The Cubbies : Part 3 Fabrications testing & modifications

 THE DESK MINIS

This week I got to print desk sized miniatures. This was so fun to do and then play with afterwards. I also learned how to load and unload filament into the Prusa minis, adding to my toolbox. I purchased these filaments from https://canadianfilaments.ca/ which is located in Edmonton. The filament's worked great, were very affordable and they promote as little waste as possible with carboard packaging.    

Here you can see how the orientation of the cubbies completely changes the display possibilities 

Mock-ups

From these photos you can see how these cubbies could be used with other objects. 

After considering each of them I decided my original choice was still the lead. This design is the most spacious for larger objects and its convertibility is very attractive to me, you can see this in the first set of photos in this post. 

as far as modifications go for this design I am going to revert to the original version which still had fillet corners but the radius was much smaller resulting in a more square looking product. The reason for this, which I hope is apparent in this photo, is if you look at the inner bottom corners where the paper book sits, you can see how the books cover will be squeezing into the rounded bottom. I believe this would cause damage or at minimum, morph the book cover which I believe shows poor function. That is why I am going with the more square look.     

This is the square version I will use for the final ^

Here I have added a texture to the walls using the contour command and then pipe. I got to do a little math for this part. I knew that each pipe was 10mm wide because the walls of the cubby's are 10mm. I then decided I wanted a 3 mm overlap for a secure connection between the pipes. This meant that my contours would have to be 7mm apart. 

So now I have my final mesh design for the print. I loaded the STL into prusa slicer, sliced and was immediately confronted with a big problem.

The print time for this piece is between 2 & 3 DAYS. 

From the beginning I've been interested in taking full advantage of the Prusa XL print area. I want to print these so that they equate to your average side table - which is possible but the print time is so enormous I don't think theres even a chance of getting the XL to myself for this long. keep in mind, this is the print time for just 1 of the pieces and I need 2 of them for a complete set. 

Now when it comes to the mass produced object, printing 1 of these would be enough. In order to mass-produce this product I believe creating a mold would be the most efficient option, though I don't have experience with such a thing. 

Here I removed a quarter of the height to see how it affected the print time. it reduced the print by 15 hours, bring the print time down to 2 days. 

With this new issue to consider I'm counting my options:

 

1. Print one cubby at full size, create a mold and produce 2 cubbies from the mold 

2. Print the cubbies much smaller, perhaps the largest size that the Prusa mini can handle, creating a version that would work as a counter top piece and accepting it as a prototype that could be produced in the future. 

3. Wait until all other students complete their prints on the Prusa XL and then take it over for a week in order to print 2 full sized cubby's.

some things to consider 

- I have purchased my own filaments for this project. I have 3 full rolls that I was hoping to make into 3 full sized cubbies. 2 of these rolls have been opened.

- If I go with the mold option, the filament is essentially wasted, I could have used a black or white option. This also moves away from my original goal to make a product that is completed at the end of the print, but perhaps that is not the most efficient option 

-If I print on the minis there is a higher chance I will be able to print 3 or more cubbies resulting in more product, multiple sets, and more opportunity for documentation.