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Plastic Debacles

By Jeremy Boggs on

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The Scholars’ Lab has a Makerbot Replicator with dual extruders, and it’s become a Praxis Program favorite. We’ve printed musical instruments, bracelets, animals, puzzles, and even a topographic map. If you get into 3D printing, chances are pretty high you’re gonna have some failed prints. Things happen in the course of tinkering with models and print settings. Temperature fluctuations, drafts around the printer, the level of the build plate, the speed of the print, all kinds of stuff can affect the outcome. Debugging this stuff is a learning experience itself, and I find myself learning a little more each time a print gets messed up.

So here’s a gallery of our plastic debacles. Lovely, lovely debacles:

Failed attempts at printing some flute parts.

Inner detail of a failed teacup dragon print.

A spread of failed prints.

Rafts for a couple of attempts at printing a flute on its side.

More detail of a failed teacup dragon print.

Raft for a print of US topography.

An almost cute kitty cat.

Something bad happened here. A wad of ABS plastic.

Part of a flute.

Jeremy Boggs is Head of Research & Development in the Scholars’ Lab.
Cite this post: Jeremy Boggs. “Plastic Debacles”. Published October 24, 2012. https://scholarslab.lib.virginia.edu/blog/plastic-debacles/. Accessed on .