Lava Landscapes and Lasers

Black PETG - 780mm diameter

SKILLS USED: Solidworks CAD, FDM 3D printing

Version2
~7 liter glass tank - 203mm x 76mm x 457mm

Lava Landscape2!: I missed the first version after I retired it. I tried round shapes, and I considered other unique vessels, but I really wanted the block back. After finally finding  a glass vase that looked like it would work  I set off on resurrecting the project.

Some of the challenges along the way:
1) Because this tank is so much thinner and taller I was very worried about it tipping over just sitting on the lamps.
2) From my initial tests, it seemed the 40W bulbs weren't enough to melt the  wax and get things moving.
3) I also found out that the density ratio of the master fluid to wax had changed in the months it  was left uncovered.

Problems 1 and 2 were solved with the same series of design choices. I designed a new lamp stand that could securly hold the light fixtures as well as the tank. There were a few revisions here as 3D printed PETG is only mildly heat resistant and created from literally melting the plastic. (Yes dumb manufacturing choice - when all you have is a hammer...)

The solution to the heat issue was to suspend the lights on metal welding rods rather than directly on the 3d print. Equally as much space as possible was given around the lights for the tank holding parts. Aluminum tent pole sections were added into the print to ensure the weight of the tank on soft plastic would not cause it to fall over.  [after V1 failed months later, I have trust issues and this will live in a plastic tub for the time being]

Problem 3 was just some (ongoing) trial and error about different chemical mixes, temperatures, and other variables.