Curved Honeycomb Vase

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I have finally finished my 3D printed time lapse rig (blog post to come) and this lovely vase was intended to be a fast print as a time lapse show piece item but it proved to be unsuitable and I learnt some valuable lessons along the way.

There are several different 3D models provided for this vase, I started with the 2mm wall thickness design, it slices well and the print started ok. After leaving it for an hour to settle the base I became aware of a lot of noise from the garage, the extruder was working overtime, After it had printed the inner and outer skins, each little bit inside the cubes was a separate island and my bowden extruder was putting in a lot of effort to extend and retract each time. So much so it was really slowing the print down. Another hour later and it had barely done the first row of cubes, so much for a fast print, I cancelled it and started again.


The original solid shape provided on thingiverse is it's intended design which can be printed in a single long line of filament spiralling from the base to the top. My Octolapse is triggered by changes in the Z height of the print so tall things that print quickly should be ideal (some of you can already see where this is going). A spiralized print is exactly that, it makes incrementally small changes in Z with every single movement, rather than one complete lap and a step in Z height. After every single movement in X and Y my octolapse kicked in moved the head to the back of the bed and took a snap before resuming. Obviously not suitable.


In the end I turned octolapse off and printed a standard spiralized vase because it was quick, 90 mins or so and I still like the design. I shall add it to the many pen pots I have created recently (stl here)

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