Leaderboard

The methodology is worth a proper blog entry, but here is a taster. The basic funnel shape with the original kit funnel for comparison. The flare at the bottom is bored out thin in order to be able to press it to shape over a former

Thank you Jason. I enjoy experimenting and am often pleasantly surprised by the results.

My thanks to all who commented - these are a great incentive to keep going! These little projects can absorb more design effort than big ones, Mikkel. The idea of canopy brackets is a very good thought. I have done a lot of tweaking to the print parameters in 'Cura' to improve the result. The biggest improvement came when I changed the default line width from 0.4 mm to 0.3 mm. I think this has caused successive passes of filament to fuse together better and so cause less 'banding'. The banding is still there, if you look closely , but barely visible at normal viewing distance, except on vary shallow curves. When possible, I aim to choose an orientation of the model to minimise the effect. My photos are all taken without any additional surface treatment after printing, except for removing any stray filament at edges. While it cannot approach the surface finish of Stereolithography, I like the simplicity of the FDM process and find it adequate for my needs.