Triceratops Skull

thingiverse

I created this skull as a gift for my wife's dinosaur-loving friend. The design is inspired by the MakerBot "T-Rex Skull" from Thingiverse, http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:308335. I took it one step further by incorporating the T-Rex support base and rod. To make it even more unique, I modified the base to rotate the rod 180 degrees and embossed the name "Triceratops" on it, just like the original. The skull itself was a complex conversion of the Triceratops skeleton model from the Animal Gait Simulation Laboratory website, http://www.animalsimulation.org/page3/styled-11/. I've since converted the entire skeleton into printable parts, but for now, I'm just focusing on the skull. To ensure smooth printing, I designed support structures into both the Skull and Jaw, eliminating the need for additional support generation. However, to prevent bed adhesion issues, you may need to enable brim creation in your slicer software. Additionally, some finishing work with an XActo knife will be necessary after printing is complete. You might also need to adjust the diameter of the jaw pivots or rod inserts by removing a small amount of material from either the rods or holes. This was my first attempt at designing supports, and while I learned a lot about angles and smooth printing, I probably overdid it in some areas and underdosed it in others. A more experienced designer may want to remix this with better support structures, especially since they work down to 60% scale. The prints shown above were done using ABS material, which requires some flexibility to allow the jaw to widen enough for pin insertion. I used Cura 15.04.6 for slicing and encountered no issues. If you encounter problems with other slicers, please let me know. I'd like to give credit to Bill Sellers, whose post directed me to the necessary resources: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1218980, although I didn't use his models but rather converted the original model from his website myself. Print Settings: Printer: Geeetech Prusa Aluminum i3 Rafts: No Supports: No Resolution: .2 Infill: 25% How I Designed This: I imported AxialSkeleton.OBJ from Gait Sym Site into MS 3D Builder and scaled it up to 700%. Then, I removed the skeleton from the skull. Next, I imported the Rod from the T-Rex model, scaled it up to 8.35 mm diameter, and subtracted it from the base of the skull. To provide additional support and strength, I generated various supports and reinforcements while keeping the horns intact but smooth. Finally, I filled in the existing text on the "plaque" with the T-Rex base and used the emboss function to generate the new title. I also filled in the existing hole and used the same technique for the rod hole in the skull to create the rod hole in the base in the correct orientation.