New tools can open new opportunities for the creative process. I am thrilled to announce that I will be constructing larger animatronic bugs thanks to a new addition to my workshop. I look forward to large butterflies, detailed bees, and new filament material options like TPU, LWPLA, and ABS/ASA.

At the end of July 2023 I made the decision to purchase a new 3D printer. I was considering several options, but the primary goal was to find something that was much higher quality and large. I really needed something that would allow me to print large insect wing veins. I settled on the Voron 2.4 with a 350mm square build plate. This is one of the largest build plates available other than a few models of Bed Slingers. However, I liked the enclosed design of the CoreXY, direct drive extruder, and ease of upgrade and fixability of Voron.

It took about one month from point of purchase to fully assembled. I immediately printed a very large butterfly wing and knew this was going to be worth the investment. With this printer, I should be able to make an animatronic butterfly (or some other insect) with a full 3 foot wingspan!

After some hiccups with printing before final tuning, I refined my wing vein model to be hollow, but very stiff. I did this by creating a triangular structure with the veins. I am already so proud of these new veins. Thanks to being able to use the updated Cura slicer, and the very accurate reliable movement of the Voron print head, the veins came out great. I am looking forward to gluing them to tissue paper and getting the largest, lightest, and stiffest wings I have ever created. I am hopeful these could indeed catch the air and wind and kind of glide or act as a kite.

I’ve also taken a turn at re-printing some of the honey bee parts I printed for the prototype. I had rippling issues on my Anycubic Delta printer, but now they are silky smooth and in natural PLA, allow me to paint them in transparent raw sienna to produce a beautiful honey color.

Sometime in the further future, I look forward to trying filaments like TPU and ABS for wings and body parts. ABS is not quite as stiff as PLA, but it recovers better after impact and bending. TPU is very rubbery and could be quite useful for flexible parts between the exoskeleton pieces. I am glad I started cheap and worked my cheap printer as far as I did, but now that I have a printer of such higher capability, I recognize that sometimes, good tools really do increase the capabilities a lot more!