Today’s post is really just a collection of images and videos showing off 3d printing for those of you who haven’t seen it in person. It’s good fun when it works.

This is the printer just starting off and it’s laying a thin base of material to help the full part stick to the platform.

Here is a successful bracket that will hold the back leg in place.

This video shows the printer part way through the prototype bracket.

And this one is the base of a miniture portal turret model.

The running joke in the lab at the moment is that my project has had far more elements of woodwork than electronics despite this primarily being an electronics project. This post just reinforces the joke.

This is the framework for the side panels. Here I am about to drill using a hole saw so I can slide the panels on dowel.

Metal leg extensions screwed in place.

And here is a crude artists impression of the turret body and legs.

Now I know in game the turret uses a “scanning” laser to find its targets but for my design I have chosen to use a ring of red LED’s with the projector lens situated in the center. This was because of safety concerns about having an unattended laser when the turret is out on demonstration.

This is the LED array on the prototyping board. 8 LEDS driven from a split 12v source and controlled via a NPN transistor.

LED locating ring made using a 3d printer.

All soldered into place and lit up!