All Glossary

3D-Printing

Standard 3D printing technology (not printing with clay itself) is very useful to potters and ceramic industry in making objects that assist and enable production.

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It is becoming more practical for potters and ceramic artists or entrepreneurs to take on projects never before possible because of the increasing accessibility of 3D printing. 3D printing makes you more independent. Ordinary consumer printers are useful for making mock-ups, master and block molds, forms, templates, mold pour-spouts, supports, holders, cutters, tools, stamps, embossers, rollers and more. It puts forming techniques you would not otherwise use (e.g. jiggering, casting, pressing, extruding, stamping) into easier reach.

The most difficult obstacle to adopting 3D printing is learning 3D design software. Don’t bother buying a printer till you do that (or you will have a printer with nothing to print). The software is intimidating. However the existence of standards is a big help in navigating all the options - terminology and methodology are very similar across all products. A major enabler is that, as of 2022 anyway, AutoDesk Fusion 360 is still free for use by education and businesses earning less than $100K per year (otherwise entry level is around $500/yr). OnShape is also free if you don't mind drawing being public. It is the standard for consumer part design and has exceptional online resources and training and almost every other product compares itself to Fusion 360. However, they are a commercial company, and don’t kid yourself, they are going to try to turn you into a customer and make you dependent on them. That being said, their product is still the best educational route to learning 3D. The experience, enthusiasm and confidence gained is applicable to moving to a free product (like FreeCAD) or a less expensive tablet-based one like Shapr.

Online service providers offer a wide range of printing technologies, so you can email 3D files to them. An exciting technology is laser fusing of powder, even metal powder (in this way metals and ceramic can be precisely printed). That being said, it is still best to have your own printer. This is because the process of learning and perfectly designing involves cycles of tweaking designs and reprinting them. The freedom to do this is a big part of the utility of 3D printing. Once you have a proven design, then consider sending it away for printing in higher quality.

Owning your own printer is largely possible because of the RepRap international movement to develop open-source hardware and software platforms for 3D printing. Reprap printers use standard buy-at-a-hardware-store parts or ones that the printer itself can make. This means that anyone can buy and assemble an inexpensive printer to learn many details of their mechanics and operation.

Making practical use of the technologies and not getting caught up in the hype of things can be challenging. One way to do this gradual evolution, just learn what you need to make the item required today. Contrary to the previous statement, it may actually be good to buy a printer before learning the design software, watching it sit idle will motivate you to learn Fusion 360. By the same token, paying a consultant on Upwork to help you learn will motivate progress, just to avoid wasting that money and paying more consultants! The real “lights-on” moments will happen when you develop ways to draw things that are better than the teachers.

Related Information

Fusion 360, my choice for 3D modelling in ceramics

Intimidation by the complexity of this type of software is the biggest obstacle you will face to learning 3D design (for 3D-printing). Fusion 360 is the new mission of AutoDesk, the leader in CAD software for 30 years, bringing much of the power of their industrial strength Inventor product into the hands of everyone! Fusion 360 has a lot of advantages. It is a standard. There is a simple learning curve via their Tinkercad.com, videos on Youtube, easy online help and many freelancers to hire (at Upwork.com). It is free to qualifying users (teachers, students or people who earn less that $100k/yr), the fact that software of this kind of power and utility is actually available to anyone who wants to try it is amazing. Fusion 360 (and other 3D design products) cannot run 3D printers (3D slicers do that). Fusion 360 is very demanding on the processor and graphics hardware of your computer, typical laptops are not powerful enough.

Fusion 360 on YouTube

Popular gurus get millions of views on their videos. Lars Christensen, Kevin Kennedy and Tyler Beck are popular contributors. Each of them has plenty of videos to teach you everything you need to know to get started designing for your ceramic production. If you get stuck, there are hundreds of places on line to go to find help. It is helpful if you know how to do a screen recording (e.g. using Screencast-o-Matic) to be able to demonstrate your problem. Getting specific answers to specific problems is a surefire way to progress in your knowledge. The first item to learn is sketching, if you can master that much of what you did will be modifying sketches (e.g. extruding, revolving, sweeping and lofting them).

