Apparently Connected Favorite Calibration Objects

Introduction

When building or re-calibrating a RepRap or RepStrap, eventually you get to the point in the RepRapSoftwareTweakingManual where you need to print some test objects.

One of the issues we had when building our first printers was the difficulty in finding good calibration objects. I'm not talking about the tower and the box. I'm talking about items that are more interested to print. Items that give you the feeling you are actually making something, yet at the same time really putting our printers through their paces. This pages includes a selection of what I found to be the most useful and interesting when starting to learn how to set up my printer.

Calibration Objects

These objects are pretty basic and really should be the first prints. When these look good it's time to move onto the fun stuff, the Test Objects!

Makerbot Calibration set, including 20mm cube, 10mm x 40mm tower, 0.5mm single wall. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2064

Single walled test piece (I think this is the same or similar to the single wall piece above) http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1637

Overhang test. This one was actually quite frustrating and I still haven't gotten it right. So don't fret if this one is hard to get going on. Low speed, low temp, and air cooling are some of what I think are the keys to getting this one right. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:16503

Self titled Ultimate Calibration test. I actually have not printed this one before. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:9804

Hive 13 Coin. This is another quick and simple print. I used this to check for mirroring on my axes. In fact my X axis was... and still is backwards. There is nothing like printed words to help you notice this error. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:989

Test Objects

These objects are much cooler but also require that you have your printer working reasonably well. I tried printing several of these before I really had things figured out and ended up with spaghetti monsters :)

Lovecraft Pawns. I really enjoyed printing these. They are detailed enough to show off your printer, but also small and simple enough to print out reasonably quickly. Each one is about an inch tall. There is some amount of overhang required to print these but not too much. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:18100

Filament Clip. This was one of my first decent prints. Prints quickly, easy to make, and actually has some utility. Very good first object. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:12516

Cthulhu 2. This is a larger version of the Cthulhu lovecraft pawn. This guy is about 2 inches tall so you can get a little more detail and it's something bigger to print. Again a little bit of overhang needed in the wings but not too much. This was my first really good looking print. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:17000

Nautilus. This is a very cool item to print. It requires that bridging and overhangs work well on your printer. It prints fairly quickly since it is mostly a shell. Another cool piece to show off and puts some stress on your printing settings! I used the 110607 version. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:9177

More Advanced Objects

Here are some objects I haven't even printed yet. I think some of them may be challenging to print without support structure.