5 ms·

The ball is so intricate I’d be very worried about the print completing successfully.

yreg 4y ago
But it doesn't seem so intricate compared to other things people print successfully? Especially considering the scale, it's not very detailed.
- 0_____0 4y ago
  Oh you can print it all right. Good luck getting all the support material out of there. I printed a Voronoi-pattered sphere with SLA, and even then it was quite an operation to get all the supports out of there. I would not try printing something like this in FFF or SLA without supports. SLS is perfect for this.
  - yreg 4y ago
    I don't want to be overconfident, but I feel like getting rid of the supports would be time consuming, but not that difficult. They all connect to places that are accessible through the holes from the outside. Another option would be a dual extruder printer with soluable supports, right?
- 2muchcoffeeman 4y ago
  I’m not sure if you’ve attempted to print something like this before. Don’t be fooled by the geometric shape. If you take the worst cross section of this ball, you’re essentially printing lots of small pillars. It’s a lot of movements and starting and stopping, extruding and retractions. It’s basically a lattice torture test. On a filament printer, this is probably achievable with a stiff material like PLA or PETG, but could be a challenge to get a nice clean print. Something this large in a flexible material would be a massive pain. Not to mention the support material. FFF/FDM printers typically are good with overhangs up to 45 degrees measured from the Z axis. Some printers can do better and essentially print bridges but only over short distances. A full size basket ball would be difficult if not impossible to print without supports. And you couldn’t print the ball as is. You’d have to cut it in half so that supports could be removed. Then glue the pieces together. Another commenter mentioned SLA printing. But that uses resin, not filament. The plastic is basically a liquid and cured layer by layer using a mask and UV. I’m not sure if there are flexible resins.
  - batch12 4y ago
    The article said it used a laser to sinter powder
    - simpleintheory 4y ago
      That’s called an SLS machine and is way more expensive than household FDM (filament) and SLA (resin) printers.

yreg 4y ago

But it doesn't seem so intricate compared to other things people print successfully? Especially considering the scale, it's not very detailed.

0_____0 4y ago
Oh you can print it all right. Good luck getting all the support material out of there. I printed a Voronoi-pattered sphere with SLA, and even then it was quite an operation to get all the supports out of there. I would not try printing something like this in FFF or SLA without supports. SLS is perfect for this.
- yreg 4y ago
  I don't want to be overconfident, but I feel like getting rid of the supports would be time consuming, but not that difficult. They all connect to places that are accessible through the holes from the outside. Another option would be a dual extruder printer with soluable supports, right?
2muchcoffeeman 4y ago
I’m not sure if you’ve attempted to print something like this before. Don’t be fooled by the geometric shape. If you take the worst cross section of this ball, you’re essentially printing lots of small pillars. It’s a lot of movements and starting and stopping, extruding and retractions. It’s basically a lattice torture test. On a filament printer, this is probably achievable with a stiff material like PLA or PETG, but could be a challenge to get a nice clean print. Something this large in a flexible material would be a massive pain. Not to mention the support material. FFF/FDM printers typically are good with overhangs up to 45 degrees measured from the Z axis. Some printers can do better and essentially print bridges but only over short distances. A full size basket ball would be difficult if not impossible to print without supports. And you couldn’t print the ball as is. You’d have to cut it in half so that supports could be removed. Then glue the pieces together. Another commenter mentioned SLA printing. But that uses resin, not filament. The plastic is basically a liquid and cured layer by layer using a mask and UV. I’m not sure if there are flexible resins.
- batch12 4y ago
  The article said it used a laser to sinter powder
  - simpleintheory 4y ago
    That’s called an SLS machine and is way more expensive than household FDM (filament) and SLA (resin) printers.