Ok all... I got myself a 3D printer for about $200 bucks and have been having a ball with it.  I've been printing things that I've wanted in my collection for a long time and been learning how to print with a 3D printer along the way.  My latest project took me about a month.  It's Han Solo's DL-44 Blaster and my god what a pain in the arse it was to print.  It contains about 37 individual pieces, from single pins to hold the knobs in place to the full body with handle.  But... the reason why it took so long is that I discovered I was using a defective spool of plastic filament that kept messing up the print.  Each filament spool contains 1kg (2.2lbs) of a weed eater like plastic string.  There's different types of plastic you can use... PLA, ABS, HIPS, Nylon, PETG, etc... but the big thing is that each string is 1.75mm in diameter (+/- 0.03mm) which would be fine.  The reason I say the spool I used was defective is that this filament had a +/-1.25mm tolerance that kept jamming while it was printing.  I think I printed each part at LEAST 5 times until I got an acceptable part.  Some came out better then others however, now that it's done I can bask in the Solo-y goodness that is his Blaster!  I put a couple of LEDs in the gun barrel and a trigger switch that would make them come on when the trigger was pulled (basically an over complicated flashlight).  The effect is awesome and here's the outcome... enjoy!

These first few images show what kind of problems I had with the black filament... every print that came from it had some serious issues.  When I switched over to the grey/silver filament, all those issues went away.  The muzzle that's painted silver on the right was the black filament, the one on the left was the reprinted one in the good filament.





This is blaster with just a base coating on it before weathering...


This is the completed blaster... (I really loved how the printing pattern looked on the handles... so instead of smoothing and sanding them, I kept that look because it gave it more of a wooden feel to them).






I even put some lens in the scope to give it a more authentic feel...


And of course, when you pull the trigger, it lights up!

Wow, that turned out super great. How bizarre that a spool made for the printer would cause issues. Was it by the same company as the other one that worked?

trappedtexan wrote:

Wow, that turned out super great. How bizarre that a spool made for the printer would cause issues. Was it by the same company as the other one that worked?

Yeah that's what was so weird about it... I've been buying their filament for awhile now and never had a problem with them before. I guess it's just a bad batch this go round. I did contact them and let them know the 3 spools of filament was bad... and they were nice enough to send me 3 replacement spools free of charge. I haven't used them yet, but I'm hoping they don't end up turning out like this last batch!

Wow, that's super impressive! Kudos for the paint job because you managed to get the metal and wood parts looking just right + flashing light and a lens. Also, can't believe that 3D printers are already so affordable...

That is very cool looking and a fantastic job painting it. How did you do the lighting part that is really cool.

arohk wrote:

That is very cool looking and a fantastic job painting it. How did you do the lighting part that is really cool.

I used a momentary switch, a battery and an LED wired to the trigger. Worked out very well!