Advice on Printing a Stone Fountain

Greetings to all... I'm new to 3Dprinting and performing my due diligence before buying a printer andstarting some 3D printing projects... I would like to ask here for somebasic information about how the process works and what it is capableof in regards to printing a desktop water fountain like the one shownin the attached photos... Specifically, I would like to know if it ispossible to 3D print a fountain like this and if so can it be printedwith a stone infused filament (or other filament type) to make itcome out of the 3D printer with a finish that looks like the fountainin the photos or would I need to apply some kind of finish or texture to itafter printing?Any advice and information about howthe 3D printing process would apply to a project like this will be ofgreat help in deciding how to proceed … Thanks in advance andlooking forward to hearing from the experts here.

well the texturing can be done in the design process, that's not the problem :-)

Making a 3d print watertight can be a tricky process, you all but need to print it completely solid.

Most fdm 3d prints consist of a 'skin' often less than a millimetre thick over a mesh of infinitely variable shape and density.
The on;y way I've been able to make something completely watertight was by making it totally solid. Which slows things down and uses a lot of material.

So yes, technically you could make a watertight fountain with a textured skin - though that kind of modelling is not somethig I've had any experience with no doubt there are modelling programs that let you pick and choose from any number of textured surfaces.

To get the stone effect, there are filaments that simulate a marble like appearance, couple that with a textured surface and a solid print and some kind of lacquer paint to give it a more gloss or matt finish - and yes it is possible to make something very similiar to your pictures.

Not easy, or particular cheap - but definitely doable.

to illustrate what I mean about 3d printing creating meshes with skins look at this picture:
Attachment 14582

THose are approximately 30% mesh infills. I use a tringular infill pattern as it prints fast and give equal strength in all directions.
The individual wall lines are all 0.5mm thick. As that's the diameter of the nozzle I use in this particular printer.

Given how little those kinds of desktop water feature cost - 3d printing them would seem to be an awful lot of effort in both time and money.
And also not a beginner piece of design either.

A resin machine could make a watertight model easier - but resin is messy stuff and as it turns ut pretty damn toxic. So I've gone right off them :-)

For about $100,000 you can buy a binderjet printer that will produce things with full colour and different materials.
For about $80,000 you can get a printer that will make small ones out of metal :-)

In some ways it's all about budget, but in all cases you still need to be a skilled enough designer to actually make the 3d models for the machine to print.

So yes, absolutely it can be done and pretty much at all budget levels, with varying degrees of post processing - the printing is not so much the issue as the designing of the thing to be printed.

Hello curious aardvark ... That's just the kind of information I was looking for... I appreciate you taking the time to explain and give the examples... I hadn't thought of the watertight angle ... and that's why I'm here...

things like the internal channels for the water are pretty easy. 3d printing is excellent for making internal features.

But again it all boils down to the skill of the designer.

I've made textured 'knurled' handles for threaded parts.
But that's pretty simple compared to a more naturalistic smooth texture.
I use a free design program called openscad.
'Organic' textures would be doable - but damn it'd put the cpu through hell during the render !
I'm building an upgraded computer in the next week or so - so it might be doable :-)

Have a look through the kinds of filament you can get, these guys have a wider selection than just about anyone: www.globalfsd.com

thanks for the filament lead...