We first test-printed a miniature model of the base of the staircase, and finding it satisfactory, we attempted printing the larger model staircase, but that had an estimated 12 hour printing time!! In addition, since we were printing the model in a free standing form, it would have a lot of scaffolding between the pieces so it would take way too long and a lot of the expensive plastic filament would be wasted anyway.

We decided that printing the staircase in separate pieces would print faster and use less plastic than the original format. This modified print took 5 hours, which was a much better estimate and was very successful! However, a disaster struck in the last 30 minutes when one of the posts wasn't supported properly and fell apart, later completely dislodging the piece. In the heat of the moment, Judy reached into the 3d printer (probably not the safest idea) and tried to put it back in the right place for it to finish printing. She got it to be pretty close, but it was just slightly off enough for the post to be deformed a little, although it's not very noticeable in the final gif.

We also created a time lapse of the 3D printing!