I don’t know when the game elements kit will ship but I thought I’d point out you could download a model of the acorn, scale it and print. It’s a long print, 14 hours without supports, 21 hours with supports (I’m trying both ways). I’ve got students chomping at the but to test claw designs.
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If it doesn’t come out slick as glass, be sure to sand it VERY smooth.
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make sure the weight is almost right too. No need to have twice as heavy elements.
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While you are welcome to try, I have not had the best experiences printing larger game objects.
1, it’s almost always a lot of filament and a really long print.
2, if you print it the same weight, mostly for ones like these which are injection molded plastic with thin walls, then there will be very little infill and the pieces will be very fragile. If you print it with enough infill to be sturdy, however, then it is much heavier.
3, it will just be different enough that any mechanism you design around it will need to be modified for the real ones, especially taking into account the above point.
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And be sure that it’s very similar in weight to the actual acorns.
I printed one for my team and heres what i learned:
- Clean your nozzle before printing, because if it gets jammed it is a huge pain
- You definately need supports, although make sure your print temp isnt too high otherwise the supports will not come off your print
- Make sure the z offset is actually correct otherwise it will be a huge waste of filament
- If you want to print the acorn in one piece, there has to be supports in the middle which might throw off the weight of the ball
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You could just support it from the buildplate only, too. I use Cura v5.3.0 and it makes the slicing process so much easier. If you have problems with it printing well, you could just slice the CAD model in half and print it in two parts.
Yep. Should have thought about that. The print weighs 329g or 3X more than the game piece.
So I printed with and w/o supports. Cura 5.3.1, Ultimaker 3. 10% infill, triangles, .2mm
They both worked. The one with supports printed perfectly. The one without supports needed a little sanding at the point where the baseplate touches the model.
But as others have pointed out, it’s much much heavier than the game piece.
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want to make EPs happy - design a trophy topper with the model and put your team # in back of the print for credit!
Makes the generic metal trophies a little more special.
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Did you print in two pieces? I’m new to 3D printing so any suggestions are appreciated.
The only way I can think of addressing the weight is to print in vase mode. Now vase mode does not work if trying to print the whole object (don’t ask how I know).
Next, I’m currently printing in vase mode two halves and will try to put them together.