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3D printer build volume

Former Member

I'm relatively new to 3d printing and am looking at it for a specific purpose. I want to print Armor! Full body armor. I could take the time to split up each piece into smaller pieces to fit in a retail printer with small build volume. But the stability of a full chest piece broken into 8-20 smaller pieces would drive me crazy! I'd love to build it as one piece. Many have pointed out the bigger the build, the more likely it will have errors in the printing, thus more wasted material. WOuld love to get your thoughts on this. Also, if you have 3D printer recommendations, I'd love to hear from you and your real world war stories! I'm looking to build my own from a kit, but would like the Professional's perspective on this before i dive in full boar. Thanks for the insights! Merlin

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  • 0

    Have you thought of a CNC 3D router instead (Material removed rather then added), I am about to build a rig that will handle 4' x 4' from soft materials like foam right through to non ferrous metal and includes acrylic and plexiglass

     

    Sounds like you want Armour built in one piece, this would be a lot of filiment and a huge amount of printing time, is the armour for cosmetic (Costume) or for real ?

     

    for the sizes your talking, the CNC may be a cheaper alternatlive

  • 0 in reply to Robert Peter Oakes

    Wow! You guys are amazing! Thank you for the great responses.

    Little background on the project:

    I like to make costumes for fun, so they are generally a one off deal.

    Enrico, i like your idea of creating a mold and using a carbon fiber or fiberglass piece. But i need to create the  Template or model.

    I am toying with the idea of making one mold that I like and replicating for friends, however, the problem is... friends come in all shapes and sizes! So it will most likely be one off pieces.

    I am working on creating different forms of armor. From Medieval Knights, to robots to Halo & Iron Man type costumes. I am working with Blender and exporting the stl files.

    There were questions about  the size. I Imagine the biggest part would be the chest plates which could be as big as 24"x24"x12

    Peter, you are right, printing a helmet, or chest piece would require a lot of support (extra material)... and it could get expensive. I saw a guy make a full size Ironman helmet, and used almost 3 kilos (rolls) of filament.Although i think he messed up in the settings of the supports.

    I love the thought of a CNC machine, but the issue becomes the material costs. I'd need a 6"-8" thick piece of material to CNC. I dont really want to work with foam, although I have been experimenting with EVA foam.

    Your also right that i could save a ton of money by outsourcing... but I feel part of the fun in life is creating new things, at every step of the process. While outsourcing would save me time and money, I wouldn't feel good about not building it.

    Right now i'm still teaching myself how to chop everything up on blender. I should have a 3D printer in the next couple weeks. If I don't like it, i'll return it.

    Probably going to build it in smaller pieces as I cant afford a large format 3D printer just yet.

    I am very interested in building my own CNC machine as Peter pointed out. I'm sure I can find many uses for it on other projects!

    Have any of you worked with 3D printers before? any major cautions?

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  • 0 in reply to Robert Peter Oakes

    Wow! You guys are amazing! Thank you for the great responses.

    Little background on the project:

    I like to make costumes for fun, so they are generally a one off deal.

    Enrico, i like your idea of creating a mold and using a carbon fiber or fiberglass piece. But i need to create the  Template or model.

    I am toying with the idea of making one mold that I like and replicating for friends, however, the problem is... friends come in all shapes and sizes! So it will most likely be one off pieces.

    I am working on creating different forms of armor. From Medieval Knights, to robots to Halo & Iron Man type costumes. I am working with Blender and exporting the stl files.

    There were questions about  the size. I Imagine the biggest part would be the chest plates which could be as big as 24"x24"x12

    Peter, you are right, printing a helmet, or chest piece would require a lot of support (extra material)... and it could get expensive. I saw a guy make a full size Ironman helmet, and used almost 3 kilos (rolls) of filament.Although i think he messed up in the settings of the supports.

    I love the thought of a CNC machine, but the issue becomes the material costs. I'd need a 6"-8" thick piece of material to CNC. I dont really want to work with foam, although I have been experimenting with EVA foam.

    Your also right that i could save a ton of money by outsourcing... but I feel part of the fun in life is creating new things, at every step of the process. While outsourcing would save me time and money, I wouldn't feel good about not building it.

    Right now i'm still teaching myself how to chop everything up on blender. I should have a 3D printer in the next couple weeks. If I don't like it, i'll return it.

    Probably going to build it in smaller pieces as I cant afford a large format 3D printer just yet.

    I am very interested in building my own CNC machine as Peter pointed out. I'm sure I can find many uses for it on other projects!

    Have any of you worked with 3D printers before? any major cautions?

Children
  • 0 in reply to Former Member

    First suggestion ask your friends to give you a small contribution, may help image

     

    i like your idea of creating a mold and using a carbon fiber or fiberglass piece. But i need to create the  Template or model.

     

    That is true, but a template has the advantage that should not be wore and is static and solid. You can do it in parts both with a 3D printer (plastic) or with the mill machine (wooden). Then - as you prepend to the 3D printing and I almost agree with you - you can make the template with the method of the separate blocks, assemble all together with glue (cyanoacrylate maybe fine) then use the moldable carbon fiber for the entire piece and the 3D printer again for the small details. And paint all after screwed the plastic parts to the large base. This is the method I will use is I were in your conditions and probably with a simple cost analysis it is also the cheaper way.

     

    I am toying with the idea of making one mold that I like and replicating for friends, however, the problem is... friends come in all shapes and sizes! So it will most likely be one off pieces.

     

    For this issue you have two possible solutions, I think. The first is to choose with great accuracy your friends checking their sizes, weight etc.

    In the case you are not alone and already have friends, you have the solution in your hands above image the base template is the average smaller size of the armor part. Then make covers without any surface interference with the molding technique to enlarge the base size and use the various shells you prepare to make the final element as told above. Maybe it is a solution ? This is the technique usually adopted to make custom sizes helmets for special applications.

     

    Another last suggestion : very cheap and perfectly manageable to make the templates there is the polistirene. If you makes the templates from a compact compressed block of this material you have a very lightweight object and you can make / change / replicate it also handy without difficult. Take in account that the template surface does not need a very high precision in the surface refine because it is the internal part of the fiber-glass object you should mold.

     

    Enrico