A Dice Tower Gift, Part 1
By T. H. Wright
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3D Printing?
In November 2016, coworkers of mine pulled me aside to see if I wanted to participate in a fundraiser for something I had dismissed a long while ago.
My coworker C. wanted me to partner with several other coworkers to gather funds so that those who contributed would be privileged to 3D models. They wanted these models so that they could print them off in mass from their own 3D printers. I had heard of 3D printing, but it didn’t sound like something I wanted to participate in due to the numerous other hobbies I had—afterall, I only have so much time. This fundraiser though got my attention immediately as my inner nerd became excited; the 3D models were terrain for roleplaying games. I love these games and quickly agreed to pool my money with my coworkers. We were all set to go and my coworker W., who organized it all, needed to pull the trigger and submit the funds as the fundraiser was nearly ending. A week passed by and not having heard anything or received the sum or even part of the money, my coworker W. missed the deadline while he and the rest of us were away on our weekends.
Our disappointment aside, the opportunity got me thinking about the multitudes of possibilities a 3D printer could offer. After discussing it over with my wife, I purchased an Original Prusa i3 MK2 kit as one of the riskiest purchases I had ever considered. My wife and I aren’t risk takers, so this was a leap for us. I viewed the printer as an investment in a bursting market, and what its value could and would be I couldn’t tell. I placed the order in December that year, but it didn’t arrive till the start of February (or in other words: an anxious wait). I assembled it over the course of a weekend, we rearranged our apartment so that it’d have a spot by my desk, and I began contemplating what I would print.
A Gift for C.
C., who invited me to join the 3D printing community, offered me a whopping $15 once my printer arrived to buy a spool of filament to help me figure out how my printer worked, to configure and optimize its settings, and to print him some interesting stuff while I learned. (He phrased it something akin to: “And if while you’re printing things, you happen to make a duplicate because something didn’t come out right, I’d happily take the first.") I thanked him for his generosity and got to thinking what I could print him as a thank you, which resulted in a list of ridiculous things no other person I knew of could want.
As I perused the catalog of models available on the internet (my coworker, W., who missed the deadline suggested Thingiverse), people asked me what would I print first. I told them I would be printing off various tests to get the calibration right, but that I would then seek to print things small while growing larger. Some persisted, wanting to know what I would print afterwards. I joked of interest in printing all the things people had created and invented and published online, but which if presented to a business or investors for producing, wouldn’t be considered marketable enough to produce in mass—but because we have 3D printers, we can submit those models online so somebody with their own 3D printer could make. (I’m stunned at the number of ridiculous things available online that were hilarious yet intriguing in their own right.)
Like myself, my investor C. enjoyed tabletop RPGs and he showed me this Dice Tower1. Another one of our coworkers, A., had just received it as a gift from yet another coworker with a 3D printer, and he was jealous. I told him I’d be happy to print it for him.
Third Time’s the Charm
I read over the suggested qualities for the print (0.2mm layer height, no supports), but I was skeptical. I had just printed a Raspberry Pi 3 case and part of the print sunk due to lack of support, and the tower had many more 90° angles than that print, on top of arches. Additionally, I wanted to make the tower of extreme quality for my coworker. With those as reasons, I dropped the layer height to 0.05mm (afterall, the i3 MK2 could handle it, right?) and I added support material. I started with the first floor; the print took a long time (try close to 40+ hours) but it eventually finished and I began the support removal process. I should have kept a picture as the print was ruined by the support, and it would have taken a considerable amount of time to remove it all. On a positive note, most of the excess support that needed to be removed fueled my wife’s love for cleaning and throwing things away, but left her hands raw and hurting.
Lesson learned: 0.05mm was clearly overkill for such a print. I chose to reprint the model without support while raising the layer height to 0.1mm. Additional settings of note included 15% rectilinear infill and a brim. (I like using brims for my prints. I haven’t been able to resolve oozing between layer heights, and the brim offers a chance to clean the extruder after it runs some self tests, it offers extra adhesion, and it allows me to see if something needs an adjustment before the rest of the print begins. It is easy to remove and I haven’t had issues with the final print.) I began the print, went to bed, and scurried off to work the next morning. The print would take nearly 22 hours (give or take). I watched it through the use of OctoPrint’s Software2 and eagerly waited for it to complete. It was two or three hours from completing when a power outage swept across our city. When I got home, I cleaned the printer off, and began work on printing the first floor, take three.
Action! The print took a fair amount of time (roughly 22 hours), but it came out beautifully. Some warping on the inner archways over the stairs occurred, but no other portion of the print was amiss. I knew it would be great for my friend C. at work.
I will post the other pieces in due time. I’ve included the timelapse of the print and images of the Dice Tower’s first floor below.