3D Design & Print Custom Cookie Clay Play-Doh Cutters Stamp Press Mold Dog Pet Animal Picture Photo

The instructable I am creating today is for 3D Print Designing and Printing Custom Cookie or Clay/Play-Doh Cutters. I used to search for hours for different cutter designs. Now I find it easier to come up with my own designs. My beautiful wife wanted some cutters on the topic of dog breeds (one breed in particular, the Borzoi, is otherwise known as Russian Wolfhound). Follow the steps ahead for a no-nonsense instructable that will have you cutter crazy.

Drawing paper

Photo or Artwork

Light table (I use a laptop size)

Scanner or Camera (I use my phone camera)

Pencils

Black Marker

Editing program for artwork (I use the tools in Microsoft PowerPoint to darken and smooth out design)

Slicer program for 3d design

3d printer

PLA Filament

Retrieve any photo or artwork you would like to recreate as a cutter.

Place and secure your photo/art and blank sheet of paper to the light table and turn on.

Trace the outer lines of the design for a cutter. I recommend in pencil and then go over the lines with black marker.

Once the piece is traced, take a photo or scan. Upload to computer for editing.

Step 5a

Once the file is uploaded, open the file in editing software.

Step 5b

When working on the file in your editing program make sure that your design is black (design) and white (negative space).

When complete save file as .jpg to open in the slicer. All slicers I have used will open .jpg.

Note:

I must recommend the slicer I use. I utilize FlashPrint 5 from Flashforge (this recommendation comes from the hundreds of designs I created). It is a more user-friendly slicer. My favorite tool is a cutting tool not offered in most slicers. The scalability options are easier. The rotation of the model is also easier. Altogether a pleasant experience when designing models.

https://www.flashforge.com/product-detail/FlashPrint-slicer-for-flashforge-fdm-3d-printers

Now when you open your design in FlashPrint 5 it will ask the dimension you would like to process. FlashPrint 5 dimensions are in millimeters (mm). When considering cutters, I have a couple sizes I like to produce:

Small     2 inches square/diameter = 50.8 mm.

Standard      2.5-3 inches by 4 inches = 63.5 – 76.2 mm by 101.6 mm.

Large     4+ inches by 5+ inches up to 8 inches = 101.6 mm by 127 mm up to 203.2 mm.

Thickness: I print most of my cutters at ½ + inch thick or 12.7 mm. Larger cutters at 13.5 mm.

FlashPrint will also ask what thickness base for the print. I use whatever the default is. I think 2 mm. I cut the base off though for cutters. It won’t let you select 0 for the scale of the base.

Continued slicer editing, make sure to move your model to platform after your base is cut.

Note:

An option I noticed from slicing is if it is a simple flat design, you may want to cut off the top mm of the cutter.  Remove that piece and build back up to desired thickness. I noticed this creates a smoother finish.

Once your design is finished and you are satisfied with the 3d cutting tool you have created, it is time to export model to format of .stl. This will allow you to open the 3d file in many other slicers. Now you can share your creation with the world.

My Slicer Settings for Cutters

For filament that I use PLA, I use a nozzle temperature of 210℃ and a bed temperature of 60℃.

Shell Count = 3

Infill = 100%

Print Speed = 60mm/s

Top 3 Bottom 3 Layers Solid

Hexagon fill pattern

Enable Pre-Extrusion 5mm Margin

Once your settings are ready, click the slice button. When finished, select preview of the model. It will tell you the time it will take to print and how much material it will take.

Notes:

Always print a single item for the first-time printing. Do not stack multiple builds until you know how it prints. You may need to fine tune your design.

As an example, what happened to me once was I created a set of designs, a 4-piece set of cutters. I failed to notice when I was editing the design that there was a couple simple black marks. When I transferred over to the slicer program, I still did not notice the marks. I think I was excited about the design and just wanted to print them. I put all 4 on the build and printed. It also printed all these small black marks as columns on the design or near the design. I could have printed a single cutter and saved some aggravation. Instead: Ruin of material, time wasted printing and for redesign are factored into the print.

I own multiple printers of different brands and they all have their quirks to figure out. My FlashForge Creator Pro is a nice model to print with, but they require the files to be processed as .x3g for printing. This format is not openable amongst other slicers. So, for each design you come up with, there will be a master file (.stl) and the same file printable in the format of your printer (my printers format .x3g and gcode). Both my Qidi Tech X-Max and Creality Ender 3 V2 require gcode files.

With the settings used above print time will take:

·     Small size cutter = 30 minutes to 1 hour print time;

·     Standard size cutter = 1 - 4 hours of print time; and

·     Large size cutter = 5 - 8 hours to print.