Greetings. First Post.
I’ve gotten an Ultimaker at the school where I teach and it’s working well.
I want to be able to produce 3d printed paper pulp molds with the Ultimaker similar to the ones described in this Stratasys article:
“3D Printing for Paper Pulp Molds”
http://www.stratasys.com/solutions/additive-manufacturing/tooling/molded-fiber
Making this kind of paper pulp mold will require variation in porosity of a print. I need to make the top surface with slight gaps to let water be drawn through but not the pulp.
The key step in what the Stratasys does seems to be this: “Designers can easily maximize air flow and minimize clogging by altering the raster gaps in the FDM toolpath.”
I’m not sure what setting to use in Cura to alter something equivalent to the “raster density”. The way I imagine it, I would build up a normal support structure and then sort of crosshatch the top layer leaving a small gap between each filament pass. I would end up with a fine screen that could let water through but not paper pulp fibers. By adjusting the gaps I could find the optimum screen porosity for the process.
Any ideas or tips?
Regards,
Josh
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Interesting idea, Josh!
I can say that it’d be a cinch with Simplify3D. Probably just reduce the Support / Upper Vertical Separation Layers to Zero and tinker with the Extrusion Multiplier and Extrusion Percentage in the Extruder menu. At a pinch, you might need to tweak the Nozzle Diameter or Filament Diameter to get a little less extrusion but I doubt it.
Far as Cura’s concerned, I’ve taken a look and - someone will have to confirm this - looks like the Support Z setting in the Expert Config is the job. Set that to Zero. Then you can fiddle with the Layer Height, Filament diameter, Flow Percentage and Nozzle Size. Plenty to be fiddling with! 
Hope you manage to get what you want. Be sure to post pics of your results here! 
Cheers!
AndyL
Pot8oSH3D
Haters gonna hate - Pot8ers gotta Pot8!
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Apologies for being out of topic, but I love your new signature, Andy 
jeremie
4
I would try under extrusion so gaps are left everywhere, with thin top/bottom layer width. In addition, you may also tell cura that you have a larger nozzle size than in reality (so that the deposited threads are smaller than usually). Fiddling with the latter alone may not be enough as the modern slicers will compensate (they compute the appropriate amount of material, somehow independently of the nozzle diameter).
Hi Josh,
First ever Post. I’m an artist who has been trying to design paper pulp moulds to create custom paper pulp objects based on the topography of ruins, and I have been getting nowhere with physically modelling mould in steel mesh, and had recently tried to model my moulds for 3d printing, but couldn’t fathom how to create the porous surfaces. Imagine my excitement when I discovered you had been working through the same problems! I’m very new to 3d rendering, and haven’t been using Cura yet, as I don’t have access to an Ultimaker, but I was wondering what kind of result you’d gotten?
I’d be really keen to discuss this with you.
Many thanks,
Nick
I started 3D printing paper pulp molds a couple of months ago. To draw the parts you need to “cut” your mold into three or more parts using something like Fusion 360. Then stack the parts in Cura, using +z offset as needed.
In Cura can set custom settings for each part on the build plate, so for sections of your mold that pass vacuum, set wall thickness, top layers, and bottom layers to zero. Then you just have infill, which you can adjust by changing the infill density.
The part of the mold that forms the parts will have fine square infill. The part in the middle will have less infill (I found triangle infill works well here), and the part closest to the vacuum port will have very wide infill (also triangle). I wrote a blog about how to make 3D Printed paper pulp molds here. It goes way more in-depth and links to other things you need. I hope this can become more of an open source project.
Hope this helps!
Yadafaber
Product Development
