Printing DNA sugested by amirjabri

[amirjabri]

Wow Rylan, i never imagined how involved it is to come up with a support structure or I probably never would have suggested it! It is very impressive so far what you are engineering to make this possible! Would be cool to be able to write a python plugin that would add support structure for such elaborate models automatically! My coding skills definitely aren't up to par but I would love to print out all sorts of molecular models!

[Chayat]

I think it would be pretty straightforward to write a script that added support/seed materials but before that can be done the team need to know how much seeding is needed in each situation so it can be as tiny as possible. I think trial and error is going to be the only way to gather that information.

[rylangrayston]

The fact that this print requires us to do work, that further increases the printers function is why it makes sense to take it on.
It may seem like lots of work but keep in mind that all iv done is model a few spheres in blender, extrude tails on them, most of the work is done with modifiers and instances. If it wasn’t for features like array in blender this would truly be alot of work.

I think its very posible to automate this... just look at what circuit board routers do!
but just as chayat says some trial and error will be needed so we can figure out what the exact goals of the automation code would be.

well here is the next print ( that worked ) I had one failed one the other day dew to dipper problems:
photo 2(1).jpg photo 3.jpg photo 4.jpg

photo 5.jpg perspective.jpg

I love that last pic

This print is 4cm tall and has 4000 layers.
I think pigment in the resin shorten the depth that the laser cures in to the resin and could give us greater height resolution.

[rylangrayston]

Screenshot from 2014-12-19 14:00:45.jpgphoto 1(1).jpg

A little further investigation here, the last 3 sets of seed material broke of rather easily, it felt about like breaking a tiny piece of egg shell with your finger nail.
Back in Cura I counted how many layers of thin material there were in the second last set, looks like about 50 layers of material that are quite thin( altho it dose gradually get thinner) 50 layers at 100 layers per mm thats a .5mm gap between the thick part of the seed material and the actual object.
I think the desired gap could be very different for pigmented resins.

With this new experience next ill move on to modelling the rest of the dna.

[Yarharhar]

I think pigment in the resin shorten the depth that the laser cures in to the resin and could give us greater height resolution.

Could we emulate this in clear resin by running the laser at the weaker strength? (Is such a thing even possible?)

[rylangrayston]

Could we emulate this in clear resin by running the laser at the weaker strength? (Is such a thing even possible?)

Good Idea!
Turning down the laser power or the exposure per volume of resin could help! I think it would mean a softer print, but that's is ok because its easy to cure the resin fully after printing. There are likely dies that can be added that block uv light while still being transparent to visible light, that could help also.

[harpo99999]

perhaps a fluresecent dye so the camera(eye) used to monitor the printing can also see the refraction products from the beam