Silent Running Dewey#1. 3D Studio Max & 3D Printed Adventures. ( Kind of Scratch Build )

[Mike]

I love the drones from Silent Running.  You need to get these on the 3D selling area once you're done

[LorenSharp]

On 10/9/2021 at 3:31 PM, The Spadgent said:

Oh I don’t know about that. It terrifies me. I was thinking about the buck. The resin will melt with hot plastic on top but could I print a buck and wrap in tin foil? 🤔

 

You shouldn't have any problem making a vac buck out of resin. I've had to make several canopies and haven't had any bucks melt due to heat or distort for that matter.. I use just good old standard Anycubic gray

[LorenSharp]

Something I might recommend is increasing the thickness of your supports when doing big heavy pieces. Chitubox defaults at 2mm thickness for supports. Big pieces I've done I ended up changing that to 3.5-4 mm. I didn't discover this problem until I got a bigger printer.

[Pete in Lincs]

Sorry to hear about the Lurgi. Get well soon!

Nice work with the printer and sorting out your future needs.

[John Laidlaw]

On 10/9/2021 at 12:37 PM, dnl42 said:

We had 3 Roombas at one point, labeled Huey, Dewey and Louie in honor of this movie.

We have exactly the same, for the same reason. My wife tolerates the naming, bless her.

 

Will be following along on this one, Johnny. Hope your symptoms are mild and short.

[Lewis95]

Ahh my favourite plaguebearer bringing forth the droids I was looking for.

 

Great work there buddy. I might have to try my hand at CAD just for the fun of it!

[Uncle Monty]

Love the movie and the drones are adorable, I wanted one as a kid. I'll be following with great interest.

[The Spadgent]

On 11/10/2021 at 14:55, Mike said:

I love the drones from Silent Running.  You need to get these on the 3D selling area once you're done

Ha!  Wouldn’t that be something. 😃

On 11/10/2021 at 15:22, LorenSharp said:

You shouldn't have any problem making a vac buck out of resin. I've had to make several canopies and haven't had any bucks melt due to heat or distort for that matter.. I use just good old standard Anycubic gray

Ooh great news. Thanks. 😇

On 11/10/2021 at 15:28, LorenSharp said:

Something I might recommend is increasing the thickness of your supports when doing big heavy pieces. Chitubox defaults at 2mm thickness for supports. Big pieces I've done I ended up changing that to 3.5-4 mm. I didn't discover this problem until I got a bigger printer.

Thanks again. I have tweaked my supports. I think they’re pretty good now. 🙂

On 11/10/2021 at 16:05, Pete in Lincs said:

Sorry to hear about the Lurgi. Get well soon!

Nice work with the printer and sorting out your future needs.

Thanks. Feels like it’s headed out. Which is nice. 😇

On 12/10/2021 at 00:58, John Laidlaw said:

We have exactly the same, for the same reason. My wife tolerates the naming, bless her.

 

Will be following along on this one, Johnny. Hope your symptoms are mild and short.

Thanks. I’m going to have to get vacuum cleaners now. 🤣

On 15/10/2021 at 22:01, Lewis95 said:

Ahh my favourite plaguebearer bringing forth the droids I was looking for.

 

Great work there buddy. I might have to try my hand at CAD just for the fun of it!

Give it a blast. It’s great fun.

7 hours ago, Uncle Monty said:

Love the movie and the drones are adorable, I wanted one as a kid. I'll be following with great interest.

Thanks. 
 

Don’t worry this is still ongoing I’m just switching between this and my Demon build at the moment. 😇😈

[The Spadgent]

Cor it’s been a few weeks since I did owt on our Dewey.  I have been on holiday for a week and work has been busy on top of that my Demon build has been happening. 
I did look at the halves when I came back with a view to doing some gluing last week.

But!  It looks as though there has been an anomaly. The two halves or at least one half has warped / bowed. Does any one know why that might happen? I’m thinking I didn’t cure for long enough? I’ll investigate. I could probably rectify it but looking at some wonderful work by @Andy Moore and @Iceman 29 while I was in Cornwall has made me decide that I’m going to re factor the way I’m going to build the little fella. I’ll go slightly smaller and keep a lot of the parts in one print with a lot more drainage holes.

not sure which build I’ll get around to this weekend but we have been given an extended holiday over Christmas so fun times ahead. 😀

 

as @perdu would say. “This space.  Watch it. “ 😇

 

Johnny.

[JJ2016]

Hi Johnny, really nice work, the 3D printing really does add a new element to model making.

 

I'm no 3D printing boff however I have a project at the moment (soon to publish in the figurine section) where I needed a perfect sphere made. Our mechanical engineer (very smart dude) at work printed one out however his first attempt came out somewhat oval shaped. Not sure if there's any relation but he fixed this ultimately by changing one of the axis belts because when ever he adjusted the belt tension, it changed the distance in the spacing of the belt teeth which in turn changed the proportions of the end product. He did do a small interim modification to add counterweight (like I said - smart dude) but a stronger belt fixed the issue.

 

As I said, not sure if its related but being lucky enough to work with talented people like this, I hate their casual talents being left for waste !!!

