The saga of the Buddha Trooper.
In fact he’s based on a model of Budai, the fat smiling monk.
A popular figure in Chinese Buddhism.
He’s wearing a Storm Trooper helmet.
A popular figure in Western sci-fi culture.
So this model is kind of a mashup, a meeting of two worlds.
Sort of like something Banksy would do because it’s ironic, yeah?
Certainly a paradoxical model; the symbols of peace and mass inept violence merged together.
I took the .obj file from Thingiverse and stuck it on a USB stick.
Then I wandered down the row of 3D Printers we have here at 3D Hubs.
Like a sports teacher choosing his football squad.
After the success with the SLA Form1+ printer from Formlabs I thought it was time to have a go with FDM technology.
A key player in the FDM printing genre is the Makerbot.
I had just watched Print The Legend.
A documentary about the 3D Printing industry.
It’s very good and worth watching.
And the Makerbot features heavily in it.
Yes, I thought, the Makerbot, let’s see what it can do.
So, the Makerbot is a different beast.
A chunky cube that makes a bafflingly large amount of noise.
It even has extra noises that have been programmed into the machine for when it prints.
Luckily I found the option to turn the sound effects off.
I mean, why are they even on there in the first place?
Maybe to give it a personality?
Old Man Makerbot.
This print took several attempts.
Many, many attempts, in fact.
I often didn’t even get to the point of seeing the raft being made.
(A raft is sometimes made as a base support for the model which can be popped off when the print is finished).
I would set the Makerbot to print, then go for lunch, or back to work.
The extruder takes so long to heat up, and the whole thing spends a long time getting ready to print that I would have to leave it and get back to work.
Homing error.
Filament jam.
Those were the Makerbot’s two favourite messages that it would greet me with.
So, after much unloading and reloading of the filament, I set it to print for the 45th time.
A few more failed prints.
But at least this time it actually printed something.
Ah, but only half a print.
I cleared the build plate.
Ok, this is it, you and me, buddy.
I spun the dial by the Makerbot’s screen, found my model, hit print.
I think someone in the office calibrated the Makerbot whilst I was doing other things.
Whatever happened, it worked.
When I came back from lunch I could see that the filament was about to get snagged again.
But it was printing!
“Yes! Come on you magnificent bastard!” I roared. In my head.
Outwardly I stood there calmly untangling the filament.
I ended up taking all the filament off the spool.
There was only a metre or two left anyways.
That way there was no risk of it getting snagged again and stopping the print.
Later that day.
Pedro, our Senior Developer came by my desk.
“Hey Pete, I don’t want to jinx it but your print is at 97% and I think it’s going to finish this time”
I reacted appropriately.
It was a close finish.
There was 50 cm of filament left.
So, here it is.
Plus a few of the failed prints.
With some close up shots to show the detail.
Those man boobs.
Moobs.
And a pic with a banana for scale, the universal unit of measurement on the internet.
Pretty cool, but I’m already looking around for the next print project.
No more toys for the desk.
I’m a grown ass man.
I should make my own models.
Print settings:
Printer: Makerbot replicator 4
Material : PLA
Temperature: 215
Layer height: 0.15
Printing time: Almost 9h
