THE DOUBLE HELIX EXPERIMENT (WITH BONUS SQUIGGLE)

prusaprinters

<p>If you've come this far, you've noticed that the ring is printed as a helical coil shape, and you may or may not be intrigued at that thought.</p><p>Well it's not. &nbsp;It's a very simple flat four-minute print, heated and wrapped around a mandrel to the correct diameter. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>It's a simple process that isn't. &nbsp;Wherever heat is involved (and my weapon of choice is boiling water) there are dangers, so please be careful.<br><br>I like to hold the printed part in a cup of just boiled water (just below 100°C) and in a few seconds it will become like wet spaghetti. &nbsp; Quickly wrap it around your mandrel till you get the required shape. Don't worry if it takes a few attempts, &nbsp;I don't know what the limits are on reworking PLA, and I haven't found them yet.<br><br>You might have to just finesse the ends with another form of heat (ie a hairdryer), &nbsp;but found with practice you get to know what's happening and it sort of works itself out.</p><p>There's a bonus STL included for a “SQUIGGLE” ring produced in the same way - I would like to see where this technique leads with multi layers and folded forms, but we shall see!<br><br>Try 50% infill and Aligned Rectilinear top and bottom layers.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/134509/rich_content/cba5e02e-7b9e-48ab-8307-48d189f9faec/22-02-14-at-19-21-52.jpg#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%22e313d57c-96e3-49d6-b286-a75a99c6fd03%22%2C%22w%22%3A1350%2C%22h%22%3A1080%7D"></figure>