MAT 238 Week 6

The process of 3D printing with clay was completely different for me. I felt like a kid with a magic device rather than an unqualified engineer trying to fabricate with PLA. I realize that a lot of the pre-work was handled for me by Alejandro, Emilie, and Jennifer so I also had a VIP experience (thank you it was very fun)!

SketchPath had a bit more of a learning curve than the Grasshopper based CoilCAM. It also relied a bit on my own dexterity with the mouse. I had some trouble stacking layers. I know from personal experience how much work it is to make a drawing-based UI, so big kudos because it was fun to use and produced cool results. One issue is I kept deleting my layers by accident, enough times that I decided to cut my losses and switch to CoilCAM because of the time left. I plan on coming back to it though if I do my final project in clay.

CoilCAM was easier because of my experience with Grasshopper so far. I found it was easy to create a variety of designs that looked printable. The best part was the base feature, which I unfortunately didn't use my first print. I was worried that my final product wouldn't be watertight, and there were a few issues at the beginning of the print because the printer wasn't extruding properly, so I went without at the last second.

My first print was like a turning cog. I was very happy with how it turned out, and there was even some drama along the sides as the cog turned slightly fast between layers, and some of the clay began to droop. It ended up being a lot bigger than I expected, and was awkward because it was too small for eating out of but too big for drinking out of.

My second print was smaller and had a base. However, I wasn't that happy with how it turned out because it lacked character. Something about the recyclability of the material made me more inclined to return it to the ether.

I had so much more fun that I expected and I think I will work with clay for my final project.