Thursday, December 5, 2019

D&D Player's Traveling Kit

DIY.

Hobbies are great. Combining hobbies is even better. After fixing up my 'rollsnijder' (papercutter) I found a new use for the 3D printer... a 'D&D Player's Traveling Kit'.

Not very useful, but still fun 😇


The real reason

Actually, I was doing some test prints to figure out how well large volumes would print, and how to optimally level the printing bed for large prints. I'm about to print some stuff in (expensive) Innofill FR filament (fire retardant stuff) and I better make sure the setup is perfect before committing...

So... how large can I print? How about something the size of the full bed?


Test case

A little box, a kind of 'adventurer's kit' to bring along to a roleplaying session, containing all the essentials. Spell cards, dice, pen and pencil.


I always carry an A5 notebook to these gaming sessions to keep notes, and keep myself busy when my attention starts to drift. The new box should have about the same size as such a notebook, and lo and behold: the print bed of the Dremel 3d20 is just a little larger than an A5 book.

Good! Found my test object... Fire up Fusion360, draw a box, and get ready to print.


The result


I printed the bottom half in 123-3D Jupiter filament in about 8 hours, and the lid in 2 year old semi-translucent red Dremel PLA in a little over 6 hours. I over-sized the lid resulting in a 1 mm gap between red lid and black bottom section.

Stylish red and black to match the predominant 5e color scheme 😉


Conclusions

1. Even when perfectly leveled the filament has some trouble sticking to the top left corner of the building bed. The bed (a piece of Plexiglas with a Dremel build sticker) might not be perfectly flat, or the location of the leveling adjusters might be too close to the center making leveling of an outside corner problematic. A bit of adjusting the leveling wheels left and top fixed it.

(I checked with a ruler, and yes, the bed isn't perfectly flat, but a little convex.)

2. The bottom of the printed object, printed in PLA on a non-heated bed, does bend a bit. It seems to stick properly to the (cold, unheated) bed evenly. However, when I remove the object from the bed the object is actually a little warped, not perfectly flat. I suspect it actually warps the bed a little until removed, as the direction of the warp is opposite of the curve of the non-flat bad, ie. concave.

So, yes. I can print objects up to bed size, but with some caveats.


The D&D traveller's box

It was a test case, but still something that will see some  use. Here's the box with all contents, in comparison with the A5 notebook:



My oversized spell cards, some dice, pens and pencil all fit nicely. So I now know what to look out for with this Dremel 3D20, and that box will come in handy for carrying my d20 dice... (I should put in 3, as in 3D20, just for the principle.)

Now all that's left is convincing WOTC to release an A5 hardcover with just the rules and some classes and feats. That would go so nicely with box and notebook...


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