209mm ceramic pottery bat

Background

This is a bat for throwing pottery on a wheel with standard 10" pin spacing. It is sized to fit on the Prusa MK3 print bed (though it must be printed without a skirt). 

My goal in making this was to create a plastic bat that is porous, so that thrown pots can gradually dry out from below, similar to a wooden/masonite bat. To that end, I set up the 3mf file to have alternating layers of concentric and octogram spiral infill with nearly 100% density. It means that there are evenly spaced and consistent micropores to allow evaporation.

Printing

The included 3mf files are set up with alternating layers and infill percentages that (on my printer) produce good micro-porous holes. If you prefer a solid, impermeable bat, you can reconfigure the slicer file to print with 100% infill. I strongly recommend concentric infill on the first layer, because otherwise you're going to get an inconvenient texture on your throwing surface.

In the 3mf files there are modifier objects that facilitate the alternating infill in the first two millimeters. If anyone has any trouble with those, please post a comment with your questions. If you print at different layer heights you'll need to adjust those or create your own versions to match the new layer height. Note that the first layer is usually 0.2mm regardless of the primary layer height. The included modifier objects take that into account.

To fit on a MK3[S[+]] print bed, you need to turn off the skirt. The model is sized to be as big as possible without going past the edge of the print plate.

Note: 

Make sure you use the correct file for your printer's extruder. Most printers have a 0.4mm extruder, but I usually use my 0.6mm extruder for this project because it's so much faster and doesn't need the higher precision. I haven't printed the 0.4mm version since its print time is nearly twice as long as the 0.6mm version. If you print the 0.4mm version, please post a comment about whether it works correctly. If there's strong interest in other layer heights or extruder widths, I'll post new 3MF files to match those.