Best 3D Printing plastic type for armor?

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I got it from thingiverse, but the website right now is currently down. Luckily, I have it saved in my own cloud, so i'll put a link here that's good for 1 download for 1 day. Hopefully by then thingiverse will be back up and I can put a proper link. (The dude made 2 versions, one that's split up for printing, and one that isn't. Both are in the file I'm linking)

Firefox Send

You are a good person, and people say nice things about you.
 
I got it from thingiverse, but the website right now is currently down. Luckily, I have it saved in my own cloud, so i'll put a link here that's good for 1 download for 1 day. Hopefully by then thingiverse will be back up and I can put a proper link. (The dude made 2 versions, one that's split up for printing, and one that isn't. Both are in the file I'm linking)

Firefox Send

I think I'm "the dude"

I can't find if anyone has asked this, but where did you get this file set from?

If you have any questions, let me know.
 
If you have any questions, let me know.

Actually, I do think I have a question. I'm a larger dude, and when I re-scaled the pieces to print, the split up pieces don't fit on my printing bed. Are there any pointers you have so that I can split it up in order to print it without failing? Things like overhang and grip on the heatbed are my main concerns. Though they can be fixed with supports and brims respectively, I want to try and avoid those.

Spliting up the models into 4ths or 8ths doesn't work well with the chest for the above reasons
 
Actually, I do think I have a question. I'm a larger dude, and when I re-scaled the pieces to print, the split up pieces don't fit on my printing bed. Are there any pointers you have so that I can split it up in order to print it without failing? Things like overhang and grip on the heatbed are my main concerns. Though they can be fixed with supports and brims respectively, I want to try and avoid those.

Spliting up the models into 4ths or 8ths doesn't work well with the chest for the above reasons

Are you familiar with Blender at all? If not, you will be.

Blender is a free 3D program you can download from their site. You can use the thumbnails I've attached or you can watch the video I linked down below.

Once Blender is installed, import the .stl armor file that needs to be cut:
Untitled01.jpg

Next, Insert a Mesh Plane into the project and be sure to click on the little plus size in the top right corner:
Untitled02.jpg

Change the x and y dimensions to 400 each:
Untitled03.jpg

Look on the lower right side and bring it out until you see that little wrench. Left click it:
Untitled04.jpg

Go to the upper right side and left click on the piece of armor that needs to be cut. Make sure it is highlighted in the center:
Untitled05.jpg

Go to the bottom right and click on "Add Modifier" and select Boolean.
Untitled06.jpg

Change the options you have in the picture below. Notice, once you select everything, the armor is gone below the plane:
Untitled07.jpg

Export the file to a .stl:
Untitled08.jpg

For the other half, just change that one value under "operation" to say "Intersect"
Untitled09.jpg

Now export the lower half and you have successfully cut a piece of armor in half.

This video does the same thing...only the Blender he is using is a little older:
 
I'll just drop my 2-pence in here. I've had a quick read through and I'm sure you've already had most of these answers, but I find little bits of insight can help a lot.
For strength and ease of use (minus a bit more stringing than other plastics) I'd recommend PETG. It's much more flexible than ABS (less likely to fracture from flexing). It produces much less ultra fine particles than printing with ABS and is generally safer to print. Another plus is it won't melt in the sun like PLA. You might want to take into consideration though that PETG is highly chemical resistant, and can't be smoothed with acetone or any other chemical that you'd want to have any sort of interaction with. I had some issues with it warping on the print bed initially, but some cheap hairspray and a fiddle with the settings fixed that (I also print at 80'C on my Anycubic ultrabase which is glass with a weird coating).

I hadn't realised how hydroscopic PETG was when I bought it, and had left it out for a while. Being the UK, it's never less than 70% humidity at this time of year, so naturally it got a bit of water in it. I'm currently working on a dry box with some silica gel to absorb the water. As for fixing the filament, you can either make a cheap filament drier from a food dehydrator, or bake it in the oven at around 60'C. The latter worked for me fine as long as your oven is consistent in temp and you don't put it in immediately.

