Plastic Extruder_Tower Tests

Different methods for constructing a tower were tested this week.  The first was getting back to a layering of deposition, something we were attempting to get away from so as to not construct a coiling effect.  However, it was a necessary test to do and proved quite difficult to get the plastic to layer on top of itself because of the memory of the material. 

The Process - Create a series of columns as we have been, then make test different toolpaths, either a 3D coiling that changes in height, or a planar toolpath that extrudes at the same distance above the columns.  The results are below. The most interesting occurrences happened where the materiality of the plastic did something unaccepted.  For a method of constructing a tower however, this is not an efficient way to go as the results are not appealing or in anyway predictable.  

The second approach was aimed at combining several of the methods we were using before and yielded the most interesting and reliable way to construct the tower. 

The Process - Again it starts with the extrusion of columns with a thick base and thin cross section (the Hershey kiss)  Next a series of connections are made between the column tops by a 3 second extrusion on one of them, then turning off the extruder and pulling the plastic to the next column.  A triangulation of the columns with thin pieces of plastic results.  The next step is to deposit through a zig zagging manner along the connecting triangulation creating a build up of plastic, often leading to the dripping and hopefully tearing of the plastic as gravity pulls it off the thin connecting member.  In this way we are utilizing an interesting material property of the plastic as these thin connecting members between columns support much thicker depositions of plastic on top.  Columns are then placed on these thicker depositions, and the process is repeated. It has led to some really great spatial qualities on the interior.  Looking forward to having it grow to human size!