Print on fabric, fold in place speaker cover

prusaprinters

This was the winning entry I designed for a 3d printing challenge by Joel Telling @3DPrintingNerd. Sophy Wong, Just Blaze and him were kind enough to award me the first prize, a Prusa Mini :)(sorry for the thangs ads, @printables ;) ---This speaker cover adapts to a 176mm speaker with 6 screw holes (Ø166mm hexagonal pattern).It prints flat with a layer of fabric embedded between the first layers, and then folds in place to form a nice cover that is both decorative and has a very good sound performance.My print settings and instructions :Layer height : 0.3mmPerimeters : 3No need for supportsInsert a pause at Z=0.5mm (and lift the print head to Z=~120mm)Slow down the first layer over the fabric. I went for 20mm/sUse an "open" fabric so that it is as acoustically transparent as possible. If you can breath easily through the fabric it should be ok (although I know nothing about acoustics :).I could print successfully on specialized speaker cover fabric, but also on more "normal" thin fabrics. Extensible fabrics give a better result as you can stretch them when you lay them down and they wont release like plain fabrics tend to do. I managed to print on tights, which is promising because there are so many colors and patterns available.How to insert and make the fabric bond to the plastic :Add a pause to the print at 0.5mm height and make it lift the print head (120-150mm at least)Lay down the fabric stretching it a little bit if it is extensible. I made it hold in place on the print bed with magnets.If the fabric is not tulle or some very “open” fabric, iron (with a real iron, not the printer's iron function) over the fabric so that the plastic underneath starts to melt and bond.Resume the printOnce finished printing you have to cut away the excess fabric.For natural materials (linen, cotton...) I used a sharp and long cutter blade.For synthetic fabrics, what I found out to be the easiest and cleaner way was to cut it away by melting it with a very pointy soldering bit.Voilà !