3D-printed Magnetic Hive Set

Hi all!

After a bit of tweaking, the 3D-printed Magnetic Hive set is ready to go. 

The files can be found in the Patreon Drive (https://www.patreon.com/posts/huge-thanks-link-28259219) -> Singularity Boards -> Magnetic Hex Board ->1 Inch Hexes -> Hive.

The icons are all custom designed to be optimized for 3D-printing. Each hive piece consists of two hexes that snap together. Each of those pieces are printed in two colors using two separate files. I'm using a single nozzle printer, so equipment-wise a budget printer is all that's needed. However, you'll want to be a bit more knowledgeable with 3D printing before giving these a go. Overall, they're not that difficult to print, but you wouldn't want them to be your first project. I'm going to walk through the general flow for how to print them, but of course your printer and slicing software may vary from mine.

For reference, I'm using a heavily modified ender-3 with a glass bed and Cura 5.1. (my ender-3 is almost 4 years old, which is hard to believe. Although it's a bit like the Ship of Theseus in that almost all of the parts have been replaced or upgraded over time.)

In the folder you will find two files for each hive piece:

The hex itself:

and the inlay:

The inlay is 0.4mm tall, which using a "standard" 0.2mm layer height means it prints in 2 layers. The square around the inlay is there to help align the inlay to hex. When you "center" the model in your slicer, the symmetrical square ensures it is positioned correctly. At the end of the printing process, you can just discard it.

To help make things easier, you will also find files in the folder that include 1 full set of Hive pieces for one player all combined together. If you wanted the icons on both sides of the hexes you'd need to print two sets for each player or you can just use the standard blank hex for the other side.

You'll need to prepare two files.

First, the inlays on their own:

These can be printed with more or less "standard" settings. 

Then the hexes on their own:

When slicing these, you want to make sure there are NO supports as they would print in the space for the inlays. Crucially, you also need to make sure "z hop" is turned on and set to "0.4 mm." The z hop moves the nozzle up to avoid it colliding with the already printed inlays.

To print, first print the inlays in your color of choice. Make sure you have good bed adhesion. You don't want any portions of the inlays sticking up. There is a delicate balance though, if the inlays are too squished on the bed, the icons on the final hexes will lack some definition. This should take only about 20 minutes.

Then, before your bed cools down, swap the filament to the color you want the hexes to be and print that file, leaving the inlays on the print bed.

When they're done printing, add the magnets like the regular magnetic hexes (https://www.patreon.com/posts/magentic-hex-1-74611498), and start playing:

I'm really happy with the way these came out. Down the road, if there is interest, I could make the expansion pieces, including some of the many fan expansions: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/186175/hive-colony-fan-expansion-hive

They manage to be even more portable than my Hive Pocket set.