Time Monster Console Room

[d33j r093r5]

So, the other half is complete, as expected in 5.5 hours. Some update shots:











The next piece on the printer is the rear alcove of that doorway. It's gonna be a while; roughly about 19 hours!      I guess I'll be talking to you all tomorrow then...

[galacticprobe]

I'm guessing you've figured out the problem that occurred with the filament, then? Something interfering with the feed rather than the filament having been sent to you in segments rather than one long strand?

So far this is looking amazing, and I wish it was feasible to 3-D print some console room walls in life-size. (Not necessarily the "Time Monster" walls, mind you, as it's not high on my favorite looks list, but full-sized walls in general.)

Dino.

[d33j r093r5]

Hey Dino, yes it seems like it was a one-off issue, that hasn't arisen again. I would have been surprised if it had. It seems unlikely that the spool would have been sent with a deliberate cut part way through the run of the reel; either the spool jammed somehow and snapped off at that point (unlikely, would have seen more damage on the snapped end, the spool, possibly even the printer), or there may have simply been a weak spot in the filament, created when they were drawing the wire onto the spool. Some applied pressure and it breaks, like a cut, at the weakened spot. It seems to be the most likely explanation...

Believe it or not there ARE large 3D printers specifically designed for constructing/building structures. One interesting machine I've come across builds huts out of mud or rammed earth that it pre-makes or utilises the surrounding material to construct with. Another one builds bridges. There's a guy somewhere in the US that used a conventional printer like mine to print himself a full-sized car! So what you suggest is not outside the realms of possibility. However, in that instance I think expense would become the determining factor...

I actually think it looks amazing as well. There's always the possibility (and therefore niggling worry and doubt) when you start that it's not going to look anywhere near as good as what you've based it on, or even as good as it looks as a 3D model on your screen. There are SOME aspects that I'm not completely happy with as parts come off the printer, that I think could be better, or that I might want to improve, but generally they seem to be lost in the overall effect. And they're not deal-breakers by a long-shot! So, I'm very happy to say the least...   Thanks again Dino  

Actually, I'd like to say a BIG thank you to everyone who has made comment or suggestion or some appreciation of what I'm doing. It's really nice to hear the positive feedback and bounce the ideas around, and it makes a lot of difference too! So thanks to everyone!  

In any case, there is still more to come. The largest part came off the printer a few hours ago, and I will be posting about it, and other developments, shortly.

D.

[d33j r093r5]

The last 24 hours have been hectic (generally speaking, but I also got quite a lot done on the console room too!), but have brought some good developments.

Firstly, the Rear Alcove behind the Rear Door Wall completed printing. it only took about 20 hours, and I was sweating the whole time. But, it finished without incident. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...



... the Alcove printing. Everytime I stick my hand in there with the camera I'm worried I'm going to interfere with the XY Gantry and either break the printer, or destroy the print... hasn't happened thus far, touch wood, and I'm getting some nice shots out of it...  




... the completed Alcove... looks mint!






... the doorway to which it is attaching, shown here with the dowels already in position to connect it to the alcove, and the buttress (currently on the printer)...




... the Alcove and Doorway connected. Gee that looks good, even if I do say so myself. There's something nice and solid about this assembled structure. It has a depth and feeling of completedness... I must admit, I AM enjoying myself in this process. It's kind of like when you get that nice big parcel in the post you've been waiting for for quite some time...  




Hello Jon! Looking more and more at home, I must say!

Actually, one of the things that is actually very cool about this particular console room, is you just change your angle of perspective, swap out the plastic transparent inverted laundry-basket time rotor for a more metallic, candle-holder looking one, and you've got the interior of The Master's TARDIS from the same story...   I actually HAVE a few Roger Delgado figures in my collection... hmmmmmmm...  

In other news, I essentially now have the finished version of the console that is going to be printed! YAY!



The "gaps" or cutout sections are the places I allowed for controls. To give you an idea of how they look (more or less)...



With images (kindly provided by silverfox) overlaid onto the panels to show the controls. There will be finer details still on some of the printed controls, and some markings on the console itself will be painted on. The painting is the only bit I'm dreading at this stage... I THINK I'll be ok...


In any case, here's and angled glance at what the completed printed console will look like prior to getting all those wonderful goodies mentioned above...



Ok, that wraps up the last days work. In another 3 hours, I will be able to attach the buttress to that Rear Doorway and Alcove... Will update with pics when ready.

D.

[fictionlord]

Wonderful work!  Oh how I wish CO/UT would bring an official one out!

May I ask what the resolution of your 3D Printer is, etc?  Basically some technical details?  This is something I've been thing of saving up and doing but want to gauge what level of quality the printers are able to produce...  

