Cool Trophy Design

I'm a student at Scripps Ranch High School. I need to design a cool trophy for AYDN, a non-profit where many students like me volunteer for community service. Initial concept was sketched on a piece of paper. I used Fusion 360 to build the 3D model. The trophy has four 3-dimensional hollowed-out letters A Y D N stacked up to form an Eiffel Tower like shape. Given the complex structure with abundant overhangs, it took me several trials with different slicer setting on "support" to create the best 3D print.

• CAD: Fusion 360 
• Slicer: Cura 5.2.1
• 3D Printer: Creality Sermon D1
• Filament: PLA Silk 1.75mm, copper

The initial concept was sketched on a piece of paper.

I used Fusion 360 as the CAD tool. The design history is captured in the video. Attached is the STL file.

Initial prints ran into issue with hard to remove support structure. The abundance of hollowed-out structure is a challenge to print. The support structure is hard to remove without also destroying the printed object. I experimented with slicer configurations for no support and significantly minimized support.

Major slicer setting include the following

• layer height = 0.12 mm (high quality)
• wall thickness = 1.2 mm
• infill density = 10.0 % (10% should be adequate for such non-functional objects)
• infill pattern = lines
• infill line thickness = 0.06 mm
• printing temperature = 210.0 C
• build plate temperature = 70 C (higher temperature improve adhesion)
• print speed = 45.0 mm/s
• initial layer speed = 15.0 mm/s (slower speed for initial layers improve adhesion)
• build plate adhesion type = raft (more plate adhesion than brim)
• support = no

Full size build require approximately 13+hr printing time.