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[Valyn Skirata]

Greetings vode an,
I'm planning on 3D-printing a helmet once our new 3D printer comes in, and I was wondering what the best way to combine the separate parts? I was thinking some epoxy and then using fiberglass strips and epoxy. Would this be doable and sandable? Is there a better way to make it look seamless?

[Jag Cabur]

I have no experience with 3D printing, but I do have experience with model making. 

What you want to do is find some thin rods, such as a wooden skewer or a thick paperclip. 

Take the two pieces you want to join together and drill shallow holes into the connecting surfaces, just wide enough to fit the rods you have and no deeper than your little fingernail.  Make sure the holes line up from piece to piece.

Test the fit of your pieces, you don't want to find that you made a rod too long.

Once the fit is confirmed, apply your chosen adhesive to the surfaces you're joining together and join the pieces.

Once the adhesive has set, you can freely apply bondo and what have you to hide the seams.

I hope this helps.

[Valyn Skirata]

Thanks, but I don't think this helps with a helmet, the surfaces curve too soon, and I think that the walls are too thick, but once I get and examine the files it may be possible. If it is possible though, this would be a great way! I'll keep this updated!

[Sep Ho'ban]

Superglue is sufficient to join pieces. If you have concerns after that, fiberglass the inside for additional support. 

[Koteb Cabur]

Hi Vode,
I did just finish the assebly of my printed helmet, was in many parts, since the printer that a friend of mine used was not that big.
He did show me a nice welding technique, but i think it might only work if your Helmet is gonna be from PLA.
You tape the parts together, with duct tape stripes, than you use a Dremel and insert a rest stripe of PLA fillamentwhere you normaly would Insert the tool.
The spinning creates enough friction to liquidize the fillament of the parts and the stripe you use.
That way you can wield the parts together, as if they are one, there is also a few videos about it, works very nice.

[Sep Ho'ban]

Hi Vode,
I did just finish the assebly of my printed helmet, was in many parts, since the printer that a friend of mine used was not that big.
He did show me a nice welding technique, but i think it might only work if your Helmet is gonna be from PLA.
You tape the parts together, with duct tape stripes, than you use a Dremel and insert a rest stripe of PLA fillamentwhere you normaly would Insert the tool.
The spinning creates enough friction to liquidize the fillament of the parts and the stripe you use.
That way you can wield the parts together, as if they are one, there is also a few videos about it, works very nice

Also a valid technique.
For videos on that, google "Friction welding PLA"

And if your helmet is printed from ABS, you can weld it with acetone, or google "acetone abs slurry"

[Valyn Skirata]

Thanks guys, that sounds like a good idea! Any clue if it would work for joining PLA and PETG? I'm planning on making the dome out of PETG for strength and the rest out of PLA for workability!

[Sep Ho'ban]

For that I think you're back to super glue. I think a remember a YouTube video that tested different ways to join pla with petg.

[Koteb Cabur]

My dome is PLA and it is pretty strong.
I plan to coat the helmet on the outside and inside with Epoxy resin, that will make it much easyer to get the print lines out and also will give extra strengh.
A Friend of mine did do it that way while building his R2D2 and that little bugger is pretty strudy.
He recommended to me to do atleast 2 layers of Resin and color both resisn with diferent arylic colors, that way you see where you did apply it and where not
+ when you sand it you know exactly how deep you did sand it.

[Jaryn Solus]

If you want to reinforce the seams, using thin aluminium mesh (for car body repair) along the seam, and then apply resin or bondo over the top

[Valyn Skirata]

Thanks guys! I didn't think about using epoxy resin, so I probably will just make the dome out of PLA. Can you get bonds, epoxy resin, and that aluminum mesh all at Walmart or would it be a safer bet to go to ACE?
Also, I am planning on just downloading the files from thingiverse for it, and there are two good options, aprilstorms helmet and godspeeeeeds helmet, anyone know which is best?

[Sep Ho'ban]

The resin you can for sure get at wal-mart.  The mesh you're probably more likely to find at an autoparts store.

RE: which helmet
April Storm is an OM with Sandhawk clan who maintains a sales thread in the Supply Depot section and I've printed a lot of her stuff, both from her ETSY shop and Thingiverse. It's always come out really well, and she puts thought into not just how the model looks, but how it will PRINT when she designs them.  (there are probably HUNDREDS of mercs walking around with one of her gauntlet sets on their kits)

I've had no interaction with the other, but when I look at the file, I see a lot of facets, which will mean more work smothing and filling later.

[Koteb Cabur]

I did buy my 3d File from AprilStorm  via Etsy, did not cost much and was so worth it.
I really love the thought she did put into it, with creating air vents, holder hooks for powerbanks, slots for buttons and even a frame to easy attach a visor, can highly recomend it.
About the resisn I can not help you, up here in Norway we can only get it via modell craft shops.

[Valyn Skirata]

Unfortunately, it looks like I can't print any of April's armor files because my print her is too small. She must have huge printers! We'll see what I can do with other things, though.

[Sep Ho'ban]

You can cut parts smaller using a program like netfab, and by watching a couple of youtube videos.

[Koteb Cabur]

Sep is correct as usual
My helmet was in 18 parts I think, my buddy did cut the parts and delivered me a nice puzzle

PS: In my Bucket Thread you can see my helmet, and should be able to make out the many parts it is composed of.

[Bowfanny]

3d builder also has a split function for making pieces smaller. Also late to the party but you can also buy a cheap 3d print pen from GearBest for around $20 or so and use that to weld pieces together. Just did it on a non Mando helmet I was working on and couldn’t get the pieces apart after I messed up and had to use the pen to fix the mistake lol

[archester]

In case of large objects, you just need to split the model in multiple parts (you might use  Meshmixer) and print them separately. Then, you'll only have to assemble them using acetone (for ABS) or glue (for PLA).