The Prusa Slicer generates G-Code for 3D-printing

This slicer ships with, and is recommended for, the Prusa line of 3D printers (when you click to print something in your 3D design software (e.g. Fusion 360) it sends the 3D geometry to your chosen slicer software, that software drives the actual printer). Simplicity and the exact visual reproduction of the printed bed make this a good choice for slicing (slicing is the mathematical process of cutting a 3D object into layers that can be printed successively). Another advantage is that online help for this printer will generally assume the use of this slicer. There are a myriad of settlings and parameters that printing software must respect to adapt to each type of 3D printer and the pairing of the Prusa printers with this slicer will be the best.

It is 2018. This Prusa MK3 3D printer is worth the extra cost.

Czech inventor, Josef Prusa, takes great pains to preface the name of each model with the word "Original" (e.g. this is an "Original i3 MK3S"). Dozens of Chinese companies have copied his i3 machines and sell them for 1/3 to 1/2 the price. But buyers often deal with poor or no support, disconnects between absurdly poor instruction manuals and parts, poor quality parts, parts that do not fit or work, no wonder that a large percentage are never able to complete the assembly. This printer, by contrast, has a LEGO-quality instruction manual and lots of online support. It also has auto bed levelling (this is a huge factor), much better cable routing, automatic filament insert, removable flexible bed, has its own slicing software, it prints faster, is quieter, does not break down all the time and print quality is much better (note the closeup: less than 1mm thickness, yet highly precise). You can even pull the plug out of the wall during a print and it will continue after reconnect! And its updates its drivers through the slicer software.

Things that are too big to 3D print can be done in two pieces

This jigger mold shell has a step that provides the ideal place to split it into two pieces for printing. It is not necessary to do it in your 3D design app, 3D slicer software has the ability to do just before printing. In Simplify3D you just push the object downward on the platform (anything below does not print). Prusa Slicer (and Slic3r) offer a cutting plane to cut an object in two (after printing the first piece you just undo to restore the removed half and then delete the first section and print the second). Then, after printing, just glue the two pieces together.

Printing a prototype propeller for my Lightnin lab mixer

An example of how handy the ability to print in 3D can be. The worn-out stainless propeller costs $300 to replace. But the size and pitch of the blades is not right anyway. So I draw them using Fusion 360 and print them in PLA plastic, enabling experimenting with different sizes and pitches. While I could have one printed in stainless at shapeways.com I do not need to because these plastic ones are surprisingly durable. How about getting a tight fit on the shaft? No problem. I measured this shaft with callipers and printed that size. It was a little tight so I printed it slightly larger and it fits very tightly. One issue: If you mix slurries with hot water the blades will bend and the collar will loosen. If you would like this STL format file (for 3D printing in your slicer software), it is available in the Files manager in your Insight-live.com account.

Making complex ceramic tile shapes by 3D printing your own cookie cutters

This was done on an affordable RepRap printer. The red plastic templates were drawn in Fusion 360 and sliced and printed using Simplify3D. A wooden block was used to press these cookie cutters into the clay. The plastic wrap made sticking a non-issue (and rounded the corners nicely). Commercial bottled glazes were applied to this low fire talc body by brushing (in three coats) after bisque - the rounded corners make brushing easier. The tiles were fired at cone 03. This is an old classic design that I discovered when researching Damascus tile. The toughest obstacle was learning how to use Fusion 360. It turns out that cookie cutters are a starter project for many 3D software packages, there are lots of videos on making them.

Hand-tooling a mug model vs. 3D-printing a mold to cast it

I am creating molds for a 2019 casting-jiggering project to reproduce heavy stoneware mugs manufactured here 50 years ago. I have a profile drawing I want to match (upper left). The solid plaster model on the left was my first attempt at manual tooling. The metal template was time-consuming to hand-make, its contour was difficult-to-match to the drawing and the plaster surface turned out rough and difficult-to-smooth. To make the plaster model on the right I printed a shell (using my 3D printer), poured the plaster in, extracted it after set and then smoothed it on the wheel using a metal rib and trimming tool. It matches the drawing perfectly and the round is very true. 3D-printing is revolutionary for this type of thing! The drawings: I hired someone on Upwork.com to make them for me (using Fusion 360). The shell-mold (to cast the model) on the upper right: I printed that too, in two pieces.

Large cookie-cutter 3D-printed in four pieces

These four sections were glued together to make a larger one. Now it is possible to quickly precision-cut the shape for making my pie-crust mugs. Later I re-printed these templates on a better 3D printer so the inner vertex holes cut out much better.

