3D-print at low costs again - Mallory, how to realize it

My dream is a printer software that checks wich material is used, how the bed situation is (run a calibrating procedure) and what is needed to print the part as smart as possible. Actually it's like in middle age when a crafter either has the knowledge or not. It's all handmade. Each part. Do we still live in middle age? I don't think so. But I feel like we do. Lately I asked Kai Krause - the author of the first intuitive Adobe Photoshop plugins/filters (Kai's Power tools) during the 90th - if he want to help. But he denied. Well, he got his castle above the river Rhein and can relax. Too sad, folks like him would be helpful alot at the low cost consumer area. Probably I will ask him again one day.

 

Well, I have to treat Mallory again with the current knowledgement. Will take a while. But I'm optimistical. The elastic test-connectors are adaptable over and over again. Just to test other printed parts. I love this opportunity so much. I will switch to standard gray PLA soon and print the last part of Mallory's upper body:


It miss the connector-holes. It'll be the next challenge: Make a good geometry for a snap-kit!
This will show if the snap-technology works.

 

This time I pay a high price for quality:

Estimated print time: 14 hours. That's a big risk to waste time and material if any serious problem occeurs. But I don't want to split this part any further. At the other hand it has 7 holes for connectors wich should be accurate. That means I need a lot of infill for the whole part although I need it for the small connector holes only to avoid air-printing:




But I think it's worth it. This will become a very solid part - LOL!

 

AHHHHRRRG! M E R D E !!


Hmm ... little Jamira didn't want to split this part. So the printer did the job for her. At least a good example to show what I ment by "big risk".

113 g PLA and approximately 11 h printing. That's 11,50 Euro. Apprenticeship premium.

But I could test the connectors. Even the gum connectors do a good job:

And I got a good view of how the connectors sit in the holes:

 

Bahhhhhh ... no luck!
Next attempt the first layer didn't adheres to the foil:



I hoped the second layer would heal the wound. This happened several times in the past.
But no:

Even the third layer became more and more terrible. Third layer means 0,4 - 0,6 mm hight. No chance to get further contact to the print table. So I canceled the print.


It's probably high time to change the foil :-)

 

Well, I replaced the old foil by a new one. And started the print again. Looks way better this time:

A song of ice and fire ...

I think about the old foil. Probably I should bury it somewhere and print a tombstone for it. It performed such a good service. LOL! R.I.P.

I'll add the costs of the foil to the printer costs in my calculation. 2x9 Euro so far.

 

The new part. I turned it around by 180° - upside down:







I still enjoy to compare the blue and the red field :-)

 

Winter is comming.
I will never finish this fucking upper body of Mallory it seems ...
I underestimated the adhersive power of the new foil. The part was printed well:

But I couldn't remove it from the print bed. Finally I heated the print bed to 80° C - wich means PLA becomes deformable. Even this didn't let me remove the part. I could separate only 40%. A few hours later I managed to free the remaining surface when the print bed was cold again. But:

Additional I had to recognize that I placed the lower connector holes skewed by 90° each.

I feel so blue ...

 

LOL! Yeah ... all this. Especially because I don't need a hired modeler for that. Windows can be realized by cutted transparent salad boxes of what my wife usually eats ;-) But I want to finish Mallory first. I tend to print the big part again wich failed so dramatically. Not sure yet.

 

Well, I need a break from Mallory.
I searched for free 3d-models of female warriors. But all I found was unprintable crap:

All to rough, not waterproof ... just for pictures or games. Nothing for print. There are good 3d-models of course for $100+.

Since I'm currently watch "Game of Thrones" again, I thought I should search for good GOT-models. I found one at TurboSquid. Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) for $29 wich is okay:

The model comes with some failors (holes inside). All in all it's okay. It can be repaired and I can explode it in Rhino into single parts:


This will probably become important. For now I made a first shot, no treatment to the figure, just printed it as it is. 107 mm tall:

The head is a desaster! But alas, it's such a small figure. And it was just a quick'n'dirty one to learn more about this model. It's a good model and I will have a big statue of Tyrion Lannister on my desktop!
I bought another GOT-model from TurboSquid for $10. Daenerys:

Not sure if it's a good one.

 

It was really time to have this feeling of success!
I got Tyrion!

This time without problems. I printed all parts and tested them with my gum-snappers

I could assemble and disassemble the figure easily. Than I replaced them by the stiff snappers:

And clack clack clack the figure was assembled again. This time for ever. Irresolvable. An unbelievable experiance. The complete assembly took two minutes! Than I put some primer on it:

It must dry one day. But than I will paint it with copper varnish.

Costs of a 275 mm tall figure:
3d model: 25,00 Euro
200 g PLA: 5,00 Euro
24 h printer time (0,77 Euro/h): 18,50 Euro
Paint: 10,00 Euro

Overall: 58,50 Euro

 

Thank you.
I will brush it. The surface is still rough. You can see the print levels. Even primer and varnish won't glaze it. And I don't want to put more work into the figure. When you look at it from one meter distance all failors vanish. So no need for carefully spraying.

Oh btw. I forgot to list secondary costs:
Coffee: 2,00 Euro
Beer: 9,00 Euro
Cigarettes: 10,00 Euro

 

No problem if you have a 3d-model or at least a drawing. But 1:64 would be very small (60-70 mm like a Matchbox car). It wouldn't look good when it comes out of the printer. You must do a lot of sanding.
My pay per hour of CAD work is 50 Euro.
Printer costs per hour 0,77 Euro.
Material costs 25 Euro per kg.

 

Well, here he is, Lord Tyrion Lannister of Casterly Rock:

I just needed a little bit of the copper colour. ~1,00 Euro instead of 10,00 Euro. So the overall price of this figure is 49,50 Euro. This figure is a wide satisfaction after all the difficaulties with Mallory.

 

Now the question is: Am I allowed to sell such figures? TurboSquid's terms of use of Royalty Free License in FAQ:

Well, a bit vague in my case. The appearance is the same as the original model and I didn't add something. At the other hand I repaired and changed the original model in a wide way. I made a big figure with several parts and used my own connection technology. A way for owners of cheap and small printers to print big figures. Is a construction kit still the originally model? I doubt it. I will ask TurboSquid.