A few months ago NSB and two chums called Tom and Jon bought a second hand 3D printer for a few hundred quid....
Since then, Stuff . Has . Been . Made !!!!
Scale Model of Planets
The Car what No3 Son drew
A bracelet
A ruler
Mt Snowden, Mt Everest and a chocolate Mt Fuji
A 3D printed clock
Scale Model of the Planets
NSB thought it would be nice to make some hemispherical scale models of the planets in the solar system.
The first attempt, at a very small scale, didn't work very well. In particular, the printer wasn't keen on flitting from planet to planet as it laid down the layers. Oh yes, and it seemed that a wall thickness of 1mm was too thin.
Second attempt, at a larger scale of 1: 5x10^10 and with 2mm wall thickness worked better, but printer still unhappy about moving between the planets.
Third attempt, again at 1:50bn scale, but with just Jupiter, worked just dandy, so perhaps need to print out the planets individually. At the time of writing, this is the next job in the pipeline. In the meantime, how many people can say they have Jupiter in their kitchen drawer!
The Car what No3 Son drew
Something else that NSB thought might be fun was to turn a child's drawing into a real object. For this, NSB needed the help of No3 Son...
A Bracelet
A relatively quick project was this bracelet for NSB's niece, inscribed with her name.
A Ruler
Right from the outset, NSB thought it would be cool to make some rulers that measured in mm on one side, and then in some bonkers unit (such as micro-furlongs) on the other edge. A test section revealed that rulers aren't really playing to the printers strengths and the indented markings were not actually that visible. Better off just printing out a sticker...
Mt Snowdon, Mt Everest and a chocolate Mt Fuji
Continuing the "scale" theme, NSB spent about one a half weekends carefully inputting contour data for Mt Snowdon. Fuji and Everest into CAD models and then using this to create 3D printable solid structures at the 1:100,000 scale (including height above sea level)
It was surprising to see just how much bigger, and particularly taller, Mt Everest was when compared to Mt Snowdon.
Whereas Mt Everest and Mt Snowdon were constructed with "stepped" slopes than accurately followed the contour lines, the Mt Fuji model used a draped surface approach which didn't really do as good a job in picking up the surface details and the sharpness of ridges etc. (NB: 2cm deep base to get peak to right point above sea level not shown in this image.
Tom thought it would be a nice idea to invert the Mt Fuji CAD drawing so that it was now a concave mould, into which he poured chocolate to make a chocolate Mt Fuji, complete with snowy peak! Genius!
Thinking more about mountains in the UK, it became clear that 1:100,000 was going to result in some pretty tiny models, so NSB had a bash at Snowdon on a 1:25,000 scale, pictured here next to the 1:100,000 version...
Tom requested a model of Tryfan for a relative, and NSB was only too happy to oblige by drafting up a CAD file for printing, here is the end result :
A 3D printed clock
Tom went large by downloading the plans for a 3D printed mechanical clock! The model file are available on Thingiverse and were designed by Christoph Lamer. It works too, kinda....
One issue during the manufacture of the small parts was that they would warp during printing, because the hot print head was staying in, essentially, one location and stopping the layers from cooling properly. The solution turned out to be to print a sacrificial tower that the head would move to periodically - giving the "real" part time to cool and solidify.
 |
| The 3D printer what we bought |
Since then, Stuff . Has . Been . Made !!!!
Scale Model of Planets
The Car what No3 Son drew
A bracelet
A ruler
Mt Snowden, Mt Everest and a chocolate Mt Fuji
A 3D printed clock
Scale Model of the Planets
NSB thought it would be nice to make some hemispherical scale models of the planets in the solar system.
The first attempt, at a very small scale, didn't work very well. In particular, the printer wasn't keen on flitting from planet to planet as it laid down the layers. Oh yes, and it seemed that a wall thickness of 1mm was too thin.
 |
| First bash at making scale model of planets. Not a success! |
Second attempt, at a larger scale of 1: 5x10^10 and with 2mm wall thickness worked better, but printer still unhappy about moving between the planets.
 |
| Second bash at planets, still not a success |
Third attempt, again at 1:50bn scale, but with just Jupiter, worked just dandy, so perhaps need to print out the planets individually. At the time of writing, this is the next job in the pipeline. In the meantime, how many people can say they have Jupiter in their kitchen drawer!
 |
| Jupiter, obviously |
The Car what No3 Son drew
Something else that NSB thought might be fun was to turn a child's drawing into a real object. For this, NSB needed the help of No3 Son...
 |
| The car what No3 Son drew |
 |
| The resulting 3D model |
 |
| Another view |
A Bracelet
A relatively quick project was this bracelet for NSB's niece, inscribed with her name.
 |
| A bracelet for NSB's niece |
A Ruler
Right from the outset, NSB thought it would be cool to make some rulers that measured in mm on one side, and then in some bonkers unit (such as micro-furlongs) on the other edge. A test section revealed that rulers aren't really playing to the printers strengths and the indented markings were not actually that visible. Better off just printing out a sticker...
 |
| 3D printed rulers. Not really playing to the technologies strengths... |
Mt Snowdon, Mt Everest and a chocolate Mt Fuji
Continuing the "scale" theme, NSB spent about one a half weekends carefully inputting contour data for Mt Snowdon. Fuji and Everest into CAD models and then using this to create 3D printable solid structures at the 1:100,000 scale (including height above sea level)
It was surprising to see just how much bigger, and particularly taller, Mt Everest was when compared to Mt Snowdon.
 |
| Mount Snowdon (left) and Mount Everest (right), both at 1:100.000 and with their bases being at sea level |
Whereas Mt Everest and Mt Snowdon were constructed with "stepped" slopes than accurately followed the contour lines, the Mt Fuji model used a draped surface approach which didn't really do as good a job in picking up the surface details and the sharpness of ridges etc. (NB: 2cm deep base to get peak to right point above sea level not shown in this image.
 |
| Mount Fuji, 1:100,000 scale |
Tom thought it would be a nice idea to invert the Mt Fuji CAD drawing so that it was now a concave mould, into which he poured chocolate to make a chocolate Mt Fuji, complete with snowy peak! Genius!
 |
| A chocolate Mount Fuji and mould |
Thinking more about mountains in the UK, it became clear that 1:100,000 was going to result in some pretty tiny models, so NSB had a bash at Snowdon on a 1:25,000 scale, pictured here next to the 1:100,000 version...
 |
| Mount Snowdon at 1:100,000 (left) and 1:25,000 (right) |
Tom requested a model of Tryfan for a relative, and NSB was only too happy to oblige by drafting up a CAD file for printing, here is the end result :
 |
| Tryfan at 1:25,000 |
 |
| Another view of Tryfan at 1:25,000 |
A 3D printed clock
Tom went large by downloading the plans for a 3D printed mechanical clock! The model file are available on Thingiverse and were designed by Christoph Lamer. It works too, kinda....
One issue during the manufacture of the small parts was that they would warp during printing, because the hot print head was staying in, essentially, one location and stopping the layers from cooling properly. The solution turned out to be to print a sacrificial tower that the head would move to periodically - giving the "real" part time to cool and solidify.
awesome clock!
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