3D Printed "Blueheart Spotter" (PAX Prime 2013 Update)

The latest 3D printed object I created was inspired by attending PAX Prime, one of the largest gaming conventions in the world, which took place here in Seattle last weekend.  The last time I attended PAX was back in 2011, and the event has grown substantially every year since--it being one of the most fun and entertaining conventions I've ever attended.  I spent a good amount of time at the Wacom booth (Cintiqs on display) and met a lot of extremely talented artists and 3D modelers and watched them perform their craft in real-time.  They were able to perform some amazing "wizardry" turning simple spheres into complex organic creatures in ZBrush and Mudbox--it was definitely really impressive and inspiring to watch.

Reference image used

As a result, I wanted to recreate an object from a game and picked the Blueheart Spotter vision ward from Valve's DOTA 2.  The vision ward is based off the aesthetics of the Crystal Maiden which is sort-of a frosty / ice crystal-like character in the game.  As a result, the ward has a lot of crystal-like features built into its design.  I recreated the model as best as I could from a simple photo reference and then sent it off to be printed on the Form 1.  After printing, the model was lightly-sanded in areas to smooth out the support-attachment bumps, washed, and then photographed.  The printed model prototype is only about 5 inches tall.  I'm thinking about printing a larger scale version with a base plate / stand and wiring it with an arduino-controlled LED lighting setup, in addition to a transparent colored paint job to better recreate the ward aesthetically.

Completed 3D model

Finished and cleaned print

PAX was an incredibly fun event this year and one of the highlights was getting to play a really creative and innovative game called Johann Sebastion Joust, which involves up to 18 players each holding PS3 a motion controller wand to move smoothly and steadily, as sudden movements of the controller will knock you out of the game.  However, it's a "last man / team standing" type of game so players must "joust" and attempt to "jostle" the controller of another player while keeping theirs' steady to win.  All this is also affected by the tempo of the music that's playing in the background.  The game is brilliant, hilarious, and insanely fun.  I believe a version of the game along with a few others were funded through KickStarter recently.  The best way to fully understand the game is to check out the video below.  I hope JSJ really catches on and becomes more popular.



Also while at PAX I randomly bumped into some YouTube celebrities, Jimmy Wong & Clinton Jones, from various YouTube channels but probably best known through Freddie Wong's channel--Freddie being regarded as essentially the "face of YouTube."  They were a great bunch and it was awesome to get to casually meet them in person too.

3D Printed Sunglasses *Updated*

Completed sunglasses design

I finally took on the challenge of designing and building a pair of sunglasses from scratch.  It was a fairly tricky process but watching the model slowly take shape over time was rewarding in itself.  The design was inspired from a quick sketch of the kind of sunglasses I imagined a Japanese samurai would wear.

Sunglass concept art

The frames look a bit "off" without lenses, but the build is just an experiment for now.  As I up the ante in terms of the next project I design, I'm getting closer and closer to my goal of 3D printing an entire full-scale wearable helmet.  It may be a little while longer before I jump into that project though.  Shots of the printed sunglasses are pending!

*Update* 

The glasses came out well after printing.  The design had to be split apart as the 1-piece design was too big for the printer's build platform (4.9" x 4.9").  The temples were attached to the frame after the fact by welding the joint connection with spare resin and a UV laser pointer.  The plastic frame body could use a little more rigidity but flexible frames have good utility too.  The fitment is good and reminds me of another start-up company which has taken the idea of offering 3D printed glasses which are custom-designed to be perfectly molded to your face.

I don't think I'll be trying to have lenses installed.  Right now the design is just a proof-of-concept prototype.  However, I may choose to do so with a future design iteration, until then...

 The 3D printing revolution has arrived and the possibilities are endless!

3D Printed "Tempest" Earrings

Just wanted to put up a quick update with the results / progress of the 3D printed "Tempest" earrings from an earlier post.  I threw together an "energy ball" model and printed off a set to match the earring bodies that were created earlier--then linked everything together with gold jump rings.  They're now completed.  I'm really happy with how they came out and I'm looking forward to the next project!

3D Printed Plastic → Metal; Pseudo Alchemy

Nickel-plated 3D printed plastic models

3D printed objects definitely look great in their natural finish.  However, there are a variety of ways to improve upon and modify the existing surface through coatings, finishes, and surface treatments that can be applied to printed objects to add another level of dimensionality with regard to a material's appearance in addition to the potential to develop new unique material properties.  One system in particular that is compatible with 3D printed plastic models can effectively "transmute" the surface to metal--the electroless plating process.

