I started an earlier thread regarding this, but due to an error in judgement on my part, I felt that a fresh thread would be for the best.
Below are examples of parts for an Iron Man suit that I printed using my Makerbot Cupcake. The origin of the 3D models I started with was some of our favorite modelers, Darkside501st and Zabana, and I have received express permission from them to use their models as a basis for my printing for my personal use. Not only are they great contributors to this community, but they are just plain nice to work with.
I love Iron Man, and I find 3D printing to be a modern marvel. When I saw the special features in IM2 about them 3D printing the armor, I decided to see how far I could get as a hobbyist with more money and time than sense. Below are my current results. Apologies for the mediocre quality of the pics(Not shown are heaps of failed prints and support material).
I started small, and went for the fingers:
Then I got more ambitious, and modeled and printed things that were made of several smaller components, such as the Mk 7 Forearm:
And the most complex so far is the Mk 7 Greaves
White spots are either hot glue or tape. I would have preferred to present a more complete product, but I'm hoping that sharing it with this awesome community will help motivate me to at least finish the parts I have printed. Changes to the original models was done in SolidWorks, which was needed to add thickness to the parts, to break them into pieces small enough to fit into my print envelope, and to remove parts that just wouldn't work in my Bot.
Some questions I've been asked:
Q)Helagak
"But have you tried sanding then acetone washing your pieces? Should smooth them out alot. Also, what layer thickness did you print at?"
A)
I've sanded and acetone brushed a number of pieces, and it does leave it with a very glossy finish. Many of the parts above have been fused together using a paste of acetone and scrap ABS, which is very effective, just much slower than tape or hot glue. Just make sure you don't use plastic cups or foam brushes to mix or apply it:facepalm. I just used the standard layer thickness for the stock Cupcake nozzle, which I believe is 0.35mm. Man, I am so jealous of your Replicator. It feels like I spent more time dialing in, troubleshooting, and not even wanting to look at the damn thing than I did printing, even if I am pretty happy with the results. I even spent the money to upgrade the electronics and extruder, and now I can only print at 1 RPM:cry.
Q)Syrus54
"How much did it cost to make a single part... say, the SHIN?
Can you make adjustments to the nozzles or anything, to make the pieces SMOOTHER?
Also, what's the Tensil strengths of the plastic? How easy does it break/how Fragile is it?"
A)
The printer interface I used, ReplicatorG, actually tells you how much volume of plastic you extrude, and an assigned cost for the plastic as well as machine time, but I don't know how accurate that is. But the Shin weighs exactly 1lb, and I'll assume 20% extra for support material used, so 1.2 pounds total material. Filament from Makerbot is $43 for 2.2lbs natural ABS, so I can estimate the cost at around $23.50. I uploaded one of the larger sections to Shapeways just to see, and this is what I got:
So, definite savings in that regard.
As for the smoothness, my prints are frankly a poor representation of what should be possible. I'm using one of the larger nozzles, 3mm filament vs 1.75 on newer machines, and I also Frankensteined my bot to get a taller build envelope, which led to the more overt ridges you see. I would love to see what a new Replicator or other prebuilt/calibrated machine could do. A lot of it also depends on how you position the part in the envelope. Even with commercial 3D printers, one axis usually is a lower resolution than the others.
The material is ABS plastic, which Google says has a tensile strength of 4300psi, but I don't know how relevant that is to parts like this. The actual real world strength of the part depends on a number of factors. You can have a part that is 1/4" thick, but you can choose to only have a 30% "fill", meaning that the top and bottom layers are solid, but everything in the middle is a honeycomb. Or you can print it completely solid. I'm honestly not sure which would be stronger, but I printed most of these pieces solid because I wanted to be able to screw into them if needed. Feeling the parts I have here, anything around 1/8" thick and less feels pretty flimsy, and feels like I could probably snap it with my fingers. 3/16" feels much sturdier, but still has some give. 1/4" feels really solid. I can exert force equivalent to trying to open a REALLY stubborn jar of pickles, and it's just fine.
Q)msleeper
"Personally I always expected anyone doing 3D printing of parts would be using them as a basis for molding and casting (with the exception of smaller parts like fingers/palms). But it's awesome to hear that the printed parts themselves are really sturdy."
A)
I started off with that in mind, but looking at cost of materials(my god the silicone alone) and space those molds would require, just printing the whole suit actually seemed more economical. It's slower to reproduce than if you had a mold, but more easily repeatable than Pep, and depending on the quality of your 3D model, less polygonal and therefore easier to finish. Also, once you had the files, you could scale parts on the fly, which is a big advantage over molds.
Q)Syrus54
Does the Replicator glitch or anything?
Mabey, overheat, and screw something up, or if there's a power outage, when the power comes back, does it remember what its already printed, so it doesnt RE-PRINT it?
A)
Not sure how stable the new ones are, but there are a number of things that have gone wrong with mine. The most likely is one of the belts moving the X or Y axis will skip, essentially shifting the entire print. This is a part of for a cod piece that should have been a smooth curve all the way up:
If there is ever sort of critical failure, like a power outage or computer crash, you will most likely have to restart the print completely. And most prints are measured in hours, not minutes.
So, feel free to ask me anything about the printing process, materials, my opinions on printers and what not. Since the heart of the files are not mine, and I doubt I would have been able to create them on my own, I will not be hosting any files in regards to this project, or selling any parts, so please don't ask.
