Today we printed owens’ Diagonal Cut Menger Spongedesign from Thingiverse. If you sliced a Level 2 Menger sponge in half along a diagonal plane as shown in the picture, what would the sliced face look like? Before you scroll down, take a look at this picture and try to imagine it: If you could see the hidden diagonal face made by the slice, what would it look like? Would it have holes in it? What kind? Don’t peek!
The answer is: Whatever you said, you’re wrong. Instead you get this:
Thingiverse link: http://www.thingiverse.com/make:63728
Settings: MakerWare .3mm/low, with no raft and no support. This makes a nice model but the detail on the stars could be better, so next time we’ll use a finer setting.
Further reading: Making sliced Menger cubes is a popular sport. MadOverlord’s design Diagonally-Sliced 3-Level Menger Sponge is a nice Level 3 version. Over at the Simons Foundation, George Hart has a nice video about slicing Menger cubes. And Gaya has a nice post on her blog A Girl with a 3D Printer about the advantages of printing Menger cubes diagonally instead of in the upright position. Printing upright/horizontally causes great sadness and an impossible amount of support to remove, but diagonal printing allows for beautiful prints without any support material at all.
Thanks for printing this and showing it off, that's really cool! And if you're not yet Mengered-out, you might want to try another variation that I cooked up yesterday: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:238551
I am very excited and am going to print your new design right now. I had been trying to figure out how to do exactly that, but you actually did figure it out! Very cool.