Posted January 22, 2016
As I have noted in previous posts, one of the really cool things about current 3D printing technology is the way it allows me to rapidly iterate through design options to arrive at an ‘optimum’ (where the definition of ‘optimum’ can be somewhat arbitrary) solution.
In this particular case, my wife Jo Anne was planning a trip to Florida to do some serious dressage training. When Jo is in Florida she stays at the house of our good friends Mike and Pauline Hall, and she wanted some sort of ‘Thank You’ present for them. She had seen something on the inet about filling a small round plastic globe with candy and putting it on top of an inverted plastic cup, and this struck a resonance; she knew that Pauline Hall was a retired ‘Martian’ – the term used by long time dedicated Mars employees to describe themselves, and the most famous Mars product is ‘M & M’ candies. So, she commissioned me to create a customized M&M candy stand, with the words “Mars” and “Hall” inscribed somehow.
As I have learned through previous design/print iterations, the fastest way to get from idea to finished product is to simply start building prototypes; it doesn’t take long, is incredibly cheap, and the process usually rapidly converges to a very good (if not necessarily ‘optimum’) solution. As I do in many of my designs, I first created a model in TinkerCad and then printed it at half (50%) scale. Jo Anne was able to look at the half-scale model and see right away whether or not I was on the right track. In this case she liked the first model, so I printed a full-scale one, and thought I was done. Unfortunately, I had forgotten about the inscribed “Mars” and “Pauline” text, so I was assuredly NOT done! So, I simply had my wife write the text on the full-scale model with a Sharpie, and partied on.
Next was a full-scale model with the text cut out of the material, but this turned out to be a disaster; I had used ‘support’ structures to keep the text edges sharp, but the support material got so well attached to the main body that I couldn’t get it off (In the past I have tried dissolvable support material, but with very limited success). So, I suggested that we try a two-color model, with the body in red and the text in white, and Jo agreed.
Next was a half-scale two-color model to prove the concept, followed by a full-scale ‘finished’ product. Unfortunately, a “time-saving” modification I had made to the text portion of the design caused the text to ‘run’, and I had to make another print to get a real ‘finished’ item.
In the end I got something that looked very good, and is now a completely unique gift for the Halls; it may not be super expensive or jewel-encrusted or anything, but it is something that says “Thank You” in a uniquely Paynter-ish way 😉
The image below shows the evolution of the design from plastic cup through the half-scale models to the final product on the left, shown in front of the PowerSpec 3D printer used for the work.
Hall present design evolution, shown in front of my PowerSpec dual-extruder 3D printer