Baby Bird

Little puffy balls of fluff cheer the arrival of lunch as a parent bird returns to the nest.

There were two main design issues in this project.

The first issue was removing the initial test print from the print surface. By this point, I've done enough prints on my Lulzbot Mini that I've begun to get scratches in the PEI Print Surface material of the heated glass print platform. The PEI surface means I don't need to do any extra steps to get good print adhesion for PLA plastic.

When I printed the first half-size trial bird, it was very difficult to remove. Replacing the platform surface is a future project because the scratched surface isn't really an insurmountable problem yet. The solution for this time was to remove some of the center of the flat bottom of the bird. Less surface contact made removal easier.

//body
difference(){
hull(){
  translate([0,0,10])
 sphere(20);
 translate([20,0,5])
    sphere(9);
}
// remove the material below the print platform
translate([-20,-20,-20])
cube([80,80,20]);
// reduce the contact surface for easier removal
translate([0,0,-.10])
cylinder(3,15,10);
translate([15,0,-.10])
cylinder(3,10,6);
}
// The following were removed using difference() to remove them from the body.
// reduce base contact
        translate([0,0,-15])
   cylinder(6,35,10);
   // removing this cylinder also has the added benefit of making the tail look better
       translate([-10,0,-10])
       rotate([0,90,0])
       cylinder(35,5,4);

PEI Maintenance
Lulzbot has a website full of useful information. I'll be exploring the PEI surface maintenance instructions fairly soon, I think. I'm also not having trouble when the prints are flat and not too thick. I can sneak the knife edge under a corner and the shape gradually releases. I think the bulk of the bird's body made removal more difficult for some reason.

The second issue was making the body look more realistic. The original body was a scaled, somewhat egg-shaped sphere which was chopped off at the bottom to sit on the print platform. That was solved by making a hull around two spheres, the smaller to the rear, making the body flow better into the tail.

//body of version00
translate ([0,0,10])
scale([1.2,1,1]){
sphere(20);

// body of version02
hull(){
  translate([0,0,10])
 sphere(20);
 translate([20,0,5])
    sphere(9);
}

Available Files:

babybird02.scad - for examination, modification and sharing
babybird02.stl - for a quick print
GPL3 License