MrErrico.net

OK, 3D prints are printed on top of a raft that is supposed to adhere to the build plate. This is a great idea, in concept, but in reality this doesn’t always work out. The raft creates a stable base for the 3D object to print on but what happens when the raft doesn’t have proper bed adhesion? You end up with a 3D printer full of plastic spaghetti depending on how long this goes on before you notice. We have had this happen a few times and I didn’t think to take a picture until after the mess was cleaned up.

The raft is the flat orange squished part on the printer bed and the object we are printing is the orange thing on top of the raft, hopefully that makes sense

A second issue we have had a larger problem with is the corners of the raft and print curling up during printing. This can be caused by poor adhesion and/or the print cooling to fast. Our Makerbot Replicator+ printers do not have heated beds, the print bed has a grip surface that is supposed prevent warping or curling. I have made every attempt to keep the surface clean but prints tend to curl up at the corners, especially on longer prints. The end result is a distorted object due to corners pulling up.

I found an article on Makerbot’s website titled Keep Corners Flat With Makerware’s Helper Disks that detailed using flat circles at the corners of your print to hold your print down the bed better. Unfortuantely this didn’t help much.

Even with the helper disks our 3D prints curled at the corners

Luckily there was some scotch tape handy and I was able to tape down the help disk as it started to curl up from the printer bed. The object printed out with minimal distortion and was’t ruined. I consider it a “win.”

In my search for better print bed adhesion I learned there are things like Kapton tape that is designed to create strong adhesion and allow the filament to stick well to the print bed. Unfortunately this tape tends to be expensive and appears to be difficult to use. Then I learned that many folks have had success using blue painter’s masking tape.  I happened to have a roll at home and figured it was worth a try:

Success! No curling or peeling

Print sticks to raft, raft sticks to blue tape

No helper disks, just blue tape

The blue tape is holding up well

The blue tape seems to be the solution for the time being and has held up well over several prints. It’s relatively cheap so replacing it is not much of an issue. Hopefully this solution to warping and curling prints continues to work.

Having 3D printers in our school is a a wonderful thing, it feels like the future. To be able to print out pre-made objects is fun. Printing out self made objects is is exciting. Printing out student objects is amazing!

This past school year was very much a learning process for us. Taking an idea from concept to an actual object you can hold in your hands is quite a process. We have had both successes and failures and the students have probably learned more than me about 3D printing and design.

Premade 3D object printing out from Thingiverse

Student created designs using Tinkercad being printed

Teacher created object created in Tinkercad

More student desgins printing out

Our printers are Makerbot Replicator+ models and so far have been reliable as well as accurate. We have made some plastic spaghetti but not much! We have been using the free web based software from Tinkerad to design our projects in. The students quickly learned how to manipulate their designs in 3D, spatial recognition is much more natural for them then the adults. Could it be the video games?