A 3D-printed spout enables a flared rim on cast ware

It was glued down using the casting slip itself (it stuck in seconds). About ten minutes after draining a fettling knife was run around the inside, then it detached easily. The overhung lip produced imparts structural strength that resists warping, for drying and firing, to the thin walled piece. This spout has advantages over the traditional "spare" built in to the upper part of a mold. It enables a one-piece mold. The lip can be more overhung. Draining is cleaner and easier. Molds are lighter. Extraction can be done sooner and it is easier. The spout does not absorb so there is less scrap. The degree of overhang is adjustable by simply printing new spouts.

The incredible utility of 3D-printing handle case molds

These molds are 3D-printed from PLA filament. They are part of my 2019 year-long casting-jiggering project to reproduce a Medalta 66 mug. A quick soaping, 325g water, 475g plaster and a fifteen-minute set produced these two plaster molds. When casting these solid they can be ready to apply in an hour after pouring (using the slip clays I have). While it is amazing how well these molds work I learned several things for version 2.0. The two halves mate with a tiny amount of play, it would be better not to have the natches, that enables sanding the mating surfaces flat for a perfect fit (simply lining up the outsides lines up the insides). Spares are not needed either, a 3D-printed dual pour spout would be better. A draft on the side walls would also make it easier to get the plaster molds out after they set.

Final cast-jiggered cone 6 mug beside original 3D-printed mock-up

This is a product of a casting-jiggering project I did in 2019 to recreate a 1960s Medalta Potteries mug. The first step was drawing a profile in 2D (using Adobe Illustrator) and then working with a Fusion 360 freelancer at Upwork.com to create a quality 3D drawing. 3D printing this mock-up was possible after that, using my favorite 3D slicer, Simplify 3D. The mug was drawn "parametrically", that is, measurements and geometric relationships were built-in such that changing contours and the size preserved the original design. The first production mug, made about a year later, is on the right. Molds were scaled up 10% from this mockup size so that final pieces would be this size, however the firing shrinkage of the clay turned out to be about 12%.

Here is what happens when you put a 3D-printed PLA part in hot water

These are pouring spouts, they are glued (using the clay slurry) to the tops of molds to enable over-filling with clay slip (since the slip level drops during the time it is left in the mold). The "pouring spout" function permits much easier cleanup. Before each use I immerse these in water for a minute to remove the dried-on clay from the previous cast. But, obviously, that needs to be cold water.

Polish the plaster surface, not the 3D-printed shell-mold

This plaster model was just removed from the 3D-printed shell behind. It dropped out easily (after tapping it at-an-angle on the corners), this worked well despite the resolution lines on the surface. While I could have spent time sanding and smoothing the inside of the shell-mold, it is actually far easier to smooth the surface of the plaster form after extraction. Seconds with a metal rib completely smooths any of the surfaces. And remember, it is easier to remove plaster items cast inside of 3D-printed molds rather than cast around the outside of them. I named this size as 95-5-113, referring to the TopWith-Angle-Height. I set these as parameters in Fusion 360 and can print adjustments to this size (labelling them appropriately).

3D-Printed rail to cast working plaster jigger molds

The grey outer rail on the left was printed in two parts and glued together (at the shoulder). Its vertical split enables me to open it a little. The center model of the outside contour of the mug (on a two-step base) was made by casting the plaster inside another two-piece 3D-printed form I had made (we had to use a heat-gun and scissors to get the PLA printed form off of that plaster). I smoothed the surface on the wheel using a metal rib and trimming tool. Then I stretched a rubber band around the first step at the bottom (because the rail was a little lose-fitting). Now it fits perfectly and clamps tightly in place. To cast a jigger mold it is just a matter of soaping the plaster model and the inside of the rail and pouring in a mix of 1300 pottery plaster and 900 water.

3D Printed spout for ball mill

When full of balls and glaze this Royal Doulton ball mix weighs about 80 lbs. If efforts to pour it out don't cause a hernia the slurry ends up spilling everywhere as the balls come out with it! Trying to stop the balls with my hand ends up spilling even more. The answer was to 3D print a spout and a ball retainer. The bar and screw that normally hold the lid on work well to hold this in place. For multiple batches of the same glaze, it can now be poured right from the rack, no need to carry it to our sink. And not a drop spills. In the upper right picture, I had to change the filament midway, from green to black. It was easy to draw this in Fusion 360. I first printed the ring and flange to be sure of a good fit into the rim. A rubber band stretched around the flange provides a very good seal with the jar.

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