LAMP has a 3D printer. It is a flash forge creator 3 and has recently been getting a lot of use. I wanted to get my sister some tricky puzzles for Christmas, but all the ones I saw online were very expensive so I tried to find a different way to get the puzzles.
Fortunately, LAMP allowed me to try printing some small puzzles.
The first thing I ever printed was a velociraptor 3D puzzle. I didn’t realise you had to slice the file before printing (which creates a base for the print to stick to) so it ended up as an incomprehensible mess of thermoplastic!
I learnt from my mistake and printed the infamous ‘5 corner puzzle’ which, as the name suggests, has 5 corners. My sister solved it within the day...
Our 3D printer is a thermoplastic one, as opposed to a resin or metal one. It works by feeding the filament into the extruder, and heating it up until it becomes soft enough to be used to print. The extruder is then moved in a predetermined pattern across the baseplate as the liquid filament is, well, extruded. The thermoplastic rapidly cools down when not in the extruder, and hardens to form a base where more filament can be printed upon. This is one of the simplest and cheapest ways of 3D printing.
I spent a lot of time sanding down what I printed. Most of them came off the base layer easy enough, but some I had to tear off, and a select few didn’t come off at all! Those ones I had to use a craft knife and sandpaper to make them the shape I wanted.
Many thanks to LAMP for letting me learn a new skill. - Elliot.
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