[d33j r093r5]

Thank you, much appreciated. Unfortunately, we can't expect TOO much from CO in 5" scale these days. I would like to be wrong, but I'm not hopeful for them to release anything in the way of props, let alone TARDIS interiors, from the classic series, and even if they did, given the cheapy nature of the way things have changed in the last 4 years or so, the quality and build type would be disappointing ...  It was a great range once upon a time! Still is really. I'm hoping that the recent teasers that we were given at SDCC this year will be up to snuff. I think that's about all we can hope for, the occasional, special release...

As to resolution, it depends a bit on how fast you print, the diameter of the filament and nozzle you use, how much infill you are prepared to use when building your structures, and how thick you choose to make the layers of the print. Pretty much all Home 3D printers ie plastic extrusion printers, work on the same accuracy. About the best you can hope to get is 100 microns, or 0.1mm +/-. This is with a 0.4mm nozzle and 1.75mm filament. Typically, you can expect about 0.2mm-0.5mm accuracy +/-. I usually work to about 0.5mm, as it is accurate enough, and gives me enough wiggle room for fitting parts together, ie doorways into doorframes, console components into the console, roundels into roundel slots etc. Having said that, if you have a look at my wall joins, they fit together reasonably snuggly, and I have not left any gap between them. I was expecting interference fits for the walls, and that I might have to break out the sander, but they have actually come out bang on measurement! I think a lot can be said for calibrating your printer before starting on a project like this, ie, making sure your build plate is DEAD level, that your nozzles aren't oozing filament all over the place etc. I'm also printing with about 20% infill, which is double what I usually use, and am printing critical layers and faces (visible ones, joining ones) at reduced rates.

90% of prints that come off the build table, no matter how finely you tweak everything, are not going to be perfect. There's always a bit of roughness to the edges, print layers visible, artifacts and wispy tails produced etc. Most model makers (ie not me) prefer to print items faster, albeit as nicely as they can, then polish and sand, then paint for completion, purely because they WANT the items to look as much the business as possible, and they know they aren't going to get it right off the build plate.

Probably the most ideal thing a home printer is for is simple model making, and rapid prototyping as a proof-of-concept, rather than a working part, although it CAN be used for that too. Obviously, once you leave the "home" end of the spectrum and start paying between thousands and tens of thousands of dollars for professional or business machines, quality, accuracy, useability and range of materials you can use goes right up! The best 3D printers in the world can get accuracies in microns in single digits...! For the home user and "these" types of printers, they're all much of a muchness, going to deliver similar results and similar accuracies, in spite of their claims. The gamechangers will come when the newer technologies for printing become commercially available (check out this link to see what I'm talking about : http://www.ted.com/talks/joe_desimone_what_if_3d_printing_was_25x_faster?language=en )

For myself, my printer is a Wanhao Duplicator 4 (from China), which is an EXACT knockoff of a Makerbot Replicator 2 Dual, albeit a bit cheaper and not-as-easy-to-access support. Most printers are built essentially the same way as this, with bigger or smaller build platforms, heated beds vs non-heated, fully enclosed vs not enclosed. I recommend a heated bed, it will help a LOT with print adhesion. An enclosure is probably a good idea, purely for avoiding knocks and accidents, maybe even trying to keep the temperature around the print fairly constant, although that's questionable as the enclosures don't regulate the internal temperature, but maybe for avoiding draughts (? ? ?). But you can build an enclosure, if you have the knack, time and patience to do so. A larger print bed helps with larger print items, but isn't necessary, as you can see you can make smaller parts that fit together to make larger parts. All this is important for working out cost $$$!

I hope that helps.  

D.

[jakaboomaddness]

mate i think Character Options should get in touch with you to help them design and produce their sets, because the level of craftsmanship and attention to detail on this is awesome!! well done, cant wait to see it finished!!

[d33j r093r5]

You're very kind jakaboomaddness, but there is still a fair amount of detail missing from the model that I either a) can't add because it's simply too fine for the scale and level of tech and skill I have or b) I can't be bothered to add! There's enough detail for it to be serviceable and recogniseable, I feel, and I think the results that I've had thus far are pretty good. I'm happy with it. I'm glad you like it too! 

[fivefingeredstyre]

I love it when something unusual like this comes along

Its coming together really well, I can't wait to see the finished product.

Re: Character Options. I did hear at a convention a few years back that they were planning on making the original Hartnell Console room at least, however it seems nothing came of that...

I wonder if the prototype is still around?

[d33j r093r5]

Ta muchly. Next update there will be lots to show off, just haven't had time to stop and do anything, except (in passing) take out a completed print and start the next one going... will get onto it as soon as I have a moment...

I heard a similar rumour a few years back, probably when it was still fresh. I never saw a prototype for it, so I don't know if they even made one! Got a funny feeling that high-up executive bean-counters at both the Beeb and CO would probably have decided that it wouldn't sell, except to a few die-hards like thee and me (and probably everyone else on the Forum!), and the cost to benefit ratio would have fallen on the wrong side of the red-line. It's understandable, but frustrating as all hell to the rest of us, who do REALLY WANT to see it become a reality...