 

Loving the builds mate !!

 

Cheers

 

JJ

[The Spadgent]

On 11/11/2021 at 02:24, JJ2016 said:

Hi Johnny, really nice work, the 3D printing really does add a new element to model making.

 

I'm no 3D printing boff however I have a project at the moment (soon to publish in the figurine section) where I needed a perfect sphere made. Our mechanical engineer (very smart dude) at work printed one out however his first attempt came out somewhat oval shaped. Not sure if there's any relation but he fixed this ultimately by changing one of the axis belts because when ever he adjusted the belt tension, it changed the distance in the spacing of the belt teeth which in turn changed the proportions of the end product. He did do a small interim modification to add counterweight (like I said - smart dude) but a stronger belt fixed the issue.

 

As I said, not sure if its related but being lucky enough to work with talented people like this, I hate their casual talents being left for waste !!!

 

Loving the builds mate !!

 

Cheers

 

JJ

Thank you for the kind comment and my apologies for the very late response. As I’m using a resin printer I think your comments are for a FDM printer. I think that’s what they are known as. A bit like a glue gun squirting out hot plastic to make a 3D form. The Elegoo used a plate and a bath. There are no belts or teeth to speak of. I think the warping is purely down to the amount of time I cured for. I hopefully will remedy this now this build is up and running again.  Excuse the pun. 

[The Spadgent]

My apologies for the lack of updates on this build. I have had a bit of a break over the past few months. I had two builds running at the time. This and my Airfix Demon. I have just finished the Hawker so Dewy is set for a bit of a come back. I’ll hit the Screen tomorrow with a view to making new prints. The plan is to make him slightly smaller but with fewer elements. I’d like to see the first few runs as a bit of a test. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

 

Johnny

[The Spadgent]

Hello again.

Back with hopefully tanks charged up and ready to get little Dewey back on the right track. After much thinking I have decided to make him a few CM smaller and in fewer sub sections. Hopefully this will give the parts more of a chance to keep their original structure. 
The main body will be formed thusly.

And from the rear.

I have built internal strengtheners to help keep the form. 
The vents I will keep almost the same to keep them easy to paint.

And front.

The sides will be two separate pieces with most of the detailing in place. 

There are slight differences between left and right sides.

 

These are both hollowed to save on resin. 

I’m not going into CrAzY detail. This is about as intricate as I’m going to go.

Bolts.

And mesh.

I started work on the base arm plate too. I might have the arm moveable but that might be one step too far.

I set the main section off printing while I moles the rest of the little blighter. Seems to be going ok. The vents are having the same arched / webbed look as before on the thin side bits but that wii be hidden. Not sour how to fix that. I’ll post up after it’s printed.

This is where we are for now. Lots of base modelling.

Hopefully it’ll all print. 
Time to walk the hound! 
Typically I’m printing in the room I was going to take my RFI shots. 🤪😩   Oh well at least this thread is up and running g again. 
Hope you are enjoying the build and all comments welcome. all the best.

 

 Johnny.

[The Spadgent]

The first print is …. Well out of the bath. It’s been washed off and is just sitting while for a while before it gets snipped and cured. Looks pretty good.

There are a few dips here and there but nothing too bad. I think I need to add more light supports to stop that happening I. The future.

The structure seems sound too with no bowing to speak of.

I wanted to print more but could only fit on the new vent. That turned out well too.

I have set up a right side to print while I bath the dog. I don’t think he’s very keen. 🤪

I have changed the model so there is a hole to let the resin escape and the round shoulder discs are separate. 
more later on. 😍😇

 

Comments welcomed.

 

Happy modelling. 
 

Johnny.

[hendie]

Glad to see you back on the dark side again Johnny.

Prints are looking good so far. Hurry up with the next lot will you, my weekend is nearly over 

[The Spadgent]

1 hour ago, hendie said:

Glad to see you back on the dark side again Johnny.

Prints are looking good so far. Hurry up with the next lot will you, my weekend is nearly over 

Thanks!! Good to be back. 😉
Sorry only just finished clean up.  And we are catching up with line of duty. Only on series four So 🤫🤫🤫 if you’ve seen it. 😀 you might be able to answer a few questions. I have had my first failed print and I don’t know why. 😶‍🌫️
I’ll explain in the next post.

[The Spadgent]

Ok then. All cleaned up. 

and it seems things have turned out ok. There are a few lumps and bumps but nothing a bit of PPP can’t fix. 

I think most of the errors are down to not enough supports. I’ll add more on the other side and see what happens.

My biggest concern is this.

Well not the side, that turned out well. As did the top details. I’m looking at the supports to the left. Where did the side discs go? This was left on the build plate.

Which is super odd as I positioned them at an angle. 🤔🤔 @hendie any ideas?

Never mind I’ll pop some on the other side tomorrow and see if I can’t fix the problem.

a quick dry fit shows that there are some wobbles but I think it’s not too bad overall.

That’s it for the day. Hope you’re all having a cracking weekend.

Thanks for taking an interest and as always.

Happy Modelling.

