Giant Vase Spider - posable halloween print in vase mode! Big size (40cm and up to 90cm), nice finish, low material (only around 110g) and low time! If you like it --> press like it :-)
I wanted to print a giant spider called "Giant posable spider", but i was shocked about the material and time it would need.
So the challenge began to design a giant possable spider, which can be printed with a minimum of material. Because im fascinated to get vase mode to its limits, i decided to go this way. Therefore you have no supports, i only used a small skirt or brim and you have nearly no waste of material!
The basic shape of the spider should be like from this model https://www.printables.com/de/model/2522-spider/comments/282470# After a few ideas and test prints ive seen it could work. I found a tripod with ball jointed vase mode connection ( https://www.printables.com/de/model/239024-streamlined-segmented-and-vase-mode-tripod-for-gop/comments/371154# ) which inspired me to use a similar design.
It took me hours and hours to design but finally i can share the gorgeous result. I designed a few iterations and printed them to get a printable design which will not be to weak. Therefore i had to use some tricks like very small cuts zu make it stronger. One picture shows some of the test prints.
Here you can see and download the final design, which is scaled to fit to printer with a print space of 210x210x250mm like Prusa MK3, Creality Ender Series, Anycubic Vyper or similar and that it can be printed with a 0.4mm nozzle that the surface is nearly closed. Could be printed bigger on the bed size of the MK3 or similar, but with bigger scale, your possible line width with 0.4 nozzle can not close the shape because of flat angles.
At vase mode prints i allways recommend to print with a wider line width. It is possible to print without problems a line width of 0.6 to 0.8mm with a 0.4mm nozzle. Slightly increase the temperature. For the thorax and abdomen i recommend 0,8mm line width and for the legs 0,48mm. To get a more closed surface at the top i recommend to increase the flow rate to 140-160% after the layers of the ball joint. This has the effect, that the path is for the defined line width, the printed line width is wider and can close the gaps at flat areas. Alternatively you can try to decrease the layer height if your slicer allows this.
My spider is printed with 0.2 layer height and with Prusament Galaxy Black PETG (https://www.prusa3d.com/de/produkt/prusament-petg-prusa-galaxy-black-1kg/) which is a very nice filament. Because of the smooth print and with no infill, if would look cool if it is printed in a transluscent filament and with added illumination. Maybe someone will give it a try for Halloween? :-)
You will need every model one time. You can download the parts which are named with “right and left” only from one side, e.g. left and mirror it in the slicer. From the abdomen there are two versions. The “spiky” should be easier to print.
With 0.2mm layer height and 50mm/s one leg will need slightly more than one hour to print and the thorax and abdomen around two hours. The small arm and claws will only need 15 minutes.
Print it without bottom layer, otherwise you can't assemble the abdomen into the thorax and your ball joints will be to stiff. I used a skirt with a distance of around 0.5mm that you have the effect like a brim but you can remove it very easy.
At a price of around 30€/kg for Prusament PETG, the 40cm spider will cost you only 3-4€ for the filament!!! With the orange one for PPE only 2,5€ !!!!!
Other scales are not testet, but the maximum scale i could print on my CR-10 V2 would be around 230% which means that the spider could be more than 90cm huge!!!. For this i would need to switch to a bigger nozzle. The uncomplicatest will be to print at 200%, change the nozzle to 0.8mm and set the line width from abdomen and thorax to 1.6mm and for the other parts to at least 0.96mm. Probably the line width of the other parts should be bigger because the ball joints will be weaker at bigger scale or maybe it can work if you increase the scale for the legs a bit more.
At smaller scales than the original size, the ball joints may not work because they can not work like a sperical spring.
Would be happy to see your makes!
Hopefully someone will try the 90cm spider and share the result!