Ape

Hi I'm new here and I'm looking for some feedback on a toy I designed and printed.
I was looking for a way to print a very movable toy without the need of assembly afterwards, and this came out of it.

Attachment 1097

The way I print it now is lying on it's back but it still needs lots of support so it takes me almost one hour to clean up the parts.
I tried printing it standing up but I couldn't get it to work without about the same amount of support so no win.
If you would like to try it out the file is here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:312656

That is cool! But all the pieces are printed separately and not already snapped together, right? It looks to me like if you flattened the big part of the joint you could print the arms standing up and not have any support material ???? And if you flattened the back of the hand you could have that on the bed and print that with no support. Right?

This is great. I would quite like to print robot parts in the future and this kind of articulated snap-together model is as interesting way to get there.

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Hi Roxy, wrong ;o)

It's assembled already, I wanted to create something that is ready when you take it of the printer. That's why it needs so much support to print.
You are still right do, I could flatten some of the surfaces to have less support but that would mean I loose the all spheres design and that is something I would like to keep.

Thanks for the feedback!

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What is the design work done in? It would be neat to print one of these. And the good news is I don't mind snapping the parts together after they are printed! :)

I do like the idea of printing assembled pieces however! I did a whistle just to see how it would work. It printed the ball that causes the warble inside the main part and then sealed it inside. And after it was printed you just poke it to break it free. The bad news is 1/2 of the whistles work really good. And the other half you have to blow just right to make them whistle. I don't know what to change to make them all work. :(

Hi Roxy,

The ape I did in Solidworks, and yes print one out and let me know how it goes.

I took a look at your whistle design, How do you print it? I mean why do only half of the whistles work, did you check the warble on roundness, at what layer height are you printing?
You might try something I did with a ball-joint, so don't place the warble next to the wall but a little away from it and support it by 4 small pillars placed at the same distance from the centre of the warble so that the warble still touches the bottom in the centre. I hope it still makes sense, if not here is the ball-joint for clarification.

How do I print it? I just tell the printer to do it. I can bridge about a 1" gap and that is sufficient. But the reason only 1/2 of the whistle has nothing to do with the warble ball. It has something to do with the angle of the wedge and opening. I copied a steel whistle's dimensions that I use for volleyball pretty closely. Maybe it is that the wedge isn't sharp enough? Or maybe it is something else. But I haven't figured it out yet.

If you take another look at that whistle... You will see 4 or 5 small posts holding the warble ball up in the air. The ball doesn't end up perfectly spherical, but it is plenty round to roll around inside there and do its thing. The problem is with the shape of where the air goes.

Mean while... I think I'm going to see how bad the support material is to peel away from your ape!

Yeah I did see small posts but they were off center so I figured that could be the problem, not realizing it has nothing to do with the warble of course...
Sorry i can't help you with the whistle blowing stuff, I'm not much of a musician.

How bad was the ape?

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Originally Posted by Egon van Engelen

Yeah I did see small posts but they were off center so I figured that could be the problem, not realizing it has nothing to do with the warble of course...
Sorry i can't help you with the whistle blowing stuff, I'm not much of a musician.

How bad was the ape?

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It will be days until I can print it. I've got it downloaded, but I'm printing (or really... trying to print) gears for the Pumpjack I'm making for my brother.

Attachment 1133

UPDATE:

It turns out... I'm going to risk an over night print! I might have an ape in the morning!!! Or, I might have a damaged printer??? But if I get an ape, it will be a green ape.

UPDATE #2:

Bummer! I didn't know how fragile its wrists and ankles are! I was trying to do physical therapy on him so he could move his arms and his legs but I'm obviously not certified for that type of thing. I have a paraplegic ape now! :(

I'm sorry to read that, mine are really strong... what material did you use?

The Pumpjack looks really cool by the way, do you have a double extruder or did you paint the model?

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Originally Posted by Egon van Engelen

I'm sorry to read that, mine are really strong... what material did you use?

The Pumpjack looks really cool by the way, do you have a double extruder or did you paint the model?

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I'm thinking I might have sliced it wrong. And I used honeycomb support material. So... I need to retry it. I used ABS plastic. I guess PLA would be stronger so maybe I should switch that too? But I like ABS!

On the Pumpjack:

I'm poor. I can't afford the fancy equipment. I only have a single extruder. I didn't paint the Pumpjack. I switched the filament at strategic times during the print. I did this out of necessity: http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...ltipanel-Users

Yeah its better to use lines if you try again, might I ask why you like ABS so much, is it easier to print with?

Cool trick about the filament changing, I did that while printing with pieces of rest filament but I got the timing wrong: Torqued Vases

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Originally Posted by Egon van Engelen

Yeah its better to use lines if you try again, might I ask why you like ABS so much, is it easier to print with?

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Actually, PLA has a reputation of being easier to print with. But the problem with PLA is the edges curl up so much. At least for me it does.

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Originally Posted by Egon van Engelen

Cool trick about the filament changing, I did that while printing with pieces of rest filament but I got the timing wrong: Torqued Vases

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It looks like that color change worked out fine? How did you have the timing wrong? On something like that, it doesn't really matter if you are off a layer or two. But when you are laying lettering down on a flat surface, you have to switch the filament at exactly the right time.

Are you using the heated bed also for PLA? Trying it sometime without heating it up might do the trick. I'm printing on a cold acrylic plate and lately even a mirror with hairspray.

About the filament change, I got the timing wrong because I did it manually and miscalculated about the length of the Bowden tube, because it was a vase it's off more then a few layers :o)

Update on the Ape figurine
Roxy advised me to make a version available that includes support.
It prints much faster now and it also takes much less time to clean up.
Let me know how it goes if you decide to print it out.