If it's between PLA and ABS / HIPS (similar to ABS, can be smoothed / dissolved with limonene), I'd go with ABS / HIPS since it's much more impact resistant. PLA is generally very brittle, though PLA+ is better, I wouldn't say best. You do however need a decent enclosure so you don't breathe in the UFPs / fumes, and ABS can have warping issues if the temp isn't regulated.

Not exactly the best video, but it demonstrates the difference

Increasing the nozzle size should help a bit, just experiment changing the nozzle settings in the slicer to see how much time you save and if it's worth it.

Hope this helps, and good luck :)
 
How do you guys glue peices together. I have done alot of research already, but want to hear your guys feedback...
 
I use superglue w/ an activator or a 5minute epoxy depending on how strong I want/need the connection to be.

Armor parts I tend to stick w/ superglue. Props it depends on how it's intended to be handled. e.g. Sword you can swing lightly (epoxy) vs. gun you don't (superglue).
 
We do a mixture of things
5 minute epoxy.
Platicweld
Superglue-this is normally a temp hold till one of the other methods are done.

And heat weld. This is where we take a wood burning tool with the spade tip. Along with filament ends and melt everything together. This we do on armor and helmets mainly on the back side.
 
Hey all! I haven't forgotten about you guys! I'm soon going to start building my 3D printer, as all of the parts have arrived recently.

Also, sorry for almost necroing this thread, but it's my thread and I have things to add so deal with it :cool:

And heat weld. This is where we take a wood burning tool with the spade tip. Along with filament ends and melt everything together. This we do on armor and helmets mainly on the back side.

This is definitely something I'd like to look into for assembling my armor pieces together. I've had some bad past with superglue, and hot glue just won't work for plastic. But melting plastic together sounds fun! Like melting crayons and mixing them together!
 
Hey all! I haven't forgotten about you guys! I'm soon going to start building my 3D printer, as all of the parts have arrived recently.

Also, sorry for almost necroing this thread, but it's my thread and I have things to add so deal with it :cool:



This is definitely something I'd like to look into for assembling my armor pieces together
Rock Lobbster recommends 2-Part epoxy, correct?
 
Hey all! I haven't forgotten about you guys! I'm soon going to start building my 3D printer, as all of the parts have arrived recently.

Also, sorry for almost necroing this thread, but it's my thread and I have things to add so deal with it :cool:



This is definitely something I'd like to look into for assembling my armor pieces together. I've had some bad past with superglue, and hot glue just won't work for plastic. But melting plastic together sounds fun! Like melting crana and mixing them together!

Apoxie Sculpt is the way to go
 
Hmmmm. I'm thinking about going with PETG.

Someone said to me to buy the cheaper filament, but I want to go with the prusament filament ($30 USD per 1KG). Tell me, I want to go with the expensive filament because I'm going to be putting a lot of time into this... Is it bad to go with the cheaper filament? I want to pull a valid argument for this guy.

Also, should I go with eSun PETG, or Prusament PETG if not going down highway route cheapo?

Thanks!
 
Hmmmm. I'm thinking about going with PETG.

Someone said to me to buy the cheaper filament, but I want to go with the prusament filament ($30 USD per 1KG). Tell me, I want to go with the expensive filament because I'm going to be putting a lot of time into this... Is it bad to go with the cheaper filament? I want to pull a valid argument for this guy.

Also, should I go with eSun PETG, or Prusament PETG if not going down highway route cheapo?

Thanks!
Filaments.ca currently has a sale on eSun PETG (30CAD/kg 22.50USD/kg) which might sway you that way. Free shipping on orders to the states on orders over 200 so you'd just need seven spools to hit that.
 
Filaments.ca currently has a sale on eSun PETG (30CAD/kg 22.50USD/kg) which might sway you that way. Free shipping on orders to the states on orders over 200 so you'd just need seven spools to hit that.

Well, I ran the numbers and I'm going to need a hair under 11 kg of filament. 10.9 kg to be specific. Though I'm building a Prusa clone printer, so I'm swayed to buy the prusament.

But compared to cheap Chinese filament is my friends argument
 
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