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These are quarters of a block mold piece for a Medalta Potteries ball pitcher. The whole piece was far too big to print so I had to break it up into quarters. Quarter #1 (top right and bottom left) was made by shelling (hollowing) the whole thing in the CAD drawing process and quartering in the slicer. The other piece (top left and bottom right) was made by quartering and shelling each individually in the CAD software (Fusion 360). Quarter #1 has a dangling corner (front left of top right) so I had to print as shown so that infill would support it. Quarter #2 mates with a wall and that supports the whole curved mating edge (enabling upright printing). Notice also that the matting surface is not planar on quarter #1 (top right). And its inside surface as print artifacts. Quarter #2 was printed with the back-side down, thus only printed support was needed in the narrow channel where the rubber wall will pour. Surface quality is much better and it printed in 9 hours instead of 14 (these pieces are quite large).
No molds have survived so we are going to start from scratch. We will use Fusion 360 and 3D prints in PLA to create a block mold to make a rubber case mold. Learning to draw this rewarded me with some new 3D drawing skills. The geometry of the lip is challenging. It appears the piece will need to be cast with a full top and the lip shape and pouring hole cut manually (as was done originally at Medalta Potteries). I will likely have to create a 3D-printed PLA template as a cutting guide to get the lip contour more correct and consistent than they were able to do. Although not on the original, we are going to include a foot ring for easier glazing and better stability during forming and firing.
Glossary |
Infill and Support
Infill and support are structural elements that 3D slicer software uses (e.g. to fill the interior of solid parts or support contours over empty space) |
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