Brush/Broom Bristles

thingiverse

Bristles for a brush or broom, printed using a Makerbot. Instructions Load up bristles.gcode in ReplicatorG and print. You might have to edit the gcode file to set your preferred build temperature (default is 235 degrees), or otherwise reconfigure it to your printer (it's based on the output of RepG/Skeinforge configured for a Thing-O-Matic with a 0.5 mm nozzle). I generated the gcode file using the Python script that you can acquire over to the side. The file will print a back-and-forth pattern of 91 strands (see attached photo). The gcode program doesn't turn off the extruder while it's printing the strands, so each strand is connected to its neighbours at the ends. When the printer finishes, collect the strands from the build platform and snip off the ends using wire snips or scissors or something. The gcode file prints an outline, you can cut the outline apart and use it as four more strands. Discard any strands that are stuck together or otherwise didn't print properly. The print finished in around 5 minutes on my printer. One batch of bristles fills a circular area around 5 mm in diameter. You'll have to print a lot to fill out a brush! I haven't done that yet. I've glued together a batch initially using super glue to bond all the strands together (the glue gets sucked a few mm into the strands to give a solid base). I then applied hot-melt glue around the base to give the tiny brush a nice grippable surface and to hold a few bristles that didn't get caught by the super glue. You could epoxy your bristles into a handle of your own design. Collect the outlines from your other prints, and the strands that are pushed out when you're switching colours of plastic. You'll have a whole broom in no time! (Actually in a lot of time.) There's a video of a small proof-of-concept brush up here: http://youtu.be/hy3Xp23aAkc It's made of some strands that were extruded when I was switching from yellow to black plastic, plus bristles from an early test print of this project, glued to an old part that looked kind of like it could be a handle.