Week #1 - Journal

First I chose for the 3d Print assignment a mini figure for Patrick the Star from Spongebob animation series, I downloaded it in a *.STL format from Thingverse.com.

File link: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3057317

For laser printing, I chose a round leaf cup coaster, I downloaded it from 3axis.co in a *.DXF format.

File link: https://3axis.co/laser-cut-round-floral-design-tea-coaster-dxf-file/r1z2l621/#google_vignette

For preparing the files,  I used Ultimaker Cura Software to prepare the file for 3d printing and LaserCad software for the Laser Cutting.

The 3d Print machine: Creality Ender 3 3D Printer

The Laser cutter machine: Malky ML64 CO2 Laser Cutter

The 3d Print Object will be made from PLA because it’s much more inexpensive and simple to print.

And for the coaster I'll made it from Plywood (6 mm thickness) but it will need a sealing or coating using acrylic gloss spray for protection against water and moisture.

For preparing the 3d Print file using Ultimaker Cura Software, I chose the infill to be 5% and I decreased the scale to 48% to minimize the duration of printing to be printed in 1 hour and 25 minutes, it will be 13 grams with 0.2 mm for Quality with Adhesion and support because the shape need to be supported.

The base of the shape is the only flat side so the best option to print it as it is no need for changing the position just press on the Lay Flat button to make sure that the base of the design is touching the bottom surface.

I Chose the Printer Creality Ender 3/Ender 3 v2 and the material Generic PLA 0.4mm Nozzle.

And Finally I pressed Slice and checked the slicing, support, brim and the time to be printed will not exceeded 90 minutes as per requested then I saved the file in a *.gcode format for printing by pressing on save to disk.

And I saved it also in a *.3mf format by pressing File then Export from the task bar for editing if needed.

Using the LaserCad software for preparing the laser cut file, I opened the *.DXF file by pressing on File then Import from the task bar.

I selected the shape and dragged it to be on the top left corner of the page.

Since I chose a shape with cutting only without scan, so all the lines will be colored in black.

By pressing double click on the black color in the Layer options on the right, the layer parameters will be shown for editing the file.

The work mode is Cut, Maximum and minimum power is 65% and speed 10 mm/s and press OK.

To save the file, from the task bar choose File then Export as a *.DXF file to be ready for Cutting.