I’m back at making props again. I had a little break from it, but now that I have my 3D printer set up in the temporary workshop (kid’s bedroom), it became easier to get back into! In this blog post, you will see me getting these two blasters from Star Wars The Old Republic ready for sanding and filling. The first step is printing them and I definitely had some issues during the printing process with each of the blasters.
These blaster files are available for free at Mynock’s Den. They are both weapons belonging to characters from the game Star Wars: The Old Republic. The first blaster belongs to Shae Vizla, a bounty hunter in the service of the Sith Empire. The second blaster is one of a pair used by Eleena Maru, love interest of Darth Malgus. He actually killed her because she was his only weakness, but I digress. Anyway, go take a look at the files, and many thanks to Mynock’s Den for making them available.
Errors and Issues
One of the blasters had quite a bit of shrinkage, which caused the print to pull up from the bed. I adjusted the settings on the second print and the problem was mostly eliminated.
The second blaster had its own set of problems though. About 75% of the way through the print, the filament got bound up and failed to feed. I was checking on the prints pretty regularly, so I caught it fairly quickly. All but two of the objects had completely printed. After some thinking and research, I decided to move the head to the final printed layer and record the Z position. This told me the height of the final printed layer, 64.993 mm.
I removed the completed prints and the two partial prints from the bed and releveled the bed. In the slicing software, I put the two models on the bed in the same orientation as they were in the previous print. I moved the models down the same distance as the final Z position of the last printed layer, (63.993 mm) and performed a slice on the x-axis removing the lower part of the model.
I then uploaded the file and printed the parts. After the prints were completed, I acetone welded the second print to the partials from the first attempt. I have to say I am pretty happy with the results. Now I have another technique to help me recover failed prints in the future.
The plan is to finish each of these blasters slightly differently. I will be experimenting with a variety of methods to smooth the blasters. This includes using an acetone slurry, vapor smoothing, and sanding by hand or power tool followed up in Bondo and glazing putty at later stages for filling any imperfections that remain after initial prep work is done. My hope is the acetone treatments will reduce the need for Bondo and glazing putty.
The sanding process is generally the most time-consuming part of finishing a print. It’s also where mistakes like cutting too deep into surfaces or gouging out entire sections tend to be made. Uneven pressure or galling on the paper can cause the process to take even longer. The smoother the print and the less visible the layer lines going into the sanding process, the less time this will take.
Another of the main problems with the sanding and filling process is it is very easy to remove details or fill them in with Bondo. The same can be said with acetone. A loss of detail can occur depending on how long the print is exposed. The goal here is to find a happy balance and reduce the finishing time.
Stay tuned for the results of my acetone finishing. I will also cover sanding and filling in the next post. These are just test runs to knock the dust off of my making skills and prepare for a big upcoming project.
Bad Batch launches May the fourth. I have purchased the .stl files for the Bad Batch, minus Echo, and would like to try to print and finish all four prior to the launch. I realize this is an unreasonable goal, but a guy can dream. My new Ender 5 Plus is still in the box, so that could be a problem. Anyway, until next time!
Keep making and stay awesome,
Pete