FABtotum’s community highlights: 3Dprinting a table football team

Dear all,
today it’s finally time for a third Community Highlight post. Christmas holidays have got us resting for some days but now we are back with a new protagonist.

Today we would love to introduce you Carsten: he lives in Germany, where many FABtotums have been delivered during our lifetime. He has been using his FABtotum quite a lot and he always shares with us what he creates. He gets some help from his little Team of kids: isn’t it nice to join hobbies with the family?
We loved many of his projects. Want to follow them all? Look for @CaSu0815 on Twitter and for elradko on Instagram!

While we already know we’re going to share more about what he does, this time we picked the complete set of table football players. Actually, the whole project will be finished soon, as it is intended to include a whole structure. Nets, handles and other parts are going to be created with special filaments. But let’s see what he did until here and leave the rest for a future post.

Printing the Teams…
…including bench-warmers
Before getting here he needed to get the design done. He therefore used 123d and made a simple player that could be reproduced endless times with a 3D printer. That’s what we like about the FABtotum, right? Being able to make your design and 3D print it.
In two hours the final figurine was ready to get in the real world.
So, with just one file, Carsten has reproduced two whole teams: the Red and the Yellow, for a total of 25 players, two batches (normally 11 figurines per team would be enough).
A good tip for 3D printing with better results: don’t forger to place supports when needed (as he did)!
How long for the prints? That’s a good question. As he did it in his spare time, he had the FABtotum running daily, so that with the help of his kids he could spend at least an hour a day for the project.
Want to reproduce your Team? Contact him!

Getting the work finished
colouring a 3D printed object
Actually, it is quite simple. Carsten used normal model paint from a famous brand specialized in modeling. As the players are printed in PLA, there is no particular problem in getting the work done. Paint will just make your 3D printed models multicolor. His kid, the football lover, picked the shades. Red and Yellow.
Once the paint had cooled down, he could then use a japanese brush pen for the fine lines. He got them hair and smiles.

Ongoing project: handles, frame and missing parts
how to get a whole table football set 3D printed (well, almost…).
Time is never enough, so our fellow Carsten is still working on the other components.
Anyway, he already tried to create the handles. He already made the design and is currently testing materials. You know what? He will make all the handles with flexible materials and save the settings. Here at FABtotum we test everyday but it’s hard to cope with the market.
Carsten has been testing hard and will go on with other ones: contact him to see how he managed to print glowing, conductive and more special 3D filaments!

Here are his first tips when it comes to a special filament:
– start from the middle of the temperature range suggested;
– read the suggested parameters ( speed, feed, heated bed, temperature);
– don’t leave the FABtotum unattended;
– make small corrections while printing to adjust (Feed, Temp, speed etc.) and take a note;
– set the notes in Cura or other slicing software, and print again
– feed and speed: these are the ones you’ll likely need to adjust;
– play with the nozzles (0.4 or 0.6 mm): with flex, bigger is better
– try more than once!

He will also need to cut a frame, but that’s another story…
So, we hope you like what Carsten does with his FABtotum. He is now approaching milling as well.§
We will hear from him again very soon, granted! If you wish to know more about his tests, you know where to find him.

That’s all for this Community Highlight: thanks to Carsten (aka elradko aka CaSu0815 once again, keep up the good job!

Keep following us,
FABteam