Dork Helmet's Planet Blaster

Update (Jan.9/2019)

Uploaded a 2 part version of the model, for people with Maker Select Mini, Makerbot or other printers that can't print the full height design.

There's zero clearance between the pipe and the body so you'll probably need to sand the pipe and the "socket" in the body to get it to fit together. Oh well, the sanding should roughen up the surface so the glue holds better :)

Dork Helmet's Planet Blaster

It's a spacecraft designed to take you to the far reaches of the universe.

Takes a standard 14mm bowl. Hot gas is drawn from the bowl down to the base of the water chamber, where it diffuses through a bunch of small holes to help cool it. I've included a sectioned STL file that you can preview in Thingiview to see what I'm talking about.

Recommended print settings:

To ensure a watertight print, calibrate your extrusion rate first. I recommend printing a test print, weighing it with a precise/accurate scale and comparing the weight to what your slicer says it should be. If you're printing one of these, you've probably got a suitable scale around the house.

I print these using PLA, then bake them in the oven for 1 hour at 180F to anneal the plastic. This increases the strength, temperature resistance and water-tightness of the print.

PETG also works, but stringing is impossible to remove from inside the water chamber unless you pause the print to clean it out, which is a pain in the ass. Printing with ABS is probably a bad idea too.

These are the print settings I use.

• No supports
• 0.2mm layer height
• 25% rectilinear infill
• 5 bottom layers
• 5 top layers
• 3 outer perimeters with a 0.5mm nozzle, 4 perimeters with a 0.4mm nozzle.
• extrusion width = nozzle diameter + 0.05mm
• 105% extrusion multiplier.
• Extruder temperature set to the upper end of the filament's temperature range. I use generic PLA filament at 220C.

With these settings, the planet blaster requires 150-170g of plastic.

Keep your planet blaster clean!

Lots of people will tell you that 3D printed designs like this are a bad idea because of the potential for bad things to grow in them - and they're right.

To clean and sanitize your planet blaster, fill it with warm water + dishwasher detergent and let it soak overnight, this will break down built-up residue and kill any bad critters which might grow in the print. Drain and rinse well with fresh water when you're done.

Legality

Depending on where you are, there may be laws restricting the use or possession of planet blasters. Make sure you know your rights and stay out of trouble.

Additionally, the planet blaster bears somewhat of a resemblance to another well-known science fiction space-object, and the copyright owners of that space-object likely won't approve of planet blasters being sold for profit. Which is why I'm providing this design under a -NC license.