Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Objects printed from terra cotta
One of the Lab's bolder experiments in green printing inished second in a
local annual boat race in Seattle, a 3D printed boat made from recycled milk
jugs. The Lab's student organization, Washington Open Objects Fabricators
Club (also known as “WOOF”), designed and printed a boat and entered it into
the Milk Carton Derby, a high-proile boat race that's part of Seattle's annual
Seafair Festival. Derby race rules are strict. Only the following cartons may
be used to provide lotation: half gallon and one gallon plastic and paper jugs
that held milk or juice.
The WOOF team began work on their boat weeks before the race, in a
dumpster. Students went dumpster diving and hauled nearly 40 pounds of
plastic jugs back to the lab. They ground the plastic jugs into ine powder
and hacked a 4-by-8-foot plasma cutter with a homemade extruder. To power
the printer's plastic extruder, undergraduate Matthew Rogge ripped out the
windshield wiper motor from his Subaru. Over the course of two months and
several failed test runs, students learned that printed milk jug powder, upon
printing, is prone to shrink in size about 2 percent. After some tinkering with
the design, the WOOF team spent two days printing a boat that could support
150 pounds and cut through the water “like a canoeyak,” according to Mark.
