Small Projects

Elucidator (Sword Art Online)

Left - separate pieces put together with a 12 in ruler for scale

Middle - This is as far as the project got before stalling (due to school), the next steps would have been to sand the joints and pass it to my friend for painting & finishing

Right - This was my setup for fusing the parts together outside in my backyard

One of my first projects originally started as a passing joke between me and a close friend while we were watching the popular anime series "Sword Art Online." In the show, the main character obtains a jet-black sword that is nearly 3.5 ft in length. My friend jokingly asked if I could make it for him, knowing that no printer is large enough to fit the entire thing.

After doing some research I discovered a process that involved using a soldering iron to fuse sections of plastic together to form one larger piece, along with using a wooden paste to smooth out the joints. Printing just the blade exceeded 24 hours of continuous printing, with the rest being finished in around 8 hours, making this the biggest print I have ever committed to.

After it's completion, I had repeated failures in the fused joints. This is because the soldering tip will only weld the plastic that gets hot enough to melt, so the fuse was only on the surface layer. The joints were stronger than they would have been with just hot glue, but because of how one picks up a sword by the handle on one end, it's difficult to hold it horizontally (much less swing it) without serious risk of the handle snapping.

Despite the failures, I got to learn about and gain practical experience on different methods to make 3d printed parts that can be much larger than the printer itself. The original plan involved passing the sword to my friend for him to paint and work on detail, but the project stalled as school started and we both became busy.

Killjoy's Turret (Valorant)

Initial attempt

This mini-project started when I found a software that can grab 3d models from the game 'Valorant' and in a format that can be exported to Blender, then as as an STL for 3d printing.

I will note that I do not intend on using Valorant models for profit, and I am using the models for my own entertainment and/or personal use.

2nd Try

The one in grey was printed directly using the 3d model in game, however there was a critical support piece missing, causing the top half only being supported by the ammo ribbon.

My solution involved importing a basic cylinder to where it intersected with both the bottom and top portions. The solution was quick once I discovered it, however it required another 16 hours of resin printing.

Final Product

I planned to stop there, and think about painting it at a much later date. Instead I asked another friend of mine if she wanted paint it because she has an established background in art and also is familiar with the turret in-game. I gave it to her and she painted it according to the scheme found in game, as seen in the above image.

I really enjoyed this project because I am a big fan of Valorant, and this project didn't feel so big as to be cumbersome, but also big enough to require planning and intention.

Rapid fire small projects:

Tinkering with my mouse to see how exactly it works. At one point I thought about customizing the shell by 3d printing a shell to mimic a popular gaming mouse the Model O which is priced from $50-$80.

"Useless box" soldering kit. This was my first exposure to soldering electronics.

3D Printed Piccolo Trombone

Worked & sounded about as well as one might expect... Still one of my larger 3d printing endeavors during my early days of 3d printing (around 2019

Experimentation with custom pixel art for a future project using a mini OLED display with Arduino. The pixel art has to do with the popular shooter game Valorant (hence the gun)

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