Robot Lightswitch Plate

Since before I published my first instructable, I have been a fan of the instructables website and its community. For this instructable, I have decided to celebrate this by creating a light switch plate. I have designed this with the help of TinkerCAD and will explain it all in the steps that follow.

3D Printer

Filament:

• Black PLA
• White PLA
• Red PLA
• Gray PLA
• Peach PLA
• Orange PLA

First - I got an image of the robot. Thankfully, when I started this project, there was a high resolution image available on the instructables website. For some reason, it now appears to have been removed.

I then broke the images into layers that I wanted to print in different colors. All of these will later get stacked back together to create a single STL.

My process for creating each image was to first convert the image to a 16 color image. Doing so allowed me to quickly remove the colors that I didn't need for that layer. It is important that the image sizes all remain the same, so that they will import as the same size in later steps.

I then changed the parts that I wanted to keep to be BLACK while making all else into a WHITE background.

Using an Online Image to SVG Converter, I made each layer into an SVG file.

Again, make sure to leave the image sizes the same. I chose Monochrome on import, although I am not sure if that made any difference.

TinkerCAD has the ability to convert an SVG image and object in its design environment. During import, the objects were too large. I shrunk these to be 10% size, making sure each object was imported to the same size. Another tip during import was to make sure and DON'T MOVE the layers. This way, they all stacked in the correct positions.

Using TinkerCAD, I put all of the layers together, increasing the height of each layer by 0.2mm or 0.3mm offset. I planned to print at 0.1mm layers, so I chose 0.2mm for dark colors that would easily cover up the color beneath it. I chose 0.3mm for lighter colors, as it would print 3 layers.

After combining the layers, I then shrunk the combined object on the X and Y axis to achieve the spacing that I wanted for the screw holes. I did not shrink the Z axis, as I wanted this to remain in multiples of 0.1mm.

The last modification was to add the screw holes and the lightswitch hole.

Then, Export as STL

For Printing, I used CURA 4.10.

My Printer is a Tronxy X5S

I used the Post Processing feature and added "Pause at Height" for the following steps: (For some reason, I was off by one layer than what I had expected. Just make sure to check the layer numbers in Cura to verify pausing at the correct spots.)

• Layer 0 (No pause): Start with Black
• Layer 4: Switch from Black to Gray
• Layer 30: Switch from Gray to Black
• Layer 32: Switch from Black to White
• Layer 34: Switch from White to Red
• Layer 36: Switch from Red to Peach
• Layer 38: Switch from Peach to Black
• Layer 40: Switch from Black to Orange
• Layer 42: Switch from Orange to Gray

Keep in mind that Pause at Height pauses after that layer number has printed.

I had some challenges because I was using different filament brands and as such I actually manipulated my GCode to change flow rates and Temperatures. But, I am not going to go into that here.

Hope you enjoyed my little project. This sure added the finishing touch to my Hobby Room!

(Thanks Porky!)