1 of 3
Ouya Main
2 of 3
A finished Ouya
3 of 3
Ouya's back
Thingi Thursday has been a mixed bag so far, the emergency stop button has come in quite handy on a few occasions but more often than not the prints get there. The spinning wheel gets looser and more spinny every day, the SmartObjects designed pot still holds the UP!’s tools (last week’s mug is used as a backup tool holder), in fact only the disastrous first Joy Division Print has been discarded to landfill.
This week’s print was bold, it was brave, and some say it was downright mad! Sounds like the tagline to a video game doesn’t it? Well, that’s apt because this week we were attempting to print the case for an Ouya. Ouya was a runaway Kickstarter success; a $99 games console, based on the Android operating system that received $8.5m of backing.
MakerBot announced a partnership with the games console a few months back, releasing the files on thingiverse for anyone to download and print their own box. One of the Personalize team had the console on pre-order and has finally received his machine, so we decided to print him a case to celebrate.
The print comes in four parts, which couldn’t quite fit on the build plate so we had to do it in two prints, the first print was the intricate parts for the lid including a button and spring mechanism, the second print was the outer-casing itself.
The UP! was being far less temperamental than it was last week and raced off with print one a 0.15mm Z-Resolution on medium speed only taking two and a bit hours. It printed the first batch with no problems, but (there’s always a 'but' in 3D printing) the rafts proved rather difficult to remove on the more intricate parts. My main gripe with the UP! Plus is raft removal is fine on bulky items but with smaller prints it can often be a total nightmare to remove without damaging the part. Printing without a raft can often lead to the prints being next to impossible to remove from the perfboard.
The second print’s raft proved far less problematic to remove however the print itself was the noisiest print ever. Our diagnostic for this intolerable racket was the printer’s zigzagging motion as it filled the Ouya’s casing walls. Fortunately because the casing isn't as intricate we'd put it on the fast setting, it wasn’t long though before the screeching had finished.
All the parts fit snuggly together and the case certainly looks the part, the tricky part will come this evening when Adrian decides to take apart his, under warranty, Ouya and fits it inside the 3D printed case.
