Always check the comments
The next couple weeks of class are when things began to get interesting. We continued learning about the specifics of 3D printing and had a whole week to find an object that we wanted to attempt to print in class for the following Thursday.
This week I tried to print a phone dock for my iPhone to use while it charges. Believe it or not, this was one of the few prints that I did without slamming my computer, saying "you gotta be fuckin kidding me", or just walking out of class for a little bit due to frustration—until after the object printed.
The first time I tried to print the object I ran out of time, however, I printed enough layers successfully to know that once I did have enough time, the object would print complete with out any problems from the printer. In the image, the shorter object on the left side is the one that I ran out of time when printing, and the one on the right hand side is the completed one.
I went back to print during office hours in the beginning of the following week and finished printing my object. When all was said and done, the object did in fact print but of course I didn’t scale it correctly and it was too small to be used for anything useful.
I did use it for a little to hold my phone but eventually got annoyed with it not working correctly so that was the end of my 3D printed phone dock. I have to say that it did look pretty cool and was one of the first times that I got to print in a different color other than black or blue.
Despite the object not being scaled correctly, I was happy that I came out of the week with a physical object in my hand—I figured at least having something to show off other than a ball of crumbled up plastic from an object that didn’t print was better than nothing.
I chalked the week up as a learning experience and took away that I should always double check the scaling of an object before I print it. I also found out that if I would have looked in the comments on the website before I downloaded it, that I would have noticed that whoever made the object didn’t scale it correctly in the first place and I could have known the correct dimensions and done it myself.
Well, that’s it for this week, stay tuned to find out what object I managed to mess up next!