The Challenges of Building a Dalek: Part 22
Be sure to read the previous parts of The Challenges of Building a Dalek. Since the last update, our progress has moved at a reasonable rate. We have moved on to the process of 3-D printing the dome.
3-D Printing
Our first two prints, out of four, of the dome, came out beyond perfect; everything was going smoothly. It was when we moved on to print the remaining sides of the dome that things started to mess up. About 8 hours into the print, the filament would just stop coming out and error messages would pop up. We’d fix the issue and try again; the same thing would happen again at about 8 hours in. Each dome panel took about two and a half days to print. So, it was a major setback every time it would stop. To make sure that it wasn’t the printer that was causing these issues we would print designs that worked previously and those always came out.
Our last breaking point was when we finally got it to work again, it was about 47 hours in when all the issues started back up. I had to stop dad from getting the hammer out. After calming dad down, we went back to the beginning. Dad went back to Project Dalek and found a different set of files that would print smaller and more pieces, 18 pieces. This worked, and within a week we are almost finished; the longest print file is about 11 hours.
After the dome is finished printing and assembled, we are filling any gaps there might be, sanding it as well as putting a primary coat over it before painting the final color. What color will it be? Dad is aiming for a dark hunter green to match the dalek body.
Current Design
Currently, the neck is about 10 inches in height; and about 16 inches in diameter. When you add it to the base it stands at 62.5 inches, 1587.5 millimeters, including the wheels. Derek the Dalek is currently a bright hunter green and will be having soul-sucking black hemispheres with tarnished brazened oil seals around the base. Since we are playing with a 3D printer, we are currently looking for another electric wheelchair so that we can print another type of dalek that is the size of R2D2.
