SIERRA720
Member
Hi all! I've recently been working on a 3D printed energy sword and thought I'd share my progress. I'm currently about half way through, but let's go back to the start.
First up I saw that, Alwaystimtime released a gorgeous model of Halo 3's energy sword which can be found here. I got to printing right away using my new Bambulab H2S, using clear Pla for the blades. I usually use Petg but the file author noted that Petg blades were shattering for him. I found that 1:1 was a good scale for the sword at my height (6ft/185cm).
I hadn't considered infill, but that turned out to be an issue. You can see in the above image three different experiments, the first two with two wall layers and different types of infill, the third with three wall layers and 0% infill. Adding the extra wall layer made the sword solid in the middle of the blade, but also left weird artefacts in some places - see the three circles around where the blade connects.
The artefacts can be seen again running up this blade. I was only able to remove them by making the model 2 wall layers and 0% infill - essentially hollow, but at the time I was concerned about durability and the blades became very thin. In hindsight though - I think the blades could survive with two wall layers, but that might be an improvement for the future..
When it came to gluing the blades, it was surprisingly easy. I laid some baking paper down over a cutting mat, applied some super glue to the edges of one piece, lined them up and pushed the together against the mat. Kept them flat and straight, and I was able to glue every blade section within half an hour with no issues. Love when something works out
The handle here is the next thing to work on. I printed this one to gauge sizes and play around with the blades, but there is no way to seal this blade to the other half without gluing it permanently (rip electronics) or zip-tieing it. My friend is helping me model some screw holes in the handle so we can close the two halves with M4 screws and be able to open it in future to access the electronics. Stay tuned!
Finally, we have begun experiments on the lighting too. You can't really tell from this still image, but the lights pulse and move to look like energy. My friend has also taken over this portion, so I'll get him to help me with a write-up. Thanks for reading and I'll hopefully be back with a further update soon!
First up I saw that, Alwaystimtime released a gorgeous model of Halo 3's energy sword which can be found here. I got to printing right away using my new Bambulab H2S, using clear Pla for the blades. I usually use Petg but the file author noted that Petg blades were shattering for him. I found that 1:1 was a good scale for the sword at my height (6ft/185cm).
I hadn't considered infill, but that turned out to be an issue. You can see in the above image three different experiments, the first two with two wall layers and different types of infill, the third with three wall layers and 0% infill. Adding the extra wall layer made the sword solid in the middle of the blade, but also left weird artefacts in some places - see the three circles around where the blade connects.
The artefacts can be seen again running up this blade. I was only able to remove them by making the model 2 wall layers and 0% infill - essentially hollow, but at the time I was concerned about durability and the blades became very thin. In hindsight though - I think the blades could survive with two wall layers, but that might be an improvement for the future..
When it came to gluing the blades, it was surprisingly easy. I laid some baking paper down over a cutting mat, applied some super glue to the edges of one piece, lined them up and pushed the together against the mat. Kept them flat and straight, and I was able to glue every blade section within half an hour with no issues. Love when something works out
The handle here is the next thing to work on. I printed this one to gauge sizes and play around with the blades, but there is no way to seal this blade to the other half without gluing it permanently (rip electronics) or zip-tieing it. My friend is helping me model some screw holes in the handle so we can close the two halves with M4 screws and be able to open it in future to access the electronics. Stay tuned!
Finally, we have begun experiments on the lighting too. You can't really tell from this still image, but the lights pulse and move to look like energy. My friend has also taken over this portion, so I'll get him to help me with a write-up. Thanks for reading and I'll hopefully be back with a further update soon!
