The first step to creating this wiffle ball was to create a CAD model using any 3D modeling program. Note that any program will do (Solidworks, IronCAD, etc) as long as the program can save as a .stl file. We simply made a outer shell (however large you want it to be, ours was about 3 inches in diameter) and included a small solid ball inside. The outer shell was around 1/4 inch thickness and the inner ball was around 3/4 inch in diameter. We also added holes similar to the design of a wiffle ball. It was important that the holes be big enough to let the supports from the FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) Machine come out but still smaller than the solid ball so it does not come out (Our wiffle ball holes were approximately 1/2 inch in diameter).Be sure to save it as a .stl file so that it can be submitted to the FDM Machine.
The next step was to submit it to the lab so that the ball could be created using the FDM Machine. We brought a thumb drive with the file on it to the lab , put it on the computer so it was queued for machining, and left it there overnight. The actual process of creating the ball should take no more than 12 hours but this depends on the size of the ball.
The last step is to pick up the ball from the lab and see how well it turned out. Ours had a slight indent and also some stuck support inside which could be fixed by perhaps making more holes so the inside is less constricted.
By Alex Au & James Langhauser