Electroless plating is analogous to electroplating in that both are surface treatment processes.  However, electroless plating does not require an electrical power source but instead is an auto-catalytic chemical reaction revolving around chemical reduction as opposed to an electrical reductive process.  This key difference is what enables traditionally non-conductive materials like plastics, wood, etc. the ability to be plated with a thin layer of metal.  Electroless plating is possible with a variety of metals including copper and gold.  However, nickel is the most commonly used plating metal due to its exceptional hardness & corrosion and wear resistance.  Nickel is also a very good base metal in preparation for subsequent surface treatments and coatings.  Nickel coated plastic models can be also be soldered and applied toward unique electronics and lighting projects as well.

Electroless nickel plating solids prior to dissolution

Realizing the potential of this technique, I wanted to try my hand at replicating (it) to learn more about this process.  There are a seemingly limitless number of recipes for nickel-based electroless platings.  However, using what materials I had on hand, I applied a formula using nickel chloride as the metal source and sodium hypophosphite as the reducing agent.  A few other chemicals were added to the plating solution including sodium citrate (a complexing / chelating agent) and ammonium chloride (for pH adjustment & balance).  The solids were dissolved in water, forming a nice teal green aqueous nickel solution.  While the electroless plating solution is easily prepared, actually plating an object is bit more complicated as it involves more than just throwing the sample that you want plated into solution (which will lead to no result, unless your sample has a catalytically-active metal surface).

Teal green aqueous electroless nickel plating solution

What I learned from my venture into electroless plating is that surface preparation and activation are absolutely key to achieving success with this process.  The surface that you want to plate must be hydrophilic ("water-loving") and easily-wetted, which can be achieved by oxidizing the material.  I ended up dipping my 3D prints in concentrated sulfuric acid for a few seconds followed by a thorough rinse in water.  I believe my prints could have been oxidized a bit longer to achieve better results.  However, this being a preliminary investigation, the achieved results were a good test.  Following the surface preparation step, an activation step is required in which the surface of material is impregnated with essentially a catalytic seed metal atom from which nickel will crystallize and grow from the plating solution.  I used a very dilute aqueous solution of palladium chloride for this step.  Alternative activation solutions such as silver nitrate are also effective from what I've read as well.  After allowing the palladium solution to dry onto the surface of the plastic 3D print, the samples were finally ready to be lowered into the plating solution.  I did not suspend the models due to a lack of space and simply dropped them to the bottom of the heated solution.

The reaction proceeded very vigorously and appeared to get very hot.  I question whether the plating solution may be going out of control (thermal overrun) and precipitating all the nickel out of solution--the plating solution should theoretically be reusable over many cycles by plating only the catalytically activated surface of the 3D printed model that is lowered into solution.  This is something that will need to be examined more closely in the future.

Surface prep is key to a quality finish

Regardless, the 3D printed plastic models were allowed to plate for about an hour before being removed from the plating solution--revealing a rather lustrous and durable silver-colored metallic finish.  The texture of the model surface appears to be accentuated by the nickel coating and it seems that very smooth surfaces do not coat well (due to the metal plating being a mechanically-bonded material interaction / see owl in above photo) and may need to be roughened up or chemically etched to enhance nickel's adherence.  The nickel plated 3D prints feel very metallic (as should be expected) and look great too.  All-in-all, the electroless plating process shows a lot of potential for further optimization and application toward further surface treatment steps, such as chrome plating and more.

3D Printed Jewelry: Part Deux

I've deviated slightly from my original plan to print a pair of sunglasses, but I had a sudden inspiration to make another set of earrings (I still have lots of earring loops and parts to make several set pairs).  The latest design is also quite a step up in complexity from the previous simple "teardrop" shape covered in the previous post but was still fun to put together in 3D.

Official SC2 Tempest model

FastMatt's Tempest-inspired model design

The design and shape was loosely inspired from the Tempest flying unit in SC2 and because it was loosely inspired I took liberties in simplifying and generalizing the design for the intended application as a wearable earring.  Most notably, the tail end of the earring has a hollow post to inset an earring loop connection.  Additionally, the front of the earring also has a loop physically built into the design with the intention of hanging an as-of-yet-undecided "dangling model" representing a ball of lightning / energy.  The design is slightly modular in this sense.  

3 copies, 1 extra "just in case"

Two iterations were required, the first was scaled slightly too small causing some of the details and features to be lost due to the frailty of the miniature printed part.  The earrings were scaled up in size by about 25% and have come out nicely.  Both iterations (5 earrings in total) also had no failures as well which was really great.  The high print yield of the Form 1 is much appreciated.

Freshly-printed models on the build platform

The earrings will be extracted from their supports and attached to loops and after designing a 3D "energy ball"--that will be attached to the physical loop as well to yield the completed product.  The next issue will be to figure out what to do with the earrings (I'm no fashion model)...

