Well, after a very busy week at work and elsewhere, I finally had the time to sit down and write a blog post! This one (as the title suggests haha) is about the longest print I have ever done on the Hyrel, which I just completed. I made a new cupholder assumbly for my car!
I was fairly happy with how it turned out! It’s an absolutely gigantic piece that took up most of the Hyrel bed. And, at 30% infill, it ended up being fairly heavy too. I made the infill dense so that it would sit nicely in the place where the stock cupholder assembly normally goes. The best part is, thanks to the gecko-tek plate I have, the bottom of the print came out nice and shiny!
If you’re thinking “hey, the surface finish of this 3d printed part looks a little different”, you would be correct! I sanded it smooth to 1500 grit. Sanding plastic was a very interesting process, compared with sanding the wood-infused filament I posted about a while ago. The biggest difference is that, when you apply a power sander to it, plastic tends to heat up and melt instead of sanding well.
The melting of the plastic happened when I used a belt sander. However, there’s always the right tool for the job! As soon as I switched to an orbital sander, it worked like a charm without any melting! I ended up being able to go all the way from 80 grit to 1500 grit with the orbital sander without issue. The only thing I wish I had done was insert a few more top layers so that the bottom didn’t have that holey appearance.
However, I’m more than pleased with the fact that the Hyrel printer was such a trooper! In order to print this cupholder, it took (drumroll please)……. 55 hours!
Hopefully I’ll get some time to start going on the kylo ren mask again, so stay tuned to find out what I post about next!
John (aka the Mad Printer)
The Mad Printer 