MakerGear Forum

I have Memento, MeshMixer, Remake, and TinkerCad but no matter what I do, I just can't make these vases. They are gorgeous and would be a wonderful print but I want to be able to show that I didn't just print these, I made them.

Am I using the right tools, just not the right brain?

w22 wrote:would be a wonderful print

Except, in that orientation, their concave-upward center openings and convex-downward bottom profiles can't be produced (very well or at all) with fused-filament printers. You could add support structures inside the opening and under the bottom, at the cost of tedious removal and ugly surface finish.

If you split the shapes in half along a vertical plane parallel to the body and lay the halves down with their outside upward, then the support would be easy and the ugly surface goes inside when you glue the halves back together.

To reproduce that nice, shiny rendered look, you'll need plenty of epoxy filler / high-build primer / hand polishing before painting / clearcoating, so removing the midline seam won't add much to the project.

There are other tools that might be easier to use, but I've never used any of those, so I can't tell you for sure.

Fusion 360 (free for enthusiast use) can be used to make those, and I'll let you in on a little secret - just build the solid shapes, don't try to hollow them out, and then use the Vase Mode in Simplify 3D to print them. It turns a solid shape into a vase by just printing the outlines and a few base layers at the bottom.

(And flat bottom shapes with less rounding at the edges, particularly at the bottom, are going to print better. The shape of those vases is not ideal for 3D printing.)

Thanks guys! As always, you are awesome!

ednisley wrote:

w22 wrote:would be a wonderful print

Except, in that orientation, their concave-upward center openings and convex-downward bottom profiles can't be produced (very well or at all) with fused-filament printers. You could add support structures inside the opening and under the bottom, at the cost of tedious removal and ugly surface finish.

If you split the shapes in half along a vertical plane parallel to the body and lay the halves down with their outside upward, then the support would be easy and the ugly surface goes inside when you glue the halves back together.

To reproduce that nice, shiny rendered look, you'll need plenty of epoxy filler / high-build primer / hand polishing before painting / clearcoating, so removing the midline seam won't add much to the project.

Those parts scream rotocaster to me...

Autodesk Fusion 360 would be a great tool to use. It has a sculpt environment that is intended to handle organic forms. Powerful free-form shape tools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NypRE2aFhh4

Thank you! I definitely downloaded it and it is a beautiful software piece!