Sunday 11 July 2021

Printing bigger than the bed

 So a colleague at work asked me to make an Amazon Fire Wall Mount, except a particular size to suite his machine. Fortunately this design allows for flexibility of the end model through it's use of OpenSCAD to control the sizing of the system. But he also needed it adapted to allow for a cable to run inside the case. No big deal really... except for how big the piece is.

Now the wall plate itself has no problem to be printed. The design will split the model in two and allow it to snap together, but the outer bezel, that's a different matter.

The print bed for the Prusa Mk3S is 250mmx220mm and this design is 264mm. It's not going to fit.

Except... the build volume is 3D. So by tipping the design up at a 30° angle it will fit, albeit with a lot of supports in place. But that's neither here nor there as my colleague has already paid for the filament (a whole roll of black PLA) so the cost is on his head. I get to keep whatever's left over as my fee. So thats what I did.

The end result took over a day to print but came out really well.

Mind you, thats not the only thing I'm printing at the moment. There is currently a KickStarter campaign underway which I am backing. And they've even produce some free designs which seem specifically dedicated to me... (OK, not really but they're good designs). So of course I made one.

3D printing has a lot of possibilities, but you have to remember, it's 3D. After all, Khan didn't think in 3D when up against Kirk, so make sure you think in 3D as well.




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