Scaled Wood & 3D Printed Motorcycle Model

These are the instructions to make your very own 1:10 scale motorcycle model out of wood and 3D printing. To make this, you must at least be able to use 3D modelling software such as AutoCAD, Maya, or in my case, Rhinoceros

Sketch the model of motorcycle that you like or prefer to trace it to the wood you want to use as the body of the motorcycle.

it is recommended that the wood is not too hard so that it can be sawed and carved easily.

For this step, choose the wood plank with more less the same thickness as the motorcycle's body width. Do mind that It's easier if you split the body in half and join them back later.

For the 3D modelling part, you can start by projecting a technical drawing of a motorcycle as a base for your own motorcycle. After that, trace the motorcycle sketch you made earlier to the program you are using.

Now, the design might deviate a little from the original sketch, but the important part here are the small parts like swingarm, wheels, forks, fork grips, disk brakes etc. also keep in mind on how small the 3D printer can print so that it won't break/fail to print later.

For me, I miscalculated some measurements and made some parts very fragile like how my wheel spokes are only about 0.7mm on it's thinnest part and on the brake lever too.

After every part is ready, make sure to split everything correctly depending on the 3D printer's ability to print, like how some objects hanging over than 45° are difficult to print for some printer and all.

Then, the printing part.

Before you print, you must export the file to a format the 3D printer can read. In my case, I will use MakerBot Desktop in which I can control the quality of the print, whether to use raft and support or not, etc.

And then you print it.

In this step, you can only wait, hope and pray.

After all part are printed, remove all support and rafts, sand the excess/rough edges with P150 sandpaper, gradually to P1500 until it's smooth.

After that, combine separated parts into one whole piece.

Then, mark the printed part into it's place, mark, carve and combine the printed part and the carved plank to check the proportions. after everything's in place and the proportions are right, remove the printed part and sand it for the last time using the P1500 sand paper for the next step.

After every printed part is removed, it's time for painting. After securing both piece of carved plank together, I soaked it with a pale white wood stain, let it sink, then swab it with a cloth and let it dry. After that, I spray it with a clear coat of acrylic spray paint, and matte black acrylic spray paint and let it dry.

The printed parts are also painted for details, like silver spray paint for the discbrake, lower fork and handlebar, red for the spring(shockbreaker) and brake calipers.

After everything is dry, assemble everything in place, and secure both carved planks together with double pointed nails plus PVAc glue and press it for 15 minutes.

After that, it's done.