HOW TO 3D Print a Collapsible Gandalf Staff

okay hey I know what you're gonna say I come back to you now at the turn of the tide the board is that the pieces are moving alright but your your Gandalf here feels like thou shalt not pass right that's that your thing Rob Gandalf the Grey yes that's what they used to call clearly I really just need a good winners greetings fellow maker I'm Brittany Duran from punished props recently we were presented with a challenge from our old college professor and friend who wants to dress as Gandalf the White during a college graduation ceremony he asked us to make his step but the staff needed to be collapsible for sitting this was just gonna be a little quick side project by ended up using some techniques that were new to me and I wanted to make sure to share them with you but the staff topper I used Joe Munson's 3d model over on Thingiverse the model is printed in ABS filament on our ultime Kerr to make sure that abs would stick down a slurry of acetone and ABS printed supports were mixed together this container design is great for other materials as well we'll link to evil Ted's video on creating one of these in the description the mixture is brushed on to the bed of the Ultimaker and just left there we found this helps the ABS bond really well to the bed for printing but is still easily removed when the print cools down the staff was split into two pieces and no supports were necessary everything's at just the right angle so it can still print up without supports and that was really cool to watch but wasn't until I printed the staff that I realized the gem in the center isn't normally in ganna up the white staff it was included in the model to have the option for a cool glowy light it would have been awesome to print this piece and transparent filament and light up the gem from below but I already printed it so I just have to make it look a little sparkly with paint later in the build I was using a raft for the prints which broke off on the second half of the staff the connection to the raft didn't seem to bond well so I switched to a brim and that worked great i sanded the connections between the staff pieces then drilled a hole for a pig kind of attachment I wasn't confident in my gluing skills and the pig would hopefully help me align the halves together Plus this axe extra structural support a little epoxy was mixed and added to the dowel connection but the rest of the staff was glued together with acetone and ABS slurry I always wear gloves and wear a respirator when working with acetone as well before the mixtures set I wiped away the squeeze out as much as I could this connection sets super fast and it seems pretty strong the outside of the staff was sanded with 200 grit sandpaper but I didn't know how to reach all of the inside parts for sanding this seemed like a good instance to try acetone of a person we did a small-scale test to see how this filament reacts to the acetone I'll link a great article in the description that goes over this process apparently the type of ABS and even the color can affect how long the filament needs to be acetone exposed we made a little standing caddy to get the print in and out of the mason jar you don't want to touch the print at all during this process this is cold acetone smoothing so no heat is required which is good because this stuff is really flammable and I made sure to keep it away from any kind of heat source we found that this particular filament and set up took about an hour to get pretty smooth but the top of the print wasn't getting as melty as the bottom lining the container with acetone soaked paper towels would help with the distribution but instead we just flipped the print over and left it in for another hour after that the print looked nice and smooth the top of the print and some of that under hangs still looked a bit crunchy but the rest looked great the hard edges were completely gone which is great for really organic stuff this could be a problem for the staff design but I wanted to try it anyway I line a bucket with paper towels that were held in place with magnets the whole bucket interior was doused with acetone and sloshed around this is a larger volume of acetone so I worked outside I checked on the staff after an hour and noticed the same problem as a small scale test only the bottom area was smoothing they'll modify the stand with legs that were just long enough to suspend the staff upside down but still fit inside the bucket after another hour in the container the entire surface became glassy the filament is still soft and pliable for about half an hour and touching it will definitely leave fingerprints the article I read said the acetone can take quite a while to evaporate so I left the print overnight on first inspection the staff looked pretty smooth but when held up to the light you could see all the lumpy areas I could also see some of the infill I left the wall thickness at the default settings in Kira any more outside layers may help prevent the print wall from slumping into the support I was super happy that the hard-to-reach areas looked smooth enough to leave alone even though they were a little lumpy the exterior was sanded again but I left the twiddly bits alone I was curious how well the primer would adhere to the unsanded areas I want to take a moment to thank our patrons thanks to you we're able to make all of this video content to show our appreciation we've been recording extra content in a vlog format we released one a week and you can find those over on our patreon some of those vlogs have some behind the scenes stuff on the staff build I also just added a punish props academy extra credit video that goes over my thoughts on this whole process what I would have done differently and some other things I want to try in the future so head on over to patreon comm slash punish props to check out all of that content thanks again patrons now back to the build for the rest of the staff I got a white extendable pole designed for a duster attachment the pole is in three segments and can be locked into place by twisting the sections I try to removing the sticker with heat which technically worked but all of the adhesive was left behind goo adhesive remover cleaned off the residue this pole has a top and bottom that I don't need plus the whole thing is ten feet so I can remove one of the sections and still have a long enough staff I cut off the end bits which let the pole section slide free and I could check out the way that the whole thing locks together it's a really neat design with a flexible piece of plastic that can fit inside the pole until it's locked in place on the threads the largest segment was removed and I kept the other two but I did chop them down a bit the staff topper would take up some of the height and I wanted to make the collapse version small enough to not be obtrusive while sitting the pole to staff connection wasn't a perfect match but I thought I'd still looked fine for this quick build a section of the 3d print was removed to create a slotted connection I heated the pull of it and pressed it into place I think that made the connection a little more snug whenever I combine metal to any other material I use jb weld epoxy the staff is held in place until the epoxy is set and then I did another round of sanding the pain did chip off some of the areas that weren't sanded at all so this time I made sure to sand the whole surface well everything I could reach I did spray a white layer of primer over the gray this helps was fighting the low spots since those were gray and I knew which spots to sand down after this round of sanding I sprayed on more white primer and then a layer of normal white spray paint that has a satin finish the bottom of the staff was still a sharp metal pole so I got some rubber chair tips that were hopefully the right diameter for the pole base and it was a great fit for the last touch I messed up some of the staff squiggles and thought about how I would brush on a different finish for the gem it was a pretty tight fit I mixed acrylic flora care with some of our sparkly powders this finish is pretty watery but it doesn't leave any brushstrokes which is really handy and with that the gun of the white staff filled was done [Music] this project only took a few days and I had a lot of fun playing around with acetone smoothing and figuring out how to make a collapsible staff that's something I think I'll use in the future if I ever have to make another wizard staff or even a long pole weapon being able to shrink the pulldown for transport is a huge bonus with every build I do there's always things I wish I did differently and want to change in the future I'll go more into that on our extra credits video over on patreon thank you so much for watching and I hope this build inspires you on your next project hey thanks for watching if you're new to the channel please subscribe so you don't miss any of our new weekly prop and costume tutorial videos for more goodies head over to our website where you'll find blueprint tutorial books articles and more we also have a second channel for our Q&A show and extra behind-the-scenes videos thanks again and happy crafting

Channel: Punished Props Academy

Views: 228,917

Keywords: punished props, chinbeard, britt, bill, doran, gandalf, staff, lord of the rings, lotr, 3D printing, acetone, smoothing, painting, finishing, making, how to, how to make, tutorial, guide, walkthrough, cosplay, prop, costume, prop and costume, gandalf the white, wizard, 3d printer, 3d printed, 3d print, ultimaker, abs, sanding, gandalf staff, collapsible staff, extendable staff, 3d printed props, how to 3d print, 3d prints, punished props 3d printing, collapsible, what to 3d print, print 3d

Id: Rz-rQQDxXtg

Length: 9min 47sec (587 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 30 2018