920 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

Haha, who expects to see detail through a translucent material? Did you think I meant transparent?

[drtrmiller]

The filaments are usually described as "clear."  The transparency of the material is dependent on nozzle size (larger is better), layer height (larger is better), and number of shells (limit to 1).  Completely optimized, the finished material has translucent properties.  Without any optimization, the level of refraction will be too great to yield any advantage over opaque.

 

Your writing seemed to imply that you perceived clear filaments to allow greater visibility of the ants than opaque ones.  And while this may technically be true, the difference would be so trivial as to provide no advantage at all.  For objects that are touching the material, you may be able to discern colors with ample lighting, but not shapes.

 

I was simply describing how clear filaments work.

[dspdrew]

Trivial in your opinion. I'll take translucent (which is the actual term for what you describe) over opaque.

[BrittonLS]

Wasn't able to find it right this second, but I remember seeing a coating you could apply to clear parts to smooth out the curves and greatly increase visibility, I think it was from taulman.

Oh here it is http://3dprintingind...prints-taulman/

Edited by BrittonLS, November 9 2015 - 10:58 AM.

[drtrmiller]

Wasn't able to find it right this second, but I remember seeing a coating you could apply to clear parts to smooth out the curves and greatly increase visibility, I think it was from taulman.

Oh here it is http://3dprintingind...prints-taulman/

 

That is very nice.

 

Unfortunately, it is insanely labor intensive to get anything close to what they showed in those pictures.  Those must have taken hours.

 

You know how easy it is to scratch clear acrylic, polystyrene, or polycarbonate?  Now imagine starting with a scuffed looking piece like you scrubbed it with dirt before sanding and polishing it to a mirror shine.

 

I almost drove myself insane trying to make clear master models for casting reproduction.

 

And keep in mind, it isn't just the XTC coating or PET filament that are responsible for the end result.  The print settings—big nozzle diameter and layer height—also play a significant role.  It won't even work well with small nozzle diameters because of the tremendous backpressure created by the PET.

 

One more thing: you will never get a perfectly polished PET.  It's impossible.  Even PET film and sheets that come off the assembly line are not as crystal clear as acrylic, polycarbonate, or polystyrene.  They have a kind of watery refraction thing going on.

Edited by drtrmiller, November 9 2015 - 12:06 PM.

[PTAntFan]

Some shots of the $3 Tower units I've been using.  Crystals suggested I add a post here as well.  Need an outworld solution.  These Xyloni can climb anything.  Even glass jars lined with Fluon are being conquered.

 

 

 

Details in this post.

[erdem]

my formicarium

Attached Images

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

[Crystals]

Very nice, what is it made out of?

I love the setup.

[erdem]

Thank you. I used Ytong, wood and polycarbonate solid sheet. To combine them I used silicon and rivet.

[Barristan]

A lot of nest space what species do you want to keep in it?

[erdem]

I'm not sure. I must keep species which consist of big workers and large colonies like messor barbarus. what kind of species can you suggest?

[dspdrew]

That's pretty cool. I have been planning to make a formicarium sort of like that for a long time. I always wanted to use a fish tank style cabinet and keep the ant nest inside the closed doors of the cabinet below. What's the plan with the two different out worlds?

[AndersT]

Wow Erdem - I am in love with that setup. If I ever get a big enough colony, I think I'll have to try something like that as well! Really cool man.

[erdem]

I wanted to construct a wide outworld for ants, so I decided to divide my formicarium into two parts. I wondered about ants' behaviour in diferent style of earth concepts like forrest and desert. however, I haven't finished upper side of it yet.

[dspdrew]

What's funny is I actually thought about stacking two out worlds to save space, except they would be for two different colonies. I would have both nests in the cabinet, with their out worlds stacked. I think that idea would just make too many problems and be too difficult to maintain though.

[drtrmiller]

Nice Rube Goldberg machine

[erdem]

What's funny is I actually thought about stacking two out worlds to save space, except they would be for two different colonies. I would have both nests in the cabinet, with their out worlds stacked. I think that idea would just make too many problems and be too difficult to maintain though.

 

Thanks for pointing out this issue, Dspdrew. I constructed fomicarium's nest as 3 parts and put 2 stoppers (you can see them in triangles). However I can choose to keep one or two different colonies.

 

İf I choose to keep one colony, I must start in the first part of nest, after that colony becomes larger I can open second and third part.

 

But if I choose to keep two different colonies. I can open the second stopper and than keep a cataglyphis colony in the first part and a messor colony in the second and third part. But I think that keeping two different species in one formicarium can cause disturbing stuation for the ants although they are totally separated from each other.

 

I don't know what I will do. which way do you prefer if you were me?

Attached Images

• 

[Cypherf0x]

That's pretty unique.

[Gregory2455]

That's pretty unique.

Welcome back.

[Cypherf0x]

I've been a little busy and ants have been far down on the priority list for my time.  I'm in D.C. now working for a major contractor doing security assessments.  I'm just back from South Carolina at a nuclear plant down there.  I get paid to hack things, can't get much better than that.