New build, the Mars Rover Curiosity

[Don]

Just finished printing the Mars Rover Curiosity on my Duplicator 4. It was built in Lightwave and prepped in Simplify3D. PLA, 205°, no bed heat. Speed was 3500 mm/minute, 25% infill, layer height 0.17. Printed on glass covered with Scotch painters tape wiped down with alcohol.

This was a fun build and my first lesson after building a large flat object and shattering the glass trying to remove it. Since I don't need to see the bottom of the rover, I just make big voids on the bottom. This gives it a lot less surface area on the plate, so its not as 'sticky', and it actually dropped the print time by an hour. I just put in a beveled 'arch' towards the top so I'd have a solid surface by the time the top layers were being printed. This also helps it not eat up so much material.

Every build is an education!

I'll assemble it later today and post photos of the final. Meanwhile, here are the build details...

http://donfoley.com/3d-printing/project ... -curiosity

[tri-lite]

Man, this work is impressive, all the way from the modeling to diagrams and print. Great tip about hollowing out the bottoms to save print time and make it easier to remove flat objects. Keep us posted on your other work and what you learn along the way. Great stuff.

[jimc]

once again, fantastic work don! impressive for sure