Eiffel Tower printed on Form 1
The Eiffel Tower is perhaps a close second to a Yoda bust when it comes to models people print when they first get a 3D printer. I know that you’re all probably fed up of seeing them but it is a great benchmark for several reasons; intricate lattices, tall, a precise architectural model and theoretically it should be possible to print without supports, not to mention it just looks great.
We’ve had a Form 1 on loan now for a couple of weeks, so far we’ve tried a couple of smaller models on it but finally the time had come to build something with heft and a real weight.
The problem with bigger models so far has always been time, the Form 1 specialises in intricacy and high resolution, the lowest resolution (and therefore fastest speed) is 100 microns, this means it isn’t the fastest but that was never the market Formlabs were aiming for.
This model of the Eiffel Tower from thingiverse looked the most suitable to print on the Form 1, in that it was split up into four parts and therefore, if all can be squeezed onto the build plate, will consist of fewer layers. Seeing as it is quicker at doing a wider spread across the XY axis than it is moving up the z-axis I decided this would work.
If you head over to the Formlabs community support pages there’s a lot of helpful tips and tricks, I had noticed one thread about the Eiffel Tower in which a couple of guys had printed it without supports. So for the first time since we’ve had the Form 1 we printed without the automatic support generation and automatic orientation.
This model was scaled down to 65% of the original file to fit on the build plate and printed on the lowest resolution (0.1mm) it took just shy of five hours. Removing it from the build platform was the tricky part, with the support you can be a bit rough without fear of chipping the model but without said support you have to be a lot more careful.
Unfortunately I am a bit of a Wreck it Ralph and some damaged occurred to the very tip of the print, but otherwise this was a perfect print, done in the most exquisite detail of 135-year-old La Tour Eiffel.
