Postprocessing 3D prints

[Dr. Mike 189]

A member recently messaged me with a question about a brain she printed from this file. I as posting the response here in the hope that it will help others in the community. 

 

QUESTION
"I came across your 3D printable human brain model and was able to successfully print it. Thank you for sharing it! Now I need to post-process it and am wondering if you can explain how you post-processed your print? I have never done the post-processing before and am not sure the best approach to take. I have attached a picture of our printed brain for your reference. Thank you in advance for insight you can offer!"

 

 

RESPONSE:

Based on the picture you attached, it looks like you used a single extruder printer and printed both the supports and model in the same material, presumably PLA. You need to tear off the supports using pliers. This can be a time-consuming job as getting in every nook and cranny can be difficult. If you find the supports are stuck to much to the model, you may have to adjust some of the settings in your slicer software to compensate. There may be a rough surface where the supports touch the model that you can sand off. If you have a dual extrusion printer, you can print the supports using a water soluble material such as PVA, which makes the supports easy to remove by soaking in water. Dual extruders can be finicky and you will likely have to spend a lot of time trying out different settings to get the supports to work just right, including calibrating the XY offset of the second extruder, determining optimal print temperature for the PLA and support to work together, overhang speed, support infill percentage, etc. This process is very time consuming but gratifying once you get your printer dialed in.

 

If you don't want to deal with the headache, embodi3D has a 3D printing service and can print and ship to you. 

Hope this helps.

 

Dr. Mike

 

[arcadia-ncdl 0]

Dr. Mike,

 

How were you able to hollow out the 3D MRI scan? I've watched your hollowing out CT scan tutorial but wonder if it's a similar process for an MRI scan?

[Dr. Mike 189]

You can use a variety of free tools, including Blender or Meshmixer. Meshmixer is probably easiest. Here is the function shown in this picture.