Actually, did anyone here ever see the Hartnell prototype? I'm putting it out there...

D.

[tony farrell]

I love it when something unusual like this comes along

Its coming together really well, I can't wait to see the finished product.

Yes, me too. Laser printing (and the pitfalls thereof) is something which is completely new to me... I wonder if this process could be used to 'print' those white grilles on the original console?

I've always actually quite liked the Time Monster Tardis interior (even though many of the saucer moldings were misshapen) though it would have been better had they had the time just to use these for the Master's Tardis so it wouldn't have been quite so obvious it was the same set.

So, it's nice to see someone giving this version of the Tardis interior a 'fair rack of the whip'!

Tony

[Rassilons Rod]

Yes, me too. Laser printing (and the pitfalls thereof) is something which is completely new to me... I wonder if this process could be used to 'print' those white grilles on the original console?

I believe Mr Celation actually did

[d33j r093r5]

Laser Printing works on a different process to mine. There are 2 different types of Laser printing: Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and Stereolithography Laser Printing (SLA). In SLS, a laser scans across the surface of a thin layer of powder to fuse material wherever the laser strikes the powder bed. Thin layers of powder are deposited across the build surface, and the process repeats until the model is complete. In SLA, the laser is used to cure resin at specific coordinates where the laser pinpoints, thus slowly creating a solid object out of liquid resin. Those are the simplified versions. Most commercial printers for home use don't work on those principles, as a very high class laser is required, very finely calibrated, and can be dangerous if misused, although they are available, and are still currently fairly expensive. My printer is an FDM printer, or Fused Deposition Modelling. It has a heated extruder with a very small nozzle on the end, of which a very fine stream of plastic is laid down, line by line, layer by layer, to create the model. There being an increasing number of materials that can be used with FDM printers all the time...

I guess I'm wondering if it actually was a Laser type printer that was used to make the grilles you mentioned; it WOULD need to be very fine, and probably was done with a laser printer, but not out of the question to be done with an FDM printer either.

I do quite like the Time Monster Console Room; I suppose I wouldn't print it if I didn't! It just has that late 60's/early 70's trendy art-deco look to it, very telling of the era the show was being made in. But I did also want to do something different. I don't know if there has been anyone else besides silverfox and myself on this one; I haven't been able to find it if they have. it made tracking down resources for it a bit of a challenge. I hope I've done it justice...

[Rassilons Rod]

Ah... It was some kind of 3D printing. More than that I cannot say. We'd need Celation himself to pop in and give us that info

[d33j r093r5]

As we speak, one of the main doors is about 90% finished... thought I'd better give you an update at this point because Things have Happened...  

Firstly, the Buttress of the Alcove doorway finished. Took about 11.5 hours. I then moved onto the Main Door Wall, which is split into 4 segments for printing. Here's a shot of them laid out:




... and assembled...



... all up, there was a little over a days worth of printing on these segments...




... aligned where it's going to be joined...



... and joined... like a BOUGHT one!  


I moved onto the second 4 Panel Wall after that (the one that actually has a blank roundel where the scanner goes in this version of the console room. Took a little under 7.5 hours to print...



... hmmmmm, I'm not happy with this. It seems like the top solid layers of filament are "sinking" into the gaps left by the honeycombing of the layers underneath. It shouldn't be happening, but I've noticed it getting more and more pronounced with subsequent builds (since printing that Alcove). I also don't know WHY it's happening, which is the more important question. This was the last print before the door that is currently on the printer. I've added an extra solid layer to the top to see if this rectifies the problem. Fingers crossed, we're at 96%...




... an intermediary shot I took of the overview before the Main Door Wall was finished...




... completed sections joined together, the Alcove now sporting it's buttress...




... what's currently finished, with everything in (more or less) their correct spots with relation to each other...

Printer has just beeped with the finished door; took a shade under 4 hours. Will check it and get back to you...  



UPDATE: The door is a success!...



The extra layer has helped minimize the honeycomb effect sticking out the top! Yay! You can still see it, but I can compensate for that by adding another solid layer on the subsequent prints. 

In other news, I have started modelling controls for the console. I haven't progressed very far because of stuff, things, reasons and shush!    But here is what I have thus far...



... part of this process was going over the whole console to see exactly what went where, how many of everything would be required, how big I need to make them, etc, etc, which was a little time consuming, but will save me oodles later when it comes to "nesting" small parts to print, and for doing multiples off. Didn't occur to me I might need spreadsheets when I started this project, now I have 2; one keeping track of build times, the other keeping track of the tiny fiddly bits...!   Ahhh, it'll all be worth it, and the satisfaction for having done it will be all the sweeter! 

D.