Custom Designed 3D-Printed Chicken Trophy Award

[Nifty]

On my other community forum www.BackYardChickens.com, we've got a member that recently hit 100,000 posts!


Well, to celebrate her AMAZING accomplishment, I was going to buy a custom engraved chicken trophy. There are a bunch out there, but none of them were really what I wanted, plus, I felt she deserved something really special and unique!

So, I got to designing and printing, and came up with this:

The whole project (design and printing) took me about an entire day, but it was a pretty interesting, complex, and fun project!

Here's how I did it:

I used the base of this trophy thing: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2882313
and a customized version of this gyro thing: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:802145

I loaded the trophy into Tinkercad and cut off the top. Then I added a square hole.

I then loaded the gyro into Tinkercad, added a square peg (to match the hole above) and then added the chicken using Chuck's video instructions where he scanned a thing and imported it into tinkercad. Then added the text in to the chicken silhouette.

I also created a faceplate with the text.

I printed the base first, all one color... but did something SUPER tricky! I wanted to weigh down the base. I thought about inserting pennies or large magnets. Instead, I used the "gradual infill steps" feature in CURA with the "Grid" infill pattern. This created some really large spaces in the bottom of the print. While it was printing, I slowed the print down to 10% and then filled the spaces with copper BB's:





This worked out GREAT!

Next I printed the faceplate and did a color-swap (change filament) to go from black to white.

I then printed the gyro which required 2 color swaps (white, red, black), which turned out REALLY well!

I ran into a problem where the outer ring didn't print as well as I wanted, so I reprinted that ring in black... and I think it actually turned out nicer!

During my testing, I printed the chicken by itself. I didn't want it to go to waste, so I epoxied two super strong magnets to it and made this little thing:



Here it is mid-print:

 

[Emulator]

Some more chicken trophies:-

https://www.google.com/search?q=Chi...AKHQ6IDJ4Q9QEwAHoECAYQBA#imgrc=XcIz_yL67MmhDM:

 

[stratman]

If I could give you 1000 Likes I would. Fantastic!

 

[The Hat]

So, I got to designing and printing, and came up with this:

Congratulations Nifty, what else can I say, that was some amazing project to take on, especially when you didn’t know you were going to be as successful as it turned out, I especially liked the way you manipulated the use of other pieces to make your creation...

But I bet it felt pretty good to hold your creation in your hand, because you have reality embraced the concept that it’s possible to make anything with the 3D printer, and if you can think it up, you can build it...

Those that don’t have a 3D printer could never imagine how it feels to create something from your mind and then see it in the flesh right in front of you, congratulations once again because your now truly hook into the 3D mania, isn’t it a great feeling...

 

[Redbrickman]

Absolutely brilliant Nifty! When I design and print something no matter how many times I have done it I always get a real kick outa seeing it come off the print bed
I can just see you dodging the hotend and pouring in those BB's

 

[Nifty]

I can just see you dodging the hotend and pouring in those BB's

That's literally and EXACTLY what I did! There *may* have been a few close-calls and BB's rolling all over the print bed... but that made the "game" that much more fun!

 

[Joe S.]

Nifty, I didn't know BYC, was also your site I just put 6 dozen eggs in the old little giant 9200, with fan kit, last week!
I am a member of byc as well, although I don't visit much

 

[The Hat]

I am a member of byc as well, although I don't visit much

@Joe S., Your never gone to get one of these Trophy’s so...

 

[Joe S.]

I will have to admit the the trophy is pretty darn clever! I really like the "texture" of the 3d printed chicken!

 

[Nifty]

Nifty, I didn't know BYC, was also your site I just put 6 dozen eggs in the old little giant 9200, with fan kit, last week!
I am a member of byc as well, although I don't visit much

LOL! Small world!!