Covid-19 & PETG

During Covid-19 times a lot of people tried to create protecting face masks or face shields. Though PLA is intoxic, several tests showed critical behavior when being used for protection wear. Main issue are the sharp edges when breaking the brittle material.

PETG was said to be less brittle and just as printable as PLA. So I gave it a shot.

For first steps I tried to proof the printability of PETG by printing simple whistles, which worked out very well.

First CAD-Models

Designing suitable CAD-Models comes along with 3D printing. First CAD-Models were made and (despite some measurement mistakes) did work out very well using FreeCAD and some youtube tutorials.

This designed prints were still printed in PLA.

First Prints

The Auto-Calibration was succesfull, but first prints did not work. After setting a the first-layer a lot closer (0.8mm) to the heated bed things started to look better. Even a very good looking Benchy was printed without any Error.

Fist Steps were done using PLA (Prusament & Maertz).

Construction

The DIY-Package just arrived. Assembling the Prusa i3 mk3s was fun and worked quite well. In reasonable estimated 8 Hours I was able to understand principles of the Assembly and Setup of a FDM Printer