Hi there.

Perhaps it is obvious from the heading, but I know nothing about 3D printing.

On May 1st, I will begin running from Nordkapp, Norway on what will hopefully be a 6 1/2 year circmnavigation ending in Cape Town, South Africa.

The run is called “Hug Run” and basically hopes to remind people that we are all human, even if we eat different food, worship different deities etc etc, so stop being idiots to each other.

I would like to get people to sponsor a plaque which will carry a message similar to this one -

" Donated by XXXXXXXX in support of ‘Hug Run’ to celebrate and respect our common humanity "

Above this, I would like to include the logo of whoever does the printing along with “100% biodegradable”…or similar, and below the text, I would like to include the project blog

www.vidamago.org

Every time somebody donates a plaque, I want to peg one into the ground and geotag it, but the material must be biodegradable. The person will get their year or two of publicity, but I don’t want to be littering the route.

It’s obviously not going to be as simple as that, but this is a brief outline.

What I am looking for is -

1) If the tech exists, somebody to help make these plaques…not for free, the donation will cover your costs of manufacturing and posting.

2) Somebody to explain to me the processes and pros&cons.

3) Somebody who is able to ship at relatively short notice, to any one of the 6 continents, excluding Antarctica.

4) Somebody who is free to contact me asap, as Plan A unfortunately fell through this morning and there are 2 weeks until project kicks off - mamparame@gmail.com

5) Somebody who is happy to accept multiple one-off print requests, as opposed to bulk orders.

If anybody has any info in this regard, I would appreciate it if you were to contact me.

Thanks,

Dave

Hi Dave,

First, congrats for your project.

PLA is the most used plastic in FDM 3D Printing. It’s a bioplastic but it’s not biodegradeable in normal conditions.

There is biodegradeable biopolymer for FDM 3D Printing :

Take a look at http://extrudr.eu/collections/specials.

The problem is that most of the poeple don’t use that.

The easiest way to produce your plaque is to produce it with 3DHubs for example.

There is more than 25000 people who prints for others in the world.

You may have to try to have a agreement with them :wink:

Process:

- Design the 3D Model. Openscad is probably the best tool so you will be able to generate the 3D model based on code :

http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/OpenScad\_beginners\_tutorial#Creating\_3D\_text

Output : STL file

- Slice the model. Input : STL file. Output : gcode. It’s machine specific (done by 3DHubs Hubs)

- Copy the gcode to the sdcard (done by 3DHubs Hubs)

- Put the sdcard into the printer (done by 3DHubs Hubs)

- Print (done by 3DHubs Hubs)

Do you have already a design for your plaques ?

Good luck !

Cheers

g

Hi Gautier,

Thanks for the response. It is most useful. PLA will be the route, I think.

Unfortunately, I have only had one day to think up plan B, so don’t have any plans drawn up, just the idea. Perhaps somebody here will help me with the design/CAD part as I am unfortunately a technological caveman. The most advanced feature on my phone is a torch.

Will have a look at your design link, and if you know of anybody who is competent from your experience, please let me know. They can contact me at mamparame@gmail.com

Regards,

Dave

Do you have an idea of what you want on your plaque : name ? date ? something else ?

PS : torch is really usefull :wink:

Hi Dave,

I’ve sent you an email

Cheers,

Marc

Do you found help ?

Hey Marc,

Sorry mate. Lost the internet vibe there for a few days.

Thanks for the interest, but for now, I am sorted.

Regards,

Dave

Hi Gauthier,

All is well thanks.

There is a South African company who are printing them for free in exchange for having some of their branding included in the design. They seem to be okay for now, but I will see how they cope with the logistics of posting the plaques around the world.

I might get back to you at a later stage if things aren’t going well with them.

Regards,

dave

Good luck for your project !