The photograph above shows the first iteration of part 1. As it was printing, I said to myself that it was too tall. I don’t need that much material for the bottom. After it was finished printing, I realized that it was a good size for a table top, but not for my current printing purpose. Plus, I wondered why I did not open the top and bottom for the wood dowel. That was my original intention. I confused myself by coming up with plans for a table top and hamper around the same time. I will do a table top after I finish this hamper. My goodness!

I am using PLA/PHA for this project and for all my future projects involving wood. I ordered brackets through Shapeways before I bought a 3D printer and before PLA was available to Shapeways creators. The brackets were made with strong and flexible plastic. I made the same brackets with PLA later and have been using them on a simple table I put together. The PLA material has proven to be too stiff for wood. The strong and flexible material has worked well. PLA/PHA is non-toxic and comparable to Shapeways strong and flexible material. I stood on my misprints and found them to be quite strong. The misprints are 9mm or roughly 3/8″ thick. I think I should be okay with reducing thickness of the bottom’s top layer to 1/2 inch. That means I will need to drop the dowel size to 3/8″.

The polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) mixed with polylactic acid (PLA) natural filament is a little too yellow for the exterior of this project. I will order a spool of white. As I think of the exterior more, I am feeling more inclined to stay with my original plan, so perhaps I should get a couple of different colored PLA filaments too….Naw. I will wait on those.

The files that are currently on thingiverse for this project will change. I have decided that I don’t want to have bolts on the top. I will put them on the sides. Also, I will make the parts larger; 6″ x 6″ and 5″ x 6″.