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Reality Patinas , as seen on his Portrait of Alexander the Great ( http://
www.thingiverse.com/thing:32338 ) and many other amazing 3D printed
sculptures. Metal2Create ( http://metal2create.nl/en/ ) is also in the process
of developing real metal finishes.
“I find that a very smooth surface finish can be achieved by applying
multiple thin coats of Krylon Fusion spray paint. It bonds easily to the
plastic without initial sanding, so very little detail is lost during the fin-
ishing process. I then lightly sand away any minor print or paint imper-
fections with 100 grit sandpaper and repaint as necessary until the print
lines are no longer visible.”
— Anna Kaziunas France
Feel empowered to experiment! There are a lot of different techniques and
definitely no right answer!
How Large? Thinking Outside the Bot
When thinking about designing a new thing, you will eventually ask yourself
is “What is the largest size model I can print on my MakerBot?”. As discussed
in Chapter 5 , the Replicator 2 build volume dimensions are 28.5 x 15.3 x 15.5
cm (11.2” x 6.0” x 6.1”). This is the maximum build size for a single object.
However, if you carefully plan your design, you are not limited to the dimen-
sions of the machine. If you think outside the bot and plan your project in
pieces that you can assemble into a whole later, you can build much larger
objects.
If your thing is too large to fit on the build platform, consider designing it as
separate parts, then using connectors to fit your parts together. Tony Buser
has created an excellent OpenSCAD pin connector creator Pin Connectors
V2 , which is great for attaching one thing to another. Check out the deriva-
tives page for this thing ( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:10541/varia
tions ) to see how many large and awesome things have been made with it.
In true Thingiverse fashion, it was recently derived and improved by emmett
as Pin Connectors V3 ( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:33790 ) and used
it in his Automatic Transmission ( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:34778 )
and Sleeve Valve Engine ( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:33883 ) models.
An amazing example of assembling parts into a large thing is Cosmo Wen-
man's “Head of a horse of Selene” ( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:
32228 ). This sculpture is also an interesting example of the high quality re-
sults that are possible with surface finishing. This model was sliced up into
pieces using netfabb, printed as individual pieces, and then Krazy Glued into
a single large object after printing. Afterwards it was finished with the Alter-
nate Reality Patinas mentioned earlier. See Chapter 9 for a more detailed
description of how to slice models using netfabb.
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