Zebra Paper Bird

In short: A paper (1.8mm thick cardboard) folding model of a bird with a zebra pattern. You can print this thing, use the OpenSCAD to change parameters (please refer to thing 16209 for more instructions) or you can also just use the zebra pattern in your own design!

The long tale...

Did you try to print this thing's predecessor and didn't work? Well, that also happened to me now that I have a stepper extruder(s) printer. Some time ago Bot1334 did a great job because with her downgraded MK4 DC extruder, she don't miss a chance to ooze and that ooze acts as a perfect support.

To get the print I first modified the OpenSCAD to make a "big feet bird" and then and because I have a DualStrusion capable printer, I thought "hmmmm... it would be cool to add a pattern here: Checkered? (boring) What about something like making this bird looking like a cow? or a zebra?".

After a quick search I downloaded a zebra pattern but I could not import the vector file into any of the opensource tools I have installed, no worries, with the help of the turorials that have been thingiversed I have find the way to make it possible.

I used Inkscape to outline part of the pattern, imported into blender to make a usable STL, fixed the STL with netfabb and finally applied some boolean operations, difference and intersection, with OpenSCAD.

Thanks to:

Engineer vs designer & Makerbot for the Replicator, special thanks to Sasha and the people at Makerbot for all the help in the process of getting Brooklyn 8429 safe at home!

rbckman for the great and one of the coolest, if not THE coolest, tutorial involving Inkscape and Blender, check out http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:22128 if not done yet!

tbuser for the supra-excellent tutorial on how to clean up scans for 3D printing, you can find this one here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:22275

inferlogic for his zebra pattern, http://inferlogic.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=0#/d1pu0bq

What I did to get this printed:

• Used ReplicatorG 34 (Skeinforge 47) to merge both STL for DualExtrusion.

• Settings:

  Outline, Cool & Raft: Not Active

  Def. start/end gcode & Printomatic: Yes

  Infill = 10

  Layer Height = 0.32

  Shells = 1

  Feedrate = 25

  Travel Feedrate = 50

• Check the gcode! I had quite a few unccessful builds because of the model being ejected mid-print. There's a Z- movement (platfform up) when swapping tools in the same layer! I'm affraifd that's a bug (there's a ticket opened).

I did not wait for a fix to be released, instead...

WARNING: that worked for me but I cannot tell if it's a safe thing to be done.

• In the gcode, Ctrl+F, Find for 0, (zero comma) and replace with 0. (zero dot), press Replace All, it may take a while.

• Repeat for 1 and 2 and 3 and... and 9

• Save the changes !

• Congratulations! You are ready to start the build.

Please note! I have no idea if decimal numbers in the gcode generated by ReplicatorG are always and for everyone expressed using the dot or for some regional settings/locales it's ok to use the comma. There are chances that this workaround will not work!!

Q: How can I now if I need to replace commas by dots?

A: Well, may be you don't need to do it or it may even be the case that you need to do the opposite...

Scroll down in the gcode after the start up processes and take a look to the gcode for the toolhead movements when printing, are the coordinates expressed using dots or commas? Whatever it's used, it's the right thing. Then press Ctrl+F and look for: toolchange

If the decimals in the toolchange section are using the same sign (dot or comma) you don't need to change anything. If they are using "the other" sign, then you'll need to replace it.

Ok, good luck and please, follow these instructions at your own risk ! (don't complain if you try and break something!)

The OpenSCAD:

It's just a dirty mod to give this thing some printable feet (without an oozing hotend) and two quick modules to get the two STL to merge. To use those modules you need zebraPattern.stl in the same folder/directory/whatever where you have the zebraBird.scad. I may have break something with the changes and chances are there that you'll need to tweak if you change parameters for the support, my apologies. For the rest it should work as fine (or bad) than it's predecessor.

Good luck!