Sculptures of the new technology

Using a Craftbot opened his eyes to what could be done, and he then spent more time with the slicer settings and fine-tuning filament profiles. This became a bit of an obsession and to this day he still loves the creation of filament profiles. His hard work paid off and the outcomes speak for themselves.

It all began as a hobby but then Rick started getting commissions for the pieces. So, after a while it has turned into a business doing both sculptures and commercial printing pieces. As a business he needed to establish a bigger print farm for himself. As his chosen 3D printer was the Craftbot and no one was selling or supporting these printers in Australia back then, he decided to take a big step. One thing led to another and he founded his own company, Fuse3D, where his star products are the Craftbot range of 3D printers.

Rick first purchased a Craftbot XL and not long after he placed an order for both a Craftbot 2 and Craftbot 3. Right now, he has 3 Craftbot FLOW IDEX XL’s, 1 Craftbot FLOW, 2 x Craftbot 3’s, 2 Craftbot XL’s and 2 Craftbot 2’s.

Craftbot Flow IDEX XL

Rick usually looks for things he is interested in. He adores the statues of a bygone era and the ability to print and finish them is an amazing experience for him. As Australia is a relatively new country in regard to art history, they don't have the capability to easily see the wonders of yesteryear without traveling vast distances. To be able to print them may be a poor second but it still brings the art history closer to Australia and Rick.

He mostly prints the statues with PLA as most of his prints require support and with PLA it is easy to remove. PLA also sands nicely, a nice finish can be created with it.

Rick also explained us what he does with the sculptures to make them super realistic after the 3D printing process. Here are the steps of the post process workflow:

• Remove support
• Lightly wet sand with a coarse sandpaper. (He starts with a 100 grit.)
• Wash the statue down with water, wet sand again with a finer grit sandpaper and then let it dry.
• Paint the statue with primer, let it dry for at least 12 hours.
• Wet sand and again with a fine grit paper, wash it down with clean water then let it dry.
• Paint the statue with primer, let it dry for at least 12 hours.
• Wet sand one last time with a very fine grit sandpaper.
• Hand paint with a brush a conductive metal paint. (In the Venus sculpture’s instance, a Bronze paint.) Let it dry for 24 hours and then repeat with a second coat of bronze conductive paint.
• Wait 24 hours for the statue to fully dry.
• To achieve the Verdigris patina, he prepared a solution of Vinegar, Lemon juice and salt. He poured it into a garbage bag and then placed the statue within the bag and ensured it got coated with the liquid and then left it for 48 hours. This started a chemical reaction with the conductive paint and the patina was produced. The patina will continue to react for a period of time once it is released from the bag.

With the whole post process workflow included, it took Rick approximately 100 hours to finalize the Venus print.

Although, he is a master of 3D printing sculptures, Rick usually doesn't create the 3D models himself, but he rather downloads them from several websites such as My Mini Factor, Sketchfab or Thingiverse. Because of this, he has some unique, unconventional prints too. Yet as his next major step he plans to purchase a scanner so he can capture objects himself and offer that service as well.