Sculpting a tiki mug for 3D printing

[Spaceboy64]

As you can see by the pictures, I have already printed this. I didn’t do a retopo, as that was unnecessary. I did decimate it before exporting to STL file.

I have an Elegoo Mars 2 printer, and I used the Chitubox slicer. I’m printing another object that’s cylindrical and even, so I’ll be able to check if the scaling is off.

Thanks.

[RickyBlender]

here are some thread for printing
might help

use 3D printing addon to help join boolean 2 objects with holes

Blender 2.8 Voxel Remesher Tips & Tricks

Industrial drawing (prototyping and full designs)

I don’t prototype daily but I mainly do my models for 3D printing using Blender. That is not marginal at all. Many people do that. If it was not the case, there will not be a mechanical blender build or BlenderCAM build. You can apply a triangulate modifier. That is equivalent to an option.

How to get started with 3D printing in Blender

There’s an addon that can help you with 3d printing,

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Modeling/PrintToolbox 38

Creating miniature characters (modeling in Blender and 3D printing)

There’s an addon that can help you with 3d printing, http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Modeling/PrintToolbox If you search for 3d print in the addons list you can find it there. There’s also the Mesh Analysis tools in edit mode in the n-panel. Here’s an indepth guide: http://www.sculpteo.com/en/tutorial/prepare-your-model-3d-printing-blender/

happy bl

[Spaceboy64]

I’ve used the 3D print toolbox. It helped with finding problem areas, which were many using Dyntopo, sculpting and decimate. There were lots of overlapping polygons and non-manifold faces. It was a real pain.

I’ve heard about a BlenderCAM build, but haven’t used it.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with my results, except for the size difference. It sucks that the STL format doesn’t preserve the scale in Blender, but I think that’s a problem with the format. Correct me if I’m wrong, but now matter the settings I used, my Blender STL was microscopic and had to be scaled up.

[RickyBlender]

export - Scale settings for exporting to STL (for 3d printing) - Blender Stack Exchange

good discussion on STL scale here

happy bl

[Spaceboy64]

Thanks, I’ll take a look at that.

[Spaceboy64]

I made this for the mold, where the clay slip gets poured in. I made it 69 mm in diameter, and it came out 69 mm, so it was my error.

I added this to the top. It gives it an extra 1/4" height. I used the resin to join the pieces together and it worked really well.

[Spaceboy64]

Just wanted to post some pictures of the final product.
The mold making process was not totally successful, but I was able to clean up the castings and make them halfway decent looking. This, and the fact that I was not able to print it the size that I wanted to, make me want to try printing out a mold instead, which I’d have to make a silicone mold of to cast a plaster mold. Several steps more complicated, but I think it might be worth it. I’d appreciate any tips on 3D printed molds if anyone has any.

Thanks!

The bas relief sculpture cast really well I thought. Most of the tiny tiny details I put into this was a waste of time though.

[Spaceboy64]

I want to re-visit this project, as the mold making didn’t turn out so well. I want to 3D print a mold, rather than a 3D original. I was wondering if there were any tutorials on how to do that. I’m trying to figure out how to cut the thing into parts.

Thanks.