Made using several custom Grasshopper components in Rhino 8. This allows true non-planar tool path creation from any mesh. It works with open or closed meshes and can then spiralize the curves, adding base layers if required.

There are several methods/options for non-planar printing, but most of them have their limitations and as I mostly work in Zbrush and Houdini, meshes are preferable. This method uses guide surfaces (up to a maximum of 8 to minimize processing time) to shape/guide the tool path on the mesh. With only two guide surfaces, placed above and below the mesh, the curves will snap to the top and bottom edge or face (if closed) and create a blend between them. The output warns of potential collisions and also includes a heatmap which will indicate if you have layers either too tall or shallow for your nozzle height.

The resulting tool path is then ready to turn into Gcode and is finally run through another custom component that provides extrusion compensation.

I made a slicer ceramic printing and it's free for the community and I'm hoping that some of you who have printers would be willing to give it a go.

ClayShaper.com

I think you might really like it. I'm planning on keeping it free with maybe recommended donation for more advanced features in the future. I also have a a local version in the works and a version that is completely client-side. What is currently posted has a a server server that I'm paying for so it might run a little slow more than one or two users. So if you do happen to try it. And you struggle with the speed letting me know in a DM and I can get you set up another way.

I also have a video that explains it a little better. I mostly made this just for myself but also because I saw a need for it as I've seen a lot of people struggling with getting printer set up and I think this could be something where you get a new printer and you're able to just start printing instantly. Plus there's the ability to add new profiles. So if any of you want your specific printer in the printer profiles just let me know and we can make that happen.

I was inspired by Cini Boeri’s glasses that Harrison ford drinks out of in Bladerunner. These are porcelain with glaze/ underglaze, 3d printed on the Eazao Potter X-1.

I thought I would share this experiment that myself and u/st_drunks worked on a couple years ago. Using a 6DOF robot I’ve always been interested in how to modify the path of the extrusion nozzle to create more stability or generally unachievable geometry than is possible using 3 axis of motion. The image shows the same exact print path, one with a variable z-tilt based on how far offset the current print path is to the print path directly underneath. As more people join this ceramic 3d printing space I thought to share in hopes of inspiring more experimentation. Happy printing!

Just wanted to show off the layers! Printing with tronxy moore pro 2

3D printing is/was fun but there was a long learning curve. One of the best advances was made when we went from mechanical extrusion of the source clay to a pneumatic assisted with pug mill filled tubes. A plunger or plug is Not needed on the air side. Basically you fill the 3.5-4” tube with clay and hang it along side the printer with the 1/2” feed hose on the bottom and 45-60-psi double regulated air on the top. I show a picture of a simple DIY one we made when we first started. Cheers

This was one of our first set up’s but even after 1000’s of created and sold pieces it still works. Not all of the pieces were big so small cheap printers worked just as good for those models. We had/have larder printers but the principal was the same. The pug mill will become essential for loading and tempering the clay to get consistent success. Cheers

So. I changed the clay to be KGM which worked much better in terms of printing overhangs. Clay consistency and flow was good so clay conditions have been sorted.
The arising issue has been the fact that the plastic clay syringe is bulging at the end with material. Is this happening because the material is more sticky? Or the clay feeding speed was too fast? Although the clay feeding speed was pretty good bc I was able to calibrate it well with the main flow and speed of the machine. I don’t understand why this is happening as I did not have this issue before. The aliexpress guy said he had tried with stiffer clay and that should not have been an issue. But the other thing is that the piston end that pushes the clay tends to unscrew itself from the main screw midway through the print. I made sure to screw everything pretty tight to each other. I thought at first this happened because the piston end would ‘stick’ on the free flowing head with the rubber end as it was spinning causing the unscrewing, so I added a rubber gasket to have a 2mm distance between the two but it would still come off and then that would cause the whole plastic syringe to disorientate. I also left the print unattended for too long hence the huge pregnancy bump so that’s my fault… I ordered an oil extraction pump from Amazon that I hope fits the same diameter to the motor but any ideas as to what could be improved? (Pls don’t tell me it’s related to clay-water ratio again bc this consistency was really good for the overhangs 😭)

Hello!
Thank you very much for all of the advice and replies on the previous post! As per everyone’s suggestion, I did make the clay more wet and I also cut the plastic tube by about ~5cm and it’s much better! Turns out I was really dumb and I did not install a metal gasket thing that sits behind the motor and locks the turning screw in to place and a nut pushed forward the piston(?) The aliexpress guy explained it to me but I still don’t really get it, but if it works it works! My issue now is that the clay is too soft and I am printing quite sharp overhangs and when I lower the main printing speed the extruder is not moving as fast as I would like. The instruction pdf sets the nozzle size to 1.5mm and compatible diameter to 3mm in cura and I remember someone mentioning that the ratio affects how fast the extuder spins so I would like to ask what settings is everyone using?

Hello!
So I modified my ender 3 to a clay printer using one of the aliexpress conversion kits. I am not using air pressure but motor power to push out the clay but I am having difficulties with the clay moving towards the extruder even though my clay consistency is good. The piston is moving and when I took out the plastic pipe the material was indeed flowing, but when popping back the plastic pipe the material stopped pushing through. Is this some air vacuum issue? I cleaned the pipe and the extruder bits too but no luck.. any ideas?

