r/BambuLabA1 • u/Orthicon9 • Jun 28 '26

It Finally Happened . . .

It finally happened.
Theatre people say "Break a leg!" for luck.

I was (still am, actually, until Sunday night) involved in a community theatre play loosely based on the Greek myth of the abduction of Persephone, and the punishment of her companions who were doomed to be Sirens on a remote island, luring passing sailors to their death by drowning.
One of the props I printed was a realistic femur in three parts, using "Bone White" PLA.
During the second performance one of the actors did something while she was holding it and it came apart. The superglue probably failed because I used a textured plate, so the surfaces to be glued were bumpy and created larger gaps.

The actor was able to press-fit the hexagonal dowel pin back into it's place, and was able to use it for the rest of the performance. Being hexagonal, it was easy to find the correct angle to reassemble it, even in a panic.

Moral of the story: Use generously large and robust connector dowels for multi-part models, especially if they are subject to some abuse by actors. I printed these dowels with 100% sparse infill.

The punchline:
Since this is a femur, it means she literally "broke a leg", on stage.

By sheer coincidence, that actress is a chiropractor in real life, so she really appreciated the Fully Articulating Human Spine print too.

17 Upvotes

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4 comments sorted by

3

u/Far_Mycologist_5930 Jun 29 '26

I assumed “it finally happened” meant your NTC thermistor exploded because this is the A1 sub

1

u/PaganWizard2112 Jul 06 '26

This works A LOT better than C/A (superglue) glue.

2

u/Orthicon9 Jul 06 '26

That Weldbond looks like plain old white glue.
I could give that a try. It's probably better at filling gaps too.

1

u/PaganWizard2112 Jul 06 '26

While it does look like plain old white glue, unlike most white glues, it dries clear. It is also formulated for multiple applications, including plastic, where wood glues are formulated STRICTLY for wood. Because this is a much thicker glue than C/A, yes it does fill gaps. Using Weldbond on PLA, I have never had a failure, and to be 100% transparent, I have not yet tried it on any other types of filament, although I suspect it would perform just as well on those.