On Monday, I took my 3D printed case top to Freezone to remove the support material and start the fourth quadrant of the alternate version of the case. As expected, the support material was difficult to get off of the main print–actually more difficult than I had expected. I spent the entire morning chipping away at it in Freezone, breaking two exacto knives in the process, and then in the afternoon I took it to CriaLab to attack with power tools. I used a drill to open up holes and dremel bits to sand away unwanted support remains, but unfortunately the efforts mostly just moved the unwanted plastic around and didn’t actually remove the plastic, so the print still looked unfinished. After spending my entire day sitting on stools hunched over my print attempting to get rid of the support material, my shoulders were super sore that night.
Despite the imperfections, Tuesday morning I taped the LEDs into my print and connected the electronics/software to test it out. The LEDs looked really nice coming through the holes in the plastic, even though the LED ring wasn’t properly fitting into the cavity I has designed for it. I then went to pick up the final quadrant of the alternate attempt and took all of them to CriaLab to sand down to fit together as best as I could. The edges were slightly curved from printing so I knew I wasn’t going to make them align perfectly, but I got them close and figured epoxy would do the rest. Much of my afternoon was then spent epoxying the pieces together so they would dry for the next morning.
Once it was dry, I moved the LEDs into this new case top and tested them again. The ring fit in better but still not perfectly; the lights looked a little better due to the fact they sat flatter against the wall, however this piece had been printed in light gray plastic so the contrast wasn’t as nice as the previous black print. After more post-processing and testing, I edited the CAD file to print a new, hopefully nicer, version of the lid when I got access to a properly functioning printer. Luckily for me, the technician from the 3D printer company finally came on Thursday, so I got official word that I could start my next 41 hour print Monday morning.
Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out what could have caused the support material to be so strange on the print I did in the Engineering Building. Since the issue was melting, I thought it must be something to do with the temperature, so I asked the technicians at both places what temperatures they used. In Freezone, they have been using 150ºC, while in the Engineering Building they used 185ºC. I thought this was likely the problem, so I CADed a small part that produces the same style of support material as my print to test. I emailed to ask if I could run this part with the lower temperature settings, which I will be able to do on Monday. Fingers crossed that this solves the problem!
I had had such high hopes for my 42 hour 3D printed case after finally finding a printer, that the result of melted support material made for a pretty disappointing week. Nevertheless, I am confident that I will eventually get a satisfactory case completed.
With the work week over, we were on to the most exciting weekend of our time in Brazil: our trip to Foz de Iguacu/Puerto Iguazu. Foz de Iguacu (the Brazilian name, as opposed to the Spanish Iguazu or English Iguassu) is one of the world’s most spectacular waterfalls (think Niagra falls, but bigger). Friday night we flew to the Foz de Iguacu airport and then took a taxi to our hotel on the Argentinian side. When crossing the border, you have to get out of the car to go to the Brazilian customs, but just stop at a nice drive through window for the Argentinian customs. All in all, the drive including customs stops only took about 45min.
Saturday morning we woke up and went to the Argentinian National Park. First, we took the park’s little train up to the path that takes you to La Garganta del Diablo (The Devil’s Throat). This waterfall reminded me of the Horseshoe Falls at Niagra Falls–large, huge amounts of water, and very powerful. Not to mention so much mist at times we had to hide our phones/cameras.
La Garganta del Diablo
After taking in the amazing view, we took the train back to the entrance of the park where we embarked on the Gran Aventura that we had bought tickets for. It started with a truck ride through the forrest with a tour guide talking about the wildlife and vegetation in both English and Spanish. That was followed by a boat ride up the river approaching the falls, which offered a new set of spectacular views of the waterfalls. At the end of the boat ride, they took us up to two of the smaller falls and we got soaked from the splashing. My extra set of clothes was certainly used.
During the Boat Ride
After getting out of the boat, to get back to the main paths we had to walk along a path that followed the side of the falls which offered AMAZING views. Personally, this was my favorite part of the trip. I think since the Garganta del Diablo falls were more similar to Niagra Falls, which I have seen, I wasn’t quite as enthralled (it was still breathtaking don’t get me wrong), but along this path, the variety of falls surrounded by green leafiness and rainbows put me in a state of awe.
Waterfalls and Rainbows
We finished the day out by walking the third path in the park and left right before closing time at 5pm. The next morning, we went to the Hito de Tres Fronteras, which is were the two rivers join and Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil touch. We then crossed back into Brazil and visited Parque das Aves, which is a private bird sanctuary/conservatory. I had a lot of fun looking at the cute (and weird) birds and even checked seeing a toucan off of my bucket list!
A Very Excited Nathalie With Toucan
After a weekend that will certainly be the highlight of my summer, we flew back to Porto Alegre ready for another week. I can’t believe there are only 3 weeks left!