6. 3D printing and scanning¶
This week I worked on 3D scanning and 3D designing and printing.
Group Task¶
We were first introduced to the 3D printer and how it operates. We learned about different materials, and how each has a different printing temperature. Then, using two different 3D printers the Prusa i3 MK2 and the Creality Ender we printed a design from Thingiverse to learn more about the printing procedure.
The work can be found on Zamzam's page
Individual Task¶
The Individual task is to try to scan a 3D object first, then design and print a 3D object.
3D Scanning¶
In 3D scanning, I used two methods. one by a mobile app and the other by Skanect.
Skanect¶
Skanect is a software used for 3D scanning.
“Skanect transforms your Structure Sensor or Structure Core depth sensor into a low-cost 3D scanner able to create 3D meshes out of real scenes in a few minutes.”
- Place the object perfectly
- Start A new scan
- check if the object appears inside the box and adjust the box side to covert all, I end up letting the size 0.80.80.8
-
Start the scan and rotate the object 360 degree
-
The result ends up perfectly, just remove unwonted parts and adjust the axis
3D Printing¶
The task was to design a 3D item and print it using a 3D printer.
Design¶
I used Fusion360 to create a cat key chain.
Started the design with a circle then extrude and fillet.
Used two rectangles that create a triangle to symbolize the cat’s ear
And then I used the mirror tool to replicate the ear so that it looked symmetrical on both sides.
Then added two holes for the eyes
Draw W shape using circles and some lines for the mouth.
I drew a torus and then combine it into the head as a place to hang the chain
The final design is seen below.
Finally,I export my file as an STL in order to get it ready for printing.
Printing¶
Slice¶
The design is then sliced to prepare it for printing in the following phase.
Using Ultimaker Cura software, which is an open-source slicing engine. it turns the stl file into gcode for the 3D printer to print it.
Whats G-code?
“G-code is the most widely used computer numerical control programming language. It is used mainly in computer-aided manufacturing to control automated machine tools, as well as from a 3D-printing slicer app. It has many variants.”
- Download the application.
- Install the printer.
- Locate and open the stl file.
- After that, we adjusted the settings.
- Click Slice, and the estimated time appears.
Print¶
The Prusa i3 MK2 printer was used.
To print, I uploaded the g-code file to the SD card to insert into the 3D printer.
Then, I upload the file at the printer, select it, and start printing
The printing process then started, with the machine beginning to heat up the bed before beginning to print borders then printing the object.
Result¶
The print result before removing the extra parts
The part for the chain broke while removing the supports and extra components because its width was too small (I had mistakenly given it a thin thickness).
This is the outcome after removing all unnecessary components, sanding, and adding some colors.
