Introduction: Parametric Cylinder With Base, Clay 3D Printing

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I worked with the 5 Grasshopper examples provided that are compatible with Coilcam. I worked from examples 1 to 3 and then settled on an orbish like shape using the Parabola graph. When printing, I ran into some issues with dryness of the clay and the extrusion rate, but was able to trouble shoot and eventually get a partial print that I'm calling a win.

Supplies

CoilCam plugin

Small Potter Bot

Grasshopper

Rhino

Obsidian Clay, Spray bottle of water + clay tools

Step 1:

I started with the first grasshopper example and increased the height. I also reset the range for the radius slider so it could have a little wider vase

Step 2:

I explored to the 3rd example where I could use a graph to change the toolpath, adding variegated and gradational radius changes based on how the line in the graph was adjusted. I chose to go to a subtle orb-like shape using the parabola graph type. I want to play more for the final project and use the 5th example as well to get undulating surfaces.


I set the dimensions to 10cm height and 5.5 radius to start. I increased my base layers to 4 after hearing that other students were finding that a thinner base was hard to get off the bed.


I copied the gcode from grasshopper (the notepad at the very end) -- rt click 'copy all data' then paste it into a plain text application, and it should convert to gcode by changing the extension, opened up 'get info' in order to change the extension. Here's how to get plain text on a mac, https://youtu.be/TJkVpr_JA50


Step 3:

I wish I had taken photos of loading the tube, because it is a big part of the process and took a majority of the hour of lab time. So with that experience I definitely want to plan ahead on the final project and give myself enough time in the lab to accommodate for loading the potter bot. I used the small potterbot and loaded it by hand. I wedged and sprayed the clay with water as I wedged, but I think the clay was still on the dry side.

Step 4:

To print the work, we first connected to the ethernet. It took a while to figure out how to manually set up the ethernet address. But once connected I typed in the IP address to bring up the potterbot software. I also placed a ware board on the bed and clamped it in place so I was not printing directly on the potter bot bed. I then zeroed the z axis and adjusted manually so that it was barely touching the ruler. I then needed to press Home all axis (I believe that was the button). Yanchen graciously helped me with this part. I then uploaded my gcode and pressed start.

I asked for a 4 layer base, but as we were printing we found that the potter bot software doubles it. So it was a really hefty base. But I needed it because i had a lot of trouble getting the base to stick, so the extra layers gave me time to baby set and adjust the extrusion rate to get it to stick.

At first the clay wouldn't stick. We sprayed the bed with water, but it kept curling up. Some possible reasons could be the dryness of the clay that I loaded the tube with. But what really helped fix the problem, was when I increased the extrusion factor. I think it was at about 100 or 110 when i was starting out, we went to 120 and then to 130. baby stepping and being careful when zeroing the z axis are very important, to make sure we have right amount of compression that the clay sticks.

The small potter bot creates pretty work because of the delicate nozzle, but it's also very delicate work! the coils do separate just when picking it up.