 

Johnny. 🥸

[giemme]

Impressive results, John   

Ciao

[hendie]

12 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

any ideas?

 

what type of supports were you using Johnny? Thin, medium, or heavy?

I find that the default settings of thin supports fail regularly. I only use the thin setting as a last resort and always try and back them up with a few medium supports thrown in somewhere.

My usual tack is to use Medium support and alter the contact diameter to suit.

[The Spadgent]

11 hours ago, giemme said:

Impressive results, John   

Ciao

Thanks G. It’s getting better all the time. Well …. Every print. 🤩

7 hours ago, hendie said:

 

what type of supports were you using Johnny? Thin, medium, or heavy?

I find that the default settings of thin supports fail regularly. I only use the thin setting as a last resort and always try and back them up with a few medium supports thrown in somewhere.

My usual tack is to use Medium support and alter the contact diameter to suit.

Well I have a good set up of heavy to light. I forget the guy but there’s a chap on the web who has some awesome support stats. for these I used a mix of heave at the base and then medium. 
 

I think I have figured out my issue though. 
 

Not enough supports and in the wrong place. Among other issues. 
 

A bonus from working from home means I can set a print off while I’m working. Here’s the other side with another go at the discs.

I know it looks a bit over kill on the supports but they made a big difference to the structure with almost no wobble.

 Let me show you what I mean.

The left one is the first attempt. The wobbly edge is due to not enough supports and the weight of print dragging it down. I really need to remember these things print upside down.🙃 The better supported one on the right is much straighter. I also made the room a tad thicker. 
you can see the same issue on the main body. not bad but now I know how to fix it I’m printing again.

Other things that went right are these.

More supports and in the right place meant I actually managed to get a print.

Here from the other side.

Nice hole. 🤩 now while we’re talking about holes. Look here.

Even though this print looks perfect the vents/ holes above the round hole haven’t printed at all. 😩

whyyyyyyy?

well here is the slice.

Looks like it should work but then as it hits the hole.

It doesn’t seem to dig down into the convex shape. 
well this had me scratching my head but luckily we have a Teams chat at the end of each day and a good friend who I work with came up with the thought that the hole might not be stitched.  Indeed it wasn’t. I had cut a simple hole in the flat plane and sunk the detaild section over the top to hide the crude hole. Apparently as there was no structure where I had cut the hole the printer didn’t know what to do. I simply capped the holes and extruded down to make a solid cut out to fit the detailed vent into. I did another slice and BINGO!!!! It worked. 😀

The print of the main section is still going. Looking good though.

 Thanks for your help and continued support.  All the best and Happy Modelling.

 

 Johnny.

[The Spadgent]

Well there we go.

Dewey’s main body has printed. (Again)

Third time lucky eh. I know, I know. I’ve got too many struts but I really didn’t want to take any chances.

Initial glances say he’s straight.

And struts clipped. ( I really like doing that part) I can confirm there are no droops or bends. 😃

You can really see the difference with a side by side comparison.

The slight bow in the old one on the right. The Bill @perdu in me just couldn’t live with it all squiff so I had to print another and I’m glad I did.

Here’s yesterdays.

And todays.

There is Sanding to do to get rid of the support pegs but you can see the difference. …. What do you mean what difference? 🤣 

I’m currently printing the sides again with fixed vents. Then I need to build the last sections in max ready for printing. Legs, feet greeblies and my first clear print. 😯

Exciting times. 😄

 see y’all.

 All comments welcome.

 

 Johnny.

[giemme]

12 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

It’s getting better all the time. Well …. Every print

Definitely! Getting better and better!    

 

Ciao

[Hunter Rose]

Really like how your showing the whole process, it's fascinating watching all the stuff you can do with a 3d printer, and it's looking great! 

[perdu]

9 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

The Bill @perdu in me just couldn’t live with it all squiff so I had to print another and I’m glad I did.

Yes that IS how I roll I'm afraid, very telling that some people have noticed...

 

Loving the work on Dewey, even if I can't remember him from the film (which I only saw once many centuries ago)

 

That may, only may start a search on youtube one day, if I ever finish youtubing Fusion.

 

Great work young fellermelad, excellent.

[The Spadgent]

13 hours ago, giemme said:

Definitely! Getting better and better!    

 

Ciao

Thanks Giorgio. 😃

13 hours ago, Hunter Rose said:

Really like how your showing the whole process, it's fascinating watching all the stuff you can do with a 3d printer, and it's looking great! 

Thanks. I do tend to do that on WIPs. Hopefully it’s not too boring for y’all. 🤩🥸

13 hours ago, perdu said:

Yes that IS how I roll I'm afraid, very telling that some people have noticed...

 

Loving the work on Dewey, even if I can't remember him from the film (which I only saw once many centuries ago)

 

That may, only may start a search on youtube one day, if I ever finish youtubing Fusion.

 

Great work young fellermelad, excellent.

Thanks Bill. Don’t ever change, I love your attention to detail. It’s infectious. 😀

I hope your fusion tutorials go well, I can only imagine what wonders you would create with with an elegoo. 
Silent running is a lovely movie. You never know I might build all three of Dewey goes well. 😇