Jewelry For The Masses

Nordstrom exclusive Lucite® earrings

As mentioned in the previous post, a friend recently inquired as to whether I could make some 3D printed jewelry--with the answer being, of course!  I received a link to a pair of earrings sold by Nordstrom--a set of Lucite® (aka Plexiglas®) earrings in the shape of an abstract teardrop, along with a request to replicate the design if possible.  Not being one to pass up a fun challenge, I accept the request and began the reproduction process.

Crude measurements

Without having a physical set of the earrings in front of me to accurately measure dimensions, I roughly gauged the earring's length based off a guesstimate of the length of the model's ear in the photo above and came up with a value of ~50 mm.  Thereafter, the first steps were to obtain the rough dimensional constraints of the teardrop shape (as seen above) so that everything could be drawn to scale in the CAD software.  Drawing the model in CAD was a learning process and took several iterative attempts to recreate the curved surfaces properly.  Once the general teardrop shape was created, a plan had to be devised with regard to how an earring loop would be attached to the top of the earring--in addition to needing to buy the earring "metal bits" as well.  This required making a trip to a local DIY jewelry craft shop, Fusion Beads, here in Seattle.  The trip was an interesting experience, and a little awkward as I had no idea was I looking for other than to describe the desired pieces as "metal earring bits that go through the ear," which I later learned are simply called "earring loops" which I properly referred to earlier.  After picking up the necessary supplies I discovered that the small eyelets that would inset into the teardrop had extremely narrow metal driving rods (~0.6 mm in diameter).  As far as I could recall, drill bits smaller than 1 mm in diameter don't practically exist.

However, instead of drilling into the top of the earring, the hole could simply be drawn into the CAD drawing and printed without requiring any modification.  Getting the holes to print properly required several iterations of changing the hole diameter and earring wall thickness.  A related minor issue that had to be overcome was that the 3D printed earrings had very small hole features which would fill with resin during printing and wouldn't get properly flushed out when cleaning the completed prints.  This proved to cause problems when trying to insert the eyelets into the earring bodies.

Freshly printed on the build platform

Regardless, after several trials, the earrings were successfully printed and the eyelets were inserted.  To prevent the eyelets from backing out, the driving rods of the eyelets were dipped in liquid resin, inserted into the earring body, and then the liquid resin was cured with a 405nm UV laser pointer which I happened to have laying around.  This method of sealing parts by manually curing the liquid resin with a handheld laser appears to be really effective.

Job complete

FastMatt exclusive Plastiq® earrings

Finally, the earrings were attached to earring loops and project was declared to be successfully completed.  Hopefully the future owner will get some good mileage out of them.

Freshly printed with supports

Freshly sanded

Also as mentioned previously, the full-scale Möbius bracelet was also completed, lightly sanded, and delivered to its happy new owner.

Hand delivering the goods

It seems like more 3D printed jewelry and accessories may be on the horizon in the future.  I recently designed a pair of sunglasses (on paper) and I'm thinking about fleshing out that project by prototyping a set if I can find the time.  Hopefully that will be one the next projects that I feature.

Further 3D Printing Tests

After working with the Form 1 since the last update, I've obtained a better understanding of the capabilities of the printer in addition to many necessary printing design considerations.  In the meantime I've printed an array of objects pulled from the internet to do so.

Failed heartbox print due to drooping lids
and inability to open / rotate.

For example, I printed a popular 3D secret heartbox which is an object that works really well when printed using a standard FDM printer--easily opening up, rotating / transforming, etc.  However, things didn't work as smoothly when printed from resin using SLA.  One issue that is of concern is the fact that a small amount of resin can get trapped in the interior of the box as it's printing, added to the fact that after the object is printed, a viscous layer of resin is coating the build platform and part, creating a sticky mess that takes a large amount of rinsing in isopropyl alcohol to clean off.  This stickiness is a very large hindrance in the smooth / proper operation of printed rotating hinges.  Standard FDM prints from PLA plastic or ABS are smooth and dry so "built-in hinges" work very well--the opposite is true when printing from resin.  If the rotating hinge joint is able to be rinsed extremely well and fully-dried it may be possible to get smooth rotating action, but with complex models this may be completely impossible.  Therefore it seems like rotating joints will need to be printed in multiple pieces and assembled after the fact.

A fancy Möbius strip and a crystal.

Solid objects with decent (>9 mm² square solid) thickness print extremely well and are very rigid and strong.  However, thin objects are very soft and flexible when newly printed and are easily prone to being damaged until the "solvent-like" excess resin is washed away.

