Cytoskeleton Print

Comment

Comment by martyn hogg on December 7, 2014 at 1:32pm

it's an interesting way to design-for-manufacture! You have to know your process!

We have a Objet 500 Connex3 at work but I find removing the support material very frustrating. If you print the whole object in matte finish it covers all surfaces in support so there is no difference between surfaces that were supported and those that weren't. Still, the support needs to be scraped off but it's almost ingrained into the surface so needs scraping, soaking in caustic soda and jet washing and then on the rubber-like materials it still seems to be present on the surfaces.

I can't wait for the water soluable support material!

Comment by Joshua Jordan on December 6, 2014 at 3:21pm

It's worth noting that one of the legs collapsed, because with so little connection, it peeled away from the build plate.   Good thing about Form 1 is that it can correct itself on the rest of the print

Comment by Joshua Jordan on December 6, 2014 at 3:20pm

martyn,    I was trying to force the object into a shape that supported itself better-- i.e. more "structural", and thereby maybe more willing to support itself as a 3D printed object.    This object was printed "feet down" with support under the bottom arc, but almost nowhere else, including the interior.

1.  A mesh-dual like this one is probably not as suited to structural optimization as a tri-mesh (shell issues)
2.  I don't think a gravity-structural logic even necessarily translates to a Form 1 printer.  Unlike a makerbot, which prints bottom-up, the Form 1 prints upside-down, top-down. 

3.  So then, it's much more small horizontal overhangs, and the tendency from any one layer to pull apart from the next, as the printer moves up in layer.

Comment by martyn hogg on December 5, 2014 at 4:03pm

brilliant! love it when things actually get made!

how did you attemp to minimise support material? restrict overhangs?

Comment by Joshua Jordan on December 4, 2014 at 4:30pm

look!

Kangaroo + Cytoskeleton + Formlabs printer...

=  exploring the relationship between Kangaroo form-finding and 3D-printability without the need for excessive support structure.

Conclusions:  A resounding "nothing conclusive!" ...but really high tech xmas ornaments.