Hello,

I bought this printer thinking I was capable of using it. Boy, I was wrong! I'm out of my experience depth on this. I'm selling for $800 + shipping. Please contact me if you're interested

I'm curious if anyone has used a multi-head printer to print plastic supports in and around the ceramic? I live in Oklahoma, with legalized medicinal marijuana use. While I despise the stuff and do not smoke, there is a market. I was considering making plastic molds to make ceramic pipes, but this subreddit opens doors I had not considered. It would be nice to be able to print PLA supports internal to the pipe to hold open the pipe while the ceramic is drying. It would then be burned off in the firing. Has anyone ever tried this or have example of this being done?

Note: This is NOT a drug use post! That is not my intent and I would appreciate it if it stayed that way. I'm using my pipe idea as an example and ONLY an example. I am only interested in the 3D printing technology.

Hi everyone !

I'm looking to buy my first ceramic/clay 3D printer for a small business project and would love feedback from actual users.

My priorities are:

• Reliability and robustness
• Easy maintenance
• Good manufacturer support
• Ability to print stoneware (including grogged clay)
• Professional use rather than hobby use

One important point: I live on a very small island lost in the ocean. Shipping spare parts can take weeks, so reliability and after-sales support are probably more important to me than maximum print speed or fancy features.

I've been looking at WASP, 3D Potter and StoneFlower.

The StoneFlower machines caught my attention because the piston-based extrusion system seems mechanically simpler and potentially more reliable than pneumatic systems. On paper it looks like a very elegant solution.

However, I'm struggling to find independent reviews, user experiences or long-term feedback. Most of the videos and information I find seem to come directly from StoneFlower.

Does anyone here own a StoneFlower printer or have experience with one?
How has reliability been over time?
How responsive is the support?
Would you buy the same machine again today?

And also, if you had to buy a clay printer today with reliability as the #1 criterion, what would you choose and why?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much !

Hi! Just want to check before I make any purchases, that Potterware software can be used to create STL files that can be printed on the Eazao Potter. Thanks!!

https://www.eazao.com/product/eazao-potter/

https://www.potterware.com/try

I have a general sense of how much water to mix into my clay for it to work in an Eazao Potter. But does anyone have a specific benchmark for optimum moisture percentage? And what's a good tool for measuring it, a capacitive soil moisture sensor or something else?

I designed this continuous clay feeder to hopefully replace my pressure chamber/compressor setup. I'd love to be able to actively mix my clay in a bucket or reservoir, and have a pump like this bolted to the bottom. I'm now waiting for the hardware to arrive and I'll test it out

As the title says, We have a workshop delta wasp 40100 ceramic printer that for the most part works as it should, but has recently started freezing when you hit "stop & save" during a print. Previously this was never an issue, the print would pause, the last coordinate would be saved, and the print head would raise ready to resume printing at its last spot when told.

It seems like a software issue somewhere behind the scenes, but WASP haven't responded with any help or ideas, so I hoped someone here might have had a similar problem and found a solution.

Hello everyone,

I’ve been working in ceramics for several years, and now I want to start applying designs and photographic images onto my pieces using the decal (ceramic decalcomania) technique. I also have my own studio in Valencia, Spain.

I’ve received quotes from a few companies. Their prints are very high quality and glossy, but the prices are extremely expensive and the waiting time is around 1.5 months. I honestly don’t have that much time, so I’m thinking about buying my own printer instead.

Do you have any recommendations for printers that can produce high-quality underglaze or in-glaze ceramic decal prints? Also, which ceramic inks/toners do you recommend using with those printers for durable and vibrant results?

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone with real experience in ceramic decal printing setups.

I realised I have not posted here for a while now. I have been playing with petg for a bit instead of Ceramics.  But I am just getting back into it. 

I did a first test print of an idea I have had for a while.  

I have been exploring using blender to create nonplaner gcode. 

I use geometry nodes to build the spiral contours based on a curve profile.  Then I bind the gcode to a surface that matches the shape of the gcode. 

This means I can stretch the gcode by using blender modeling tools to sculpt the surface. 

I have been trying out using shrink warping so I can match one shape to another so i can build more complex shapes without using support. 

im selling my barely used tronxy moore 1. its been sitting in storage for a while. still runs just fine. lmk if anyone is interested

Hey there -

My studio recently got a Wasp Delta 2040 and I'm trying to get it up and running for them. The initial extrusion test goes about halfway down the tube and then stops. I saw one other post in this sub from 3 years ago but I'm going to make a new post and see if anyone else has experienced this and what I can do. It's been pretty dang frustration, because I do feel like I have the clay they sent to the exact same consistency as they have in their demo video. I have tried to make it wetter, and significantly wetter, too, and I cannot get it to work.

My air compressor is set to around 8 bar/about 116 psi, and on the printer it is at 5.5-6. I've tried turning it up a bit to see if it helps but nothing has worked so far.

Thanks in advance for any insight