Not to be defeated I went at this again. This time the thumb will be definitely attached. As for the PLA I’m using one made by Amazon which I know for some is wrong but it seems to preform better than the light grey that I have been using so far. . . .
Most evenings before heading to bed I find myself in the studio. I sit and contemplate what is presented and I find myself playing and piecing things together. Tonight I think I have the beginnings of a self portrait . Brain, eye hand coordination = problems . . When I was a child I was was diagnosed with this along with dyslexia. My parents were told that it was rather bad and that I would not amount to much in life. Funny how this has stuck with me and made me strive for what I want. It’s not easy as it effects my confidence in many ways and some days I feel absolutely wretched, but each day I always push that little bit further. . The plaster teeth are a cast of my bottom set of teeth. The body is a scan of mine, the brain is from an open source print. The expanding foam was found in a skip along with the stand. The plaster cast of the cog is from a cog I found in the street . . . .
Today instead of saying how much of a mess my studio is I present you with a collection of tantalising shots of the detritus. Oh and yes that is part of the Millennium Falcon. . . .
So this is the finished piece cracked out of its supports and what have I found? Part of the missing thumb so I have now reunited it to the rest of the hand. But like a man possessed I have done some modifications and got the printer going again , this time it will be a 1 day 13 hour and 21 minute print. Fingers crossed. . .
Finally it hit the 100% mark. It looks a fairly good print apart from the missing thumb, I will amend this tomorrow when I start the process up again. For now my printer rests .
Hit the 90% print mark and it is at this point I realised a thumb is missing due to lack of structural support for it (hot damn) this is a near perfect version. Oh well I will let the printer rest for the night and then start again as I really want to crack this . . .
After a good nights sleep the print has hit the 16 hour stage. I’m using a new support structure with it called trees. It’s totally experimental and it looks like the sculpture is being cocooned in a wasps nest. It’s so interesting how something so processed and digital can become so organic, it really is these properties that grab my attention . . . . .
So 3D printers are pretty cool but what is not great is the print times, along with the fact that they can be pretty hard work. 5 and a half hours in to a 1 day 5 and a half our print and this is what I have got. After a few bad prints I decided to swap the print nozzle to 4mm with doing this I had to re level the print bed ( easier said than done) as well as bring down the printer speeds. If this works out I will reprint some other pieces on finer settings. I have to say it’s times like this when I could do with another printer that way I could print two sculptures at once..