home..

Week 04 - 3D scanning and printing

group page // repo source files // objectives

hero
additive spellcasting
cad
scanning
fdm
sla
polyjet
sls

hero >

of alien lands, caves, and crystals >

topogen >

cavegen and khyber >

…and actual aliens >

additive spellcasting >

additive manufacturing? more like additive magic.

there are a lot of tools in the additive mage’s repertoire, here I explore a few of them. This graphic is a little dated now, but it gives a nice overview of the various AM technologies out there:

cad >

This week, I made some new things but also reinvigorated some old things, namely my cadquery topogen scripts. The aim of topogen was to generate imaginary topography; each time the script is run, a new topography outcome would be exported as step and stl. Topogen is the first project I spent a decent time going back and forth with chatgpt, building the script collaboratively.

I also made a crystal geometry, intended for clear resin to capture internal details. Not necessarily microfluidic, but in the same vein of thought.

PXL_20230928_020746143

scanning >

laser(?) >

we used the Arctec Leo for scanning our heads and other fun things. It’s a very nice handheld scanner, but our first usage must’ve been an off-day, as we found that a cardboard cutout guillotine-esque wearable was necessary to increase the reliability of the scan.

Later on, scans were fine w/o the cardboard cutout.

ct scan >

for research purposes, I got trained on the Rigaku CT Lab HX130, a nice benchtop CT scanner for cm sized things down to um sized things.

I used it to scan an old project of mine, the android activity light (connorLed).

(TODO: forgot the files at the lab)

fdm >

for fdm, we used the ender 3 s1 pro. These are newer refreshes in the ender 3 line, which support a variety of newer features, such as dual threaded z rods, auto leveling, input shaping, etc.

I unfortunately tried something that was a little too ambitious (tiny surface area, small cross-section), and that didn’t work out so well.

sla >

for sla, I used the Elegoo Saturn 2, an 8k resin printer with a fairly large build volume. I used it to fabricate relatively smaller objects; an output from my cavegen and a crystal with internal features. the cave turned out great; unfortunately the crystal relies on transparent resin. next time.

steps:

slice in Chitu Box
start print
remove finished print and bring to Wash box
start wash, wait ~10-30min
bring washed prints to post-cure box
start cure, wait ~10-30min
remove cured print and remove supports with wire clippers
- wear safety goggles/remove support in controlled area; supports like to explode out kinetically
fin

polyjet >

for polyjet (J55), I touched up my face from scanning. I found myself messing with the sliders, and created goblin/alien Alan.

PXL_20231002_232208617

sls >

I got trained on sls (Fuse 1) for research purposes. I used some of my pre-generated topoGen geometry as a quick test.

SLS is interesting in that supports are not required in the traditional sense; powder is used to support each layer, and in a way clean up is both easier and harder. One neat thing about the support strategy is that prints can be stacked ontop of each other, which can be useful for high throughput.

steps: