Cooler Master: Elite Liquid Custom Pump Covers - "The Crop Circle"

Cooler Master: Elite Liquid custom pump covers - CONTEST ENTRY #1

My first entry into the Cooler Master Liquid pump cover contest (and in fact any design contest!) and my 4th upload to Printables - I've been designing for fun for a while now, and have recently taken the plunge to try and be more active in contributing to the community - wonderous what a change of careers can do for free time!! 

ABOUT THE DESIGN...

First up, and most importantly, I imported the 3mf provided for the contest into fusion and rebuilt it using mainly the following 3 tools:

• Sketch

• Loft

• Shell

This has given me the ability to manipulate the original body freely, as well as ensure printability.

I decided to be conservative for this one, keeping true to the original model and stylising it - I went for a crop circle type pattern as it gives quite a few customisation options inside of itself including, but not limited to;

• Having a diffuser for the RGB in the centre of the pattern

• Cutting out the white gaps of the pattern to create a lattice effect

• Adding a third, fourth (or more) colour in the gaps surrounding the pattern

INSTRUCTIONS FOR PRINT SETUP

IMPORTANT - MODELS ARE PRE SUPPORTED, AS WELL AS POSITIONED READY TO PRINT.

I have added .8mm thick supports under the clips with a .2mm distance between top of support and bottom of clip, if you don't like these and want your own - you can delete them after splitting the model to parts.

When you import the model into your chosen slicer, don't be surprised that it's a single solid - I've exported the stl from fusion this way for ease - to unlock for multicolour, do the following:

• Drag and drop to slicer (I use Orca Slicer, sorry PrusaSlicer, you don't have separate external / internal bridging controls!)

• Right click on the model

• Select Split to Parts

Once complete, you can go to the objects tab and change your colours accordingly - I chose white and black as I think it looks clean.

For the "ALL_IN_ONE" file, you will be best off having a tool changer printer to keep the transparent filament clean from contaminants, otherwise, for optimal results; use "NO_DIFFUSER" or "NO_DIFFUSER_LATTICE" and print "DIFFUSER" separately.

PRINT SETTINGS

I used the following when printing the body:

• Filament: ABS

• Temp: 265c

• Perimeters: 4

• Bottom Layers: 4

• Top Layers: 5

• Infill: 25%

• Supports: No

• Raft: No

• Brim: No

• Layer Height: 0.2mm

• Nozzle: 0.4mm

When printing the diffuser, I strongly suggest changing the following settings:

• Perimeters: 1 (EVERY LAYER!!)

• Bottom / Top Surfaces: Monotonic Pattern

• Sparse Infill / Internal Solid Infill Pattern: Aligned Rectilinear (90deg Angle)

• Infill percentage: 100%

If your z-offset is dialled in, this should produce a cleanly printed, slightly milky, lens diffuser to soften the light from the cooler.

If printing in ABS, I suggest to scale this between 100.69-102.5% depending on your printers tolerances, accounting for shrinkage.