Below are examples of parts for an Iron Man suit that I printed using my Makerbot Cupcake. The origin of the 3D models I started with was some of our favorite modelers, Darkside501st and Zabana, and I have received express permission from them to use their models as a basis for my printing for my personal use. Not only are they great contributors to this community, but they are just plain nice to work with.
I love Iron Man, and I find 3D printing to be a modern marvel. When I saw the special features in IM2 about them 3D printing the armor, I decided to see how far I could get as a hobbyist with more money and time than sense. Below are my current results. Apologies for the mediocre quality of the pics(Not shown are heaps of failed prints and support material).
I started small, and went for the fingers:
Then I got more ambitious, and modeled and printed things that were made of several smaller components, such as the Mk 7 Forearm:
And the most complex so far is the Mk 7 Greaves
White spots are either hot glue or tape. I would have preferred to present a more complete product, but I'm hoping that sharing it with this awesome community will help motivate me to at least finish the parts I have printed. Changes to the original models was done in SolidWorks, which was needed to add thickness to the parts, to break them into pieces small enough to fit into my print envelope, and to remove parts that just wouldn't work in my Bot.
Some questions I've been asked:
Q)Helagak
"But have you tried sanding then acetone washing your pieces? Should smooth them out alot. Also, what layer thickness did you print at?"
A)
I've sanded and acetone brushed a number of pieces, and it does leave it with a very glossy finish. Many of the parts above have been fused together using a paste of acetone and scrap ABS, which is very effective, just much slower than tape or hot glue. Just make sure you don't use plastic cups or foam brushes to mix or apply it:facepalm. I just used the standard layer thickness for the stock Cupcake nozzle, which I believe is 0.35mm. Man, I am so jealous of your Replicator. It feels like I spent more time dialing in, troubleshooting, and not even wanting to look at the damn thing than I did printing, even if I am pretty happy with the results. I even spent the money to upgrade the electronics and extruder, and now I can only print at 1 RPM:cry.
Q)Syrus54
"How much did it cost to make a single part... say, the SHIN?
Can you make adjustments to the nozzles or anything, to make the pieces SMOOTHER?
Also, what's the Tensil strengths of the plastic? How easy does it break/how Fragile is it?"
A)
The printer interface I used, ReplicatorG, actually tells you how much volume of plastic you extrude, and an assigned cost for the plastic as well as machine time, but I don't know how accurate that is. But the Shin weighs exactly 1lb, and I'll assume 20% extra for support material used, so 1.2 pounds total material. Filament from Makerbot is $43 for 2.2lbs natural ABS, so I can estimate the cost at around $23.50. I uploaded one of the larger sections to Shapeways just to see, and this is what I got:
So, definite savings in that regard.
As for the smoothness, my prints are frankly a poor representation of what should be possible. I'm using one of the larger nozzles, 3mm filament vs 1.75 on newer machines, and I also Frankensteined my bot to get a taller build envelope, which led to the more overt ridges you see. I would love to see what a new Replicator or other prebuilt/calibrated machine could do. A lot of it also depends on how you position the part in the envelope. Even with commercial 3D printers, one axis usually is a lower resolution than the others.
The material is ABS plastic, which Google says has a tensile strength of 4300psi, but I don't know how relevant that is to parts like this. The actual real world strength of the part depends on a number of factors. You can have a part that is 1/4" thick, but you can choose to only have a 30% "fill", meaning that the top and bottom layers are solid, but everything in the middle is a honeycomb. Or you can print it completely solid. I'm honestly not sure which would be stronger, but I printed most of these pieces solid because I wanted to be able to screw into them if needed. Feeling the parts I have here, anything around 1/8" thick and less feels pretty flimsy, and feels like I could probably snap it with my fingers. 3/16" feels much sturdier, but still has some give. 1/4" feels really solid. I can exert force equivalent to trying to open a REALLY stubborn jar of pickles, and it's just fine.
Q)msleeper
"Personally I always expected anyone doing 3D printing of parts would be using them as a basis for molding and casting (with the exception of smaller parts like fingers/palms). But it's awesome to hear that the printed parts themselves are really sturdy."
A)
I started off with that in mind, but looking at cost of materials(my god the silicone alone) and space those molds would require, just printing the whole suit actually seemed more economical. It's slower to reproduce than if you had a mold, but more easily repeatable than Pep, and depending on the quality of your 3D model, less polygonal and therefore easier to finish. Also, once you had the files, you could scale parts on the fly, which is a big advantage over molds.
Q)Syrus54
Does the Replicator glitch or anything?
Mabey, overheat, and screw something up, or if there's a power outage, when the power comes back, does it remember what its already printed, so it doesnt RE-PRINT it?
A)
Not sure how stable the new ones are, but there are a number of things that have gone wrong with mine. The most likely is one of the belts moving the X or Y axis will skip, essentially shifting the entire print. This is a part of for a cod piece that should have been a smooth curve all the way up:
If there is ever sort of critical failure, like a power outage or computer crash, you will most likely have to restart the print completely. And most prints are measured in hours, not minutes.
So, feel free to ask me anything about the printing process, materials, my opinions on printers and what not. Since the heart of the files are not mine, and I doubt I would have been able to create them on my own, I will not be hosting any files in regards to this project, or selling any parts, so please don't ask.
