The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Thing-O-Matic: Chainmail

This worked out better than I expected: printable chainmail!

ChainMail - top
ChainMail – top

The back view may be easier on the eyes:

ChainMail - bottom
ChainMail – bottom

As the writing says, printed at 20 & 100 mm/s, 0.33 mm thickness, 0.66 mm width, and bridge speed at 1.0 to 1.3 times the usual.

I tried a few variations and got decent results with the bars set to 3 threads wide (the pix show 4 × bars). Making it fairly tall (11 × thread thickness, IIRC) helps get enough clearance below the sagging bridges between the vertical pegs. I’m amazed it works as well as it does.

Dropping to a width of 2 threads doesn’t work: the vertical pegs simply disappear from the G-Code! Turning the pegs into cylinders might help.

A pair of flush-cutting wire nippers applied to the top of the pegs along one edge allows you to lace a pair of sheets together. Apply a micro-drop of plastic cement to each cut, put a roll of duct tape on the joint overnight, and it’s all good.

My Shop Assistant has some interesting ideas for this, although I was mostly interested in its build-ability. It’s wonderful to see the printer lay down a sheet of tiny vertical pegs, five layers tall, and clear the top of every one, every time, on its way back and forth.

I love it when a plan comes together…

Comments

4 responses to “Thing-O-Matic: Chainmail”

  1. Printed Chain Mail: Subtractive Model | The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning Avatar

    […] technique didn’t work with Skeinforge (because it sent the nozzle scampering all over each layer, knocking things loose) and it […]

  2. smellsofbikes Avatar
    smellsofbikes

    http://www.isi.edu/~tatiana/Rings/
    found on G+
    Not the same level of interlock, but awfully pretty.

    1. Ed Avatar

      Those look large enough to be do-able!

      The Thingiverse version gives you control over most of the parameters. I’d make the rings stand up a bit straighter and tuck ’em closer together, both of which seem to require some source tweakage.

      The suggestion to have the slicer add a brim around the platform contact patches make a lot of sense. The model puts a “torus” vertex on the platform; maybe rotating it by 1/2 segment would improve adhesion?

      Now that I have the M2 tweaked up, I should give that a go…

      1. smellsofbikes Avatar
        smellsofbikes

        I’d love to see it when you do.