Measuring Cube

[Flack]

I saw this on Thingiverse and decided to print one out.

The drawer below our coffee pot is filled with measuring cups and spoons. Every time I need to use one, it seems like the one I'm looking for is all the way in the back (unless I start looking in the back, first -- then it's in the front, of course).

I'm printing my cube using PLA, which is made from a corn extract and is supposed to be safe for kitchen use. I don't think PLA will survive a trip through the dishwasher, so I'll be washing the cube by hand. Mostly what I measure is salt, sugar, and milk, all things that should rinse off fairly easily.

Estimated print time is ~8 hours, so we'll see how the cube turned out then!

[Flack]

Two hours into the print and things are going splen-did! I survived the "is it going to stick to the glass?" phase and the "is the nozzle going to clog up?" phase, and the cube is so big that I don't think the "is it going to fall over?" phase is going to be an issue.

Splendid. Absolutely splendid.

Also I told my wife this can't be washed in the dishwasher and she suggested I go ahead and throw it away now.

[AArdvark]

That's cool! Who thinks up these things? One piece measuring cube.

Does the 3D software put the stiffners in automatically? Something you can adjust if you want extra rigidity?

Can you adjust for smooth surfaces vs rough ones?

[Flack]

Does the 3D software put the stiffners in automatically? Something you can adjust if you want extra rigidity?

Yup! It's called "infill" and it's literally a slider in the program than can be adjusted between 0% (completely hollow) and 100% (completely solid). Most of the things I've printed have used 10%-20% infill. I don't think you need any more than that unless you're printing something big or designed to bear weight.

Can you adjust for smooth surfaces vs rough ones?

Yup! There's another slider labelled "quality" that controls the thickness of the Z-axis. The thinner the layers, the more fine the prints are. The trade off is speed. The lowest mine will go is 0.06mm, roughly the thickness of a piece of paper, but that takes for-ev-er. A fine print setting is .1mm, draft is .2mm, and then there's a rough .4mm setting. I normally print at 0.2mm, which seems to be a good speed/quality trade off.

[Flack]

All done!



My wife has at least three different sets of measuring cups and I doubt she will ever use this cube. If I were a bachelor, it's the only measuring tool I would own.

I currently have spools of red and green filament in the wings, but swapping colors is kind of a pain so I just printed this in black. To make it easier to visually see if it was clean or dirty, I think if I were going to use it frequently, I'd use a lighter color.

[pinback]

What's the first thing you're going to measure with it?

[Flack]

Paul's kitten's tears.

[pinback]

"You're gonna need a bigger cube."