SureWow!!! I wondered how you had made the 3D print when you posted the pic of this soap in another thread, @Vicki C. Would you please post a picture of the 3D printed “tiles” you used to make the silicone mat?If you could show in a second pic how they fit in the bottom of the mold to pour the silicone, that would be even better. And if you would then show the finished mat, that would be stellar!
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I started with photos of phytoplankton and drew them in Procreate, which is what I have for drawing. It’s not perfect.
Then I exported my drawings as pngs.
These are my daughter’s phytoplankton photos. (I’m so proud of her.
It’s not an easy time to be in the sciences. )
Then I created an svg file out of the png. A svg file is one that 3D design programs like tinkerCAD can read. I use Adobe, they have a free online converter.
Here is the design in Tinkercadd. I brought in each drawing individually and placed them on a flat surface that would fit into my mold.
Then I exported the drawing as an stl file. Then brought the stl file into the “slicer” program that comes with my 3D printer. This tells the printer how exactly it’s going to create the 3D object. Then I printed three copies of the bigger file and one of the skinnier file.
There are two versions there because I ended up remaking the silicone mat as the designs were too deep and the soap didn’t want to release. I settled on .87 mm for the height of the phytoplankton designs (height from the base), which was fine. The base is 2 mm thick. I think.
I didn’t use the soap mold to pour the mat. I made a little box out of corrugated plastic, which worked fine.
I used two part silicone from Brick in the Wall, I like their products.
The next day I unmolded - I broke the hot glue gunned seams to get it out.
These are the two versions - the first one I made was both too deep and overly thick. The second one is much thinner and easier for releasing the soap. Sort of hard to tell here, but the yellow one is the first version.
That’s pretty much it!
In short:
Draw picture, create png
PNG -> SVG
SVG to tinkerCAD or other design program
Design program -> stl
STL to slicer
Slicer-> gcode
Gcode to printer.
I am pretty much a rank beginner at 3D printing, I know there are others who are much more experienced. (Yoo hoooooo! @Cindy D. !
)
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