Into the Woods, first flexi application

So, I do a lot of work for our school plays to help with set building and props. Now that the directors know that we can do just about anything, they set me off on the wolf feet for the wolf in “into the woods”. I got a clay sculpt of a wolf foot from the lead designer, and the actual boots to be used by the actor. I laser scanned in the clay model, and scanned in 1 boot. After digitally aligning and scaling for best size, I shelled the wolf foot to 1.75 mm thick, added attachment holes and some vertical supports internally. Then it was off to the printer. I put all of the supports on the bottom side of the part, so that it will look cleaner from the top. Printed at .1mm layers (14 hours) and the fit was wonderful. The flexi material was perfect because they can walk on the foot, and it will bend and flex without breaking, ideal for on stage use. The final model was attached, painted, and furred up and is holding up to all of the use. And if you are in west Michigan, the show runs for another week.






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Wow that is pretty amazing. I’ve printed a few items in Flex and my results were less than optimal. My prints have been somewhat brittle and easily subject to crumbling/breaking.

I am curious, what post processing did you do to this print?

i do a rinse in 91% alcohol. then uv cure for an hour with heat per recommendations. Built a uv cure oven with a friend. the cured models were still a little bit tacky, and am now playing with curing under water, i re-cured the supports and they were not tacky at all, nice clean matt finish. have not seen any brittleness at all, was able to wad it up into a ball and it comes right back.

I have cured in an argon atmosphere. Works well and then I didn’t have to dry the prints.

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I guess in all fairness my prints were much smaller and had parts with very thin walls. In any case yours came out amazing. Thanks for the info.

Pretty neat! Good job!

nice, but how long will it last??
i think better to use TOUGH resin and soak it for more than 2 hours to make it soft!!.
not to mention, flexible resin have the worse smell

Glycerine is great for blocking oxygen and transmitting UV for preventing smear layer while curing. I haven’t tried it with Flexible.

I meant to follow-up after the play’s run…how did the prints hold throughout the run?