4 Foot Enterprise D 3D Printed

[PakRatJR]

A bit more progress of sorts. Still trying to work out the armature.

As it turns out, one of the welders at work is a big next gen fan and is also apparently quite good at welding aluminum When he found out what I was building he seemed more than willing to weld stuff up for me

So I had basically settled on aluminum for the armature. The hope was to be able to just use store bought tubing and basically just have things easily cutable and weldable. Which is where things started to get annoying

The main tube is two inch. I originally planned on inch and three quarter square tubing for the mount post socket, but as it worked out, their was not enough room to get any kind of proper length for the post itself to slot into and still be sturdy enough. I could bribe one of our machinists to mill a hole in the 2" to fit the smaller tube in but the sizes don't match up well enough to get things to fit with out a ton of screwing around, so no go for that.

So after a fair bit of back and forth with things, I decided to try to use round tube for the post and socket. Easier to drill the proper size hole in the 2" tube. Which is the next issue....again running into sizing issues with store bought stuff.

I will need to do some more looking around for materials and hopefully I can find something that I can make work, but for now at least, "test fitting" the current design virtually

[PakRatJR]

A bit of a armature update.

First fitting of the first official test print of the armature All the parts are dimensionally the same as the aluminum that will be used. 2" square for the main and neck bits, and 1-3/4" for the mount point, along with a adapter for the post, and 2"x1/8" plate for the rear pylon support.

And sort of surprisingly, it actually seems to be fitting quite nicely so far

I have actually sort of been holding off on printing any of the saucer bits at the moment tho. As I had mentioned, this model is not entirely screen accurate.

One of the more noticeable...at least to me anyway....areas is the neck and into the saucer. The saucer itself seems like it might actually be a bit thicker than it really should be. As a result, the neck and especially the top where it meets the saucer, is alot not right angle/shape wise. This has had me scratching my head a bunch trying to figure out how to actually set up the bits for mounting the saucer and still having it look good if I remove the saucer. I am still working on it.....

But at least some progress for now anyway

[Neb]

This is just....FANTASTIC!!!!!!!

Thanks for sharing!

[Lord_Schtupp]

Nice progress on an impressive build so far Mr. Rat; you are treading into new territory (as far as I have seen) insofar as modeling technique using 3d printing so I am following your build with great interest

[PakRatJR]

Thanks Neb, frustrating at times as well

Lord_Schtupp thanks. 3D printing is definitely a fun hobby on it's own. But it has been proving really helpful with most of my other hobbies as well, along with the occasional "practical" needs as well

[Lord_Schtupp]

Originally Posted by PakRatJR

Thanks Neb, frustrating at times as well

Lord_Schtupp thanks. 3D printing is definitely a fun hobby on it's own. But it has been proving really helpful with most of my other hobbies as well, along with the occasional "practical" needs as well

Very cool, I was looking at getting a CR10. Is it fairly easy to get a smooth finish to the printed pieces? I didn't really find any clear procedure in a googl search

[PakRatJR]

Depending on the model and settings and how smooth you are going for, it can be pretty easy but it can be a bit of a pain sometimes as well.

Really it is nothing more than some sanding and maybe a bit of bondo/filler with multi-part stuff, followed by a coat or two of filler primer and a bit more sanding....and possible another coat or two of filler and a bit more sanding....

Bigger stuff like this project will be sanded and painted, but I also do stuff that is printed in color that I don't bother with sanding and painting. They are not injection molded smooth but you need to have them in your hand to notice the layers.

Hope that helped a bit lol

[Lord_Schtupp]

Wow cool i cant wait to get one now, very encouraging! Cheers Mr. Rat!

[PakRatJR]

Originally Posted by Lord_Schtupp

Wow cool i cant wait to get one now, very encouraging! Cheers Mr. Rat!

Like I said, it is definitely a fun hobby. It does have it's frustrations some times but most hobbies do.

I don't have any direct experience with the CR-10 but from what I have seen, they look like a pretty good printer. I had actually been kicking around getting the S5 but I just don't have the room lol.

If you can spend the extra $100 right away, go for the 10S version. It is the upgraded version that has two Z motors, the height motors, instead of just a single motor. It helps a bunch with print quality.

If you have the room, and don't mind a bit more work assembly and tuning wise, the Folgertech FT-5 is also a good printer for about the same price, and has the same build volume. It is a "full" kit tho and is also a bit larger on the overall footprint. You get a big box of parts with several bags of screws and wires and whatnot, so it is a fair bit more work getting it assembled and running. I have their R1 version and have no complaints. It's one of the two doing most of the printing for this project.