I tried printing a complex phone case but the results were disastrous as the object would delaminate in sections when printed directly onto the build platform without supports.  The printed parts adhere extremely strongly to the steel build platform as well and require massive amounts of force to remove, causing fragile parts to be easily damaged during removal--which is what happened when trying to peel the phone case off the build platform.  A second printing attempt was made using supports, however, the supports are still extremely strong in bulk and are not easily "peeled away" when the printed part is thin and fragile.  An exacto knife is likely necessary to cut delicate parts free from the supporting structures.

A friend made a request for a large "bracelet-sized" Möbius strip after seeing the miniature version above, so that part is currently being constructed at the moment.  Additionally, I've received requests for 3D printed wearable jewelry, so that is next on the agenda.  I have some ideas in mind which I'll be attempting to draw in CAD and prototyping shortly.

3D Printing - It Begins

Printing!

About a week after the Form 1 arrived, the printing resin was finally delivered.  This means it's time to actually start making things!!  Unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight to create a bunch of objects prior to the printer arriving, so I had to improvise and fetch some objects from Thingiverse, an opensource 3D printing design compendium.  However, the very first object I printed was in-fact an object I designed in a rush using CAD.  One of my Miku Nendoroid figure stands broke, so I saw fit to solve the problem with a little creative engineering.  Using digital calipers, I recorded the dimensions of the unbroken stand arm and replicated the piece using dimensional constraints in 3D CAD software.  I saved the model as an .stl file and loaded it into the Form 1's printing software (PreForm).

After generating support geometry (to prevent the model from collapsing or drooping as it's printed), the software automatically slices the model into individual layers (which are programmed pathways that the printer's laser traces or rasterizes during operation) which are then uploaded to the printer itself.  All that's left to do is press the "GO" button on the printer and away it goes!

Printed stand piece on the left, broken part center,
and unbroken reference on the right.

It's pretty awesome seeing the Form 1 in action as the laser rasterizes extremely fast.  After the laser completes a layer, the resin tank lowers and raises back into position which I presume is allow fresh resin to flow under the printed model in preparation for printing the next layer.

Newly printed stand works great!

The figure stand that I designed took about 40 minutes to print and surprisingly looks very similar to the stock piece.  The material properties aren't quite the same (the printed plastic isn't nearly as hard or durable) but visually the printed part looks great!

Printed owl with supports still attached.

Next I downloaded a nice looking owl model off Thingiverse, scaled down the size to a couple inches and sent it off to the printer.  5 hours later and the owl was finished.  The owl print also looks pretty fantastic and is completely smooth to the touch as well.  Small details in the model like the texture of the log are also preserved which is quite impressive.

Printed owl with supports removed.

Profile shot with flash.

So as it stands, I'm really pleased with the capabilities of the Form 1.  However, I really need to design more of my own parts and creations.  I'll be posting more 3D printing updates with this regard in the future so stay tuned!

Scaling New Heights

At the summit of Mt. Little Si

Summer in Seattle has been going pretty well so far, the other weekend ago I went hiking with some friends. We scaled the summit of Mt. Little Si, peering over the edge of the massive 1576 foot (480 m) peak to catch a nice view of the Snoqualmie Valley.  All jokes aside, it was a fun and leisurely hike with some nice sights along the way.  Maybe Mt. Si is next on the hiking agenda, although Mt. Si is a bit of a step up being about 3x taller than Little Si...

Scary drops

In other news, I've made quite a few posts on topics related to 3D printing so it's no surprise that I've been following the market and technology.  Anyway, last year a new 3D printing start-up (MIT associated) called FormLabs unveiled their amazing product, the Form 1, through KickStarter (raising about 3 million dollars in the process).  I was swept off my feet when I saw it--an ultra-high resolution consumer-level desktop 3D printer using stereo-lithographic (SLA) technology.  What makes this printer so amazing is the SLA process.  Instead of melting and fusing plastic coils, the Form 1 uses an ultraviolet laser to "draw" patterns in a tub of liquid resin, the energy from the UV laser causes the resin to photo-polymerize and harden at every position that the laser draws onto.  Therefore, each layer is capable of slightly "blending" each adjacent layer in generating a near-seamless printed product with very little necessary clean-up.  

Realizing that this could be a "game-changing" piece of hardware, I backed the project on KickStarter nearly a year ago.  Fast-forward to now, and I finally have the Form 1 sitting on my desktop, and it's a beautiful piece of technology.  However, that's all it is right now as I haven't booted up the printer because I'm still waiting for the resin to arrive which will be in about a week.  Until then, I'm looking forward to making my first print which I'll be sure to discuss in a future update.