Hello! I’d like some advice on printing a model I’ve made for a cosplay. I’ve made these hoof caps that fit over some high heels to make satyr hooves. My original plan is to print them using one of the bamboo printers then make a silicon mold of the print and cast it in epoxy resin. However, I’ve seen people make hooves like this structurally strong enough using just a printer. So I thought I’d try printing it as strong as possible and then see if they hold my weight. If not, I can glue them back together and make a mold for the epoxy resin.
So how can I slice and print these to bear the most compressive weight? What infill should I use and is there a specific orientation that would be best? What material available in the space’s filament shop is best?
One thing I’ve come to realize is that you really can see a lot in the slicer software - if you tell it that you want more walls, more infill etc. then it’s very clearly visualized in the software. How these settings impact the performance is another matter, however!
I for example have increased wall thickness and the infill pattern to provide increased strength to my pieces BECAUSE I COULD SEE THAT THEY WERE PREVIOUSLY TOO FLIMSY. To put it another way, I think you always have to start by just getting the shape printed, and then see how it holds up!
If you can get that model to come out of the printer looking right, you are a large part of the way there - and if each print isn’t an entire day, it shouldn’t be too hard to determine if it stands up to the stress and maybe you can tweak some settings and pop out a v2
Could you adjust the design so the front of your shoes touch the floor and the hoof just sort of surrounds the shoe? Then the hoof wouldn’t need to hold any weight
