by Flashforge. My reference point was a review on Amazon for the previous model Creator X by Eric Fisk. 

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2TLTD31I6GRCV/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00I8NM6JO&nodeID=16310091&store=industrial

My forth print was a 100% scaled Totoro. It came out much better than the precedences but apparently a lot of details were lost and the under-cut part still had those funny, saggy wrinkles. 

They say the bigger the better. So I scaled up 200% this time. This time, all details showed up well and the saggy bits were gone. There were still some bumps and misaligned layers here and there, but that's not a big issue for me. 

This is for now. I'll come back later with more notes on my fun time with 3d printing ^_^

Ciao!

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For the more info and to download the file, please visit: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:12146

Again, thanks and big hugs to Joo, the author, and Thingiverse ^.^

Totoro is from the anime My Neighbour Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki, Studi Ghibi. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Neighbor_Totoro

[3dlabcafe]

First successful print from the Flashforge Creator Pro ^^

A short clip of the print: http://youtu.be/tr_iCRWZJVw

Deer Ring _ by flowalistiks on Thingiverse [http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:208661]

G-CODE: Printing software: Replicator G - 0040 Slicing Profile:  Replicator 2 slicing defaults Use: Left extruder (standard white ABS, pre-packed from Flashforge) Raft/Support: none Object fill: 10% --  Layer height: 0.2 mm  --  Number of shells: 1 Feed rate: 40 mm/s  --  Travel feed rate: 55 mm/s Print temperature (C degree): 220 TIMING: G-code generating:  1m45s  --  Heating: 10m -- Printing: 12m58s  (est. 14m32s) COMMENTS: The print out looks quite good. There are still some gaps at the corners and expected sanding/filing job. Lesson to learn: For this kind of models, I will print 100% infill next time.