Barrel Corner Plate
Barrel Corner Plate
| Revision | Service | Material | Quoted Duration | Actual Duration | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Design & Print | PLA | 5 Days | 5 Days | 5 |
| B | Design & Print | PLA | 5 Days | 3 Days | 5 |
Buyer Request
Design and print eight corner plates with channels to accommodate overlapping 0.5” wide vertical and horizontal straps that secure a cubed whiskey barrel.
Design
The design of the corner plate was fairly straight forward. The overall size of the part was 1.25” with three sides each housing 0.5” channels for the straps.
Each side had two channels cut in a plus sign pattern. This allows for straps to run vertically and horizontally in all directions. The edges were then curved to avoid major pinch points.
Printing
The biggest challenge with printing was deciding how to design the supports. At first, when attempting placing the part upside down with automatic tree supports, the surface finish was less than desirable.
Eventually, after testing multiple configurations, it was found that utilizing manual tree supports on the underside resulted in the best quality requiring the least amount of post-processing.
This project was a great way to fill the knowledge gap between using the Ultimaker Cura slicer and the Bambu Labs slicer. Previously, when using Cura, I’d build supports for such a part by adding a block under the model and printing it as a support with the preset that I have tuned over time, thereby bypassing the need for auto-generated supports altogether.
With Bambu Labs, there is no ‘print as support’ feature. This, along with the poor print quality of the auto-generate supports, meant that I had to look further into the support capabilities of the Bambu Labs slicer. Using this project to test various settings and features within the slicer, I was eventually able to stumble upon an optimal support preset as well as the bucket fill tool for painting on supports. The denser tree manual tree supports were much better suited to leaving a more uniform surface finish.
Revision A approved for use on portfolio. Technical Drawings available at request.