3D printers

[Richard H.]

Anyone have experience using any of the self-built / lower cost 3D printers ?.

 

Unit's like MakerBot and UP! etc ?

 

Just wondering if they're good enough to make carts cases and other custom enclosures for PCB's.

 

 

 

Thanks

[+batari]

Anyone have experience using any of the self-built / lower cost 3D printers ?.

 

Unit's like MakerBot and UP! etc ?

 

Just wondering if they're good enough to make carts cases and other custom enclosures for PCB's.

 

 

 

Thanks

Depends what you mean by "good enough."

 

I've seen and held some of the parts these homemade printers make. They are definitely sturdy enough for the job, as the parts I saw were used as moving parts under considerable stress and they held up well.

 

However, they come out a bit rough and each part requires a lot of touching up by hand, and may require painting as you can see the layers from the printing process. I would say they are adequate for prototyping or one-offs but not for production yet.

[Richard H.]

you can see the layers from the printing process.

Not good

 

 

This looks like magic to me -

 

 

What's happening there ?

Edited August 5, 2011 by Richard H.

[Chuplayer]

I've seen and held some of the parts these homemade printers make. They are definitely sturdy enough for the job, as the parts I saw were used as moving parts under considerable stress and they held up well.

So, maybe not now, but in a handful of years, we can download scans of gears used in our old video game consoles and print new ones out at home for replacement parts? Flippin' awesome.

[RevEng]

What's happening there ?

It's a variation on traditional stereolithography, where a plate sits in a photosensitive solution and a UV light source draws each layer as the plate drops. In this case they appear to be using a projector for the light source and some kind of vacuum plate that draws the part upwards... I guess the advantage here is you don't need a very big vat of solution. There are disadvantages here too, but it's a decent trade-off.

 

The resolution in stereolithography is typically a lot finer than other printing technologies. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't need to hand-finish most stuff from this printer, other than removing support structures, but from a time+energy perspective it still wouldn't make a lot of sense for big runs.

[Richard H.]

I got hold of a bearing made on the UP! printer. The quality is very good, only very fine lines where the layers intersect. I'm sure it could do a good cart case.

 

This printer seems to do much better quality than the MakerBot.

 

It blows my mind that the balls are printed INSIDE the 2 rings, and move freely too !

Edited August 6, 2011 by Richard H.

[Welsh Wizard]

http://www.reprapcentral.com/vmchk.html

 

http://blog.reprap.org/2011/04/sourcing-3d-printer.html

 

http://numbersixreprap.blogspot.com/

 

 

You can check out Reprap on the above, Vic Oliver one of the teem on the original Darwin version live in the same valley as me and I have seen some of the stuff it can make, Some of it is very iffy, but on other things it can be high quality, I think a lot depends on how well you write the set up program for what you want it to do.

One advantage with rep rap it is open sorce, and the main aim of the project was to make a 3D printer that would replicate itself.

[nathanallan]

A few friends of mine want to make a 3D printer and I definitely want to help and be a part of it. Yes, the quality of the stuff made is amazing.

 

I think of it less like a printer and more like a mechanical replicator.

[Cassidy Nolen]

I just built a MakerBot with Stepstruder this past summer. It is the bees knees. I used the automated heated build platform and I have yet to find something it CAN'T do. The fact that the pieces it produces are made of ABS instead of that powder crap is amazing and super cheap to operate.

 

I'll be using it with my students this fall. It was a fairly complex but not difficult assembly. I suggest tuning your servo controllers BEFORE you button her all together. In other words, don't slack on the build. I use MasterCAM X5 to design, then save as .STL, then just let Skeinforge do the rest.

 

Currently my car seats are riding on four adapter/spacer bushing plates I made with it, I have a handful of test pieces and then a whistle or two I have made. Super cool machine and you can't even come close to beating it. As for accuracy, you control how accurate this one is. For example, you can adjust all the fill layers to make it print on a diagonal, straight or hexagonal. Layers can be cross hatched like plywood to make it strong.

 

Cassidy

[bennybingo]

I just built a MakerBot with Stepstruder this past summer. It is the bees knees. I used the automated heated build platform and I have yet to find something it CAN'T do. The fact that the pieces it produces are made of ABS instead of that powder crap is amazing and super cheap to operate.

 

I'll be using it with my students this fall. It was a fairly complex but not difficult assembly. I suggest tuning your servo controllers BEFORE you button her all together. In other words, don't slack on the build. I use MasterCAM X5 to design, then save as .STL, then just let Skeinforge do the rest.

 

Currently my car seats are riding on four adapter/spacer bushing plates I made with it, I have a handful of test pieces and then a whistle or two I have made. Super cool machine and you can't even come close to beating it. As for accuracy, you control how accurate this one is. For example, you can adjust all the fill layers to make it print on a diagonal, straight or hexagonal. Layers can be cross hatched like plywood to make it strong.

 

Cassidy

 

Back to the producing cartridge shells....I wonder how long it will be before Al sends a "PM Sent!" to this post!

[Cebus Capucinis]

Back to the producing cartridge shells....I wonder how long it will be before Al sends a "PM Sent!" to this post!

 

We won't be seeing cart shell reproduction as an economically viable alternative to cleaning homebrew shells from commons for quite a while, if you ask me. Even with a nice, sound prototype shell to work from that is simple, easy-to-adapt, and solid enough for Atari 2600 usage, it's simply not cost effective enough at this point in time vs. scooping up a large lot of 400-500 carts in one go for a cheap price then cleaning them and reusing them.

 

Even with 3D stereolithography techniques becoming much more cost effective, you're still going to have to dip well below the threshold for "per cart basis" vs. commons, which is going to be hard to beat. Of course, this is both ends of a rope burning here, and while the cost of stereolithography goes down, the price of common carts will go up, as the supply slowly dwindles away.

 

I think it will happen, of course, sometime in the future, but I think we're still several years away from creating new shells to be an economically viable alternative to simply cleaning Pac-Man carts. And I say this with honesty, not because my job is cart cleaner, LOL.

[Richard H.]

I just built a MakerBot with Stepstruder

 

You couldn't send me something made on it could you ?

 

I need to do a comparison with the UP! printer (which does really excellent quality BTW).

 

 

The ultimate goal is to make cases for my Virtual Boy flashcarts (so I don't have to rely on donors).

 

 

 

Thanks

[RevEng]

Check out this Yoda printed on the Ultimaker...

 

 

...0.02mm per layer. (20 microns!)

 

More impressive prints at the Ultimaker FAQ.

 

It's amazing what these printers are capable of now.