Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

I am a part of the Knoxville based team 1466 and we have worked closely with both 4265, 3824, and others the past few years. The team that has used the Carbon fiber and 3d printed technology has been 3824 and they featured it last year on their ultimate ascent robot. Their team also is one of the leading tenants of the Oak Ridge MDF (materials demonstration facility) facility where they have many many million+ dollar 3D printers and also titanium 3D printers which is kinda the coolest place ever.

The way the carbon fiber plastic parts has been explained to me is that they will print a part off the printer, take a roll of carbon fiber strip, run the carbon fiber through a resin, and then wrap the carbon fiber around a plastic part to reinforce it. That is just the FRC use so I'm not sure if the lab uses it in other ways.

As not being a member of either team, these are just what I believe to be true as a member of another team. Hopefully a member from one of these teams will see this thread and reaffirm what I have said.

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

Wow..... I think I just did everything I needed to do also.... I'm quite shocked... in a good way!!! :yikes: But we will definitely put the Makerbot to good use!!!! Thanks everyone on here for posting and sharing the information on this. I did think that I had to be in Brooklyn, but it seems that may not be true. I had already applied when I read the posts, so I figured I'd leave it up there and see what happens!

For those of you who aren't school based, the students have to go somewhere and I bet they know a teacher who would apply for one! It really doesn't take long if you have a plan for what you are going to do with it. I think I spent about two hours filling out the application, but only because I rewrote it at least twice!

Stinglikeabee, thanks for the link for the kickstarter, I will be becoming a supporter for that one!!

Rynocorn, do you have any pics or contacts from those teams? I'm really interested in printing some of our parts on the printer and then being able to use them for the robot (or at least the test bot we are making in class). We have a great machine shop, but I want to push the students to really be able to design parts that are extremely functional with the 3-D printer.

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

So pretty much all you guys had to do was make a project on Donorschoose.org, and voila, 3D printer?

We're not a school-based team, but our lead mentor/founder is a teacher with the local school district. I just emailed this out to him, sounds like a great opportunity.

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

Pretty much. See here for the details:http://www.makerbot.com/academy/

But you have to take pics and write thank you letters but that's common courtesy right?

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

Yep we applied for a project and just received confirmation that it was approved. When MakerBot makes its next run through, then we should only have $90 - $100 left.

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

I agree... the MDF (manufacturing demonstration facility) is pretty much the coolest place ever! And I'm lucky enough to have an internship there :D

But you were mostly correct about the way we used the carbon fiber. We would print parts and connect them with carbon fiber tubes. We then wrapped carbon fiber stands around these tubes and used epoxy to keep them together.

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

FIRST team 3824 has been the catalyst for our desire to get additive into FIRST. When I went to Hardin Valley Academy the first day of build season their rookie year, I asked the students if they could show me and two other ORNL mentors for HVA their shop. They don't have a shop, BUT they did have a uPrint that they bought with startup funds. They just didn't know how to use it. I taught 3 HVA students SolidWorks and it's just exploded. The first year, about 25% of their robot was printed. Their second year, they printed their entire robot, even using our titanium printers. Last year, they designed and built a hybrid additive/carbon fiber robot. We had a booth with America Makes at Nationals last year. The students from 3824 have become an integral part of the MDF. They are working with us on a new printer that makes carbon fiber reinforced plastic parts. On top of that, it's big (8 ft x 8 ft x 8 ft) build volume and fast (500 cubic inch of material an hour). I'm hoping that they use this system this year to print their entire robot. By the way, I hire about 25 interns every summer to work in the MDF. Almost all of them are FIRST alums.

Why are we doing this? ORNL was established during the Manhattan Project to help win WWII. We, like all FIRST mentors, are concerned about our country's future. We see FIRST as the mechanism to train our future manufacturing workforce. We also see Additive Manufacturing as the perfect tool for establishing dominance in manufacturing. Who better to help develop and mature the technology than FIRST students? We are convinced that, if we just put printers in the classroom, they would gather dust. However, if we start with FIRST, you students can lead this revolution.

Buckle up. It's going to get wild. All we ask is that you do what you do best, innovate and inspire.

Lonnie

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

I am the mentor for FRC team 3824 quoted in the article, Dr. Lonnie Love. FIRST team 3824 has been the catalyst for the pilot this year. When I went to Hardin Valley Academy the first day of build season their rookie year, I asked the students if they could show me and two other ORNL mentors, Craig Blue and Martin Keller, their shop. They don't have a shop, BUT they did have a uPrint that they bought with startup funds. They just didn't know how to use it. I taught 3 HVA students SolidWorks and it's just exploded. The first year, about 25% of their robot was printed. Their second year, they printed their entire robot, even using our titanium printers. Last year, designed and built a hybrid additive/carbon fiber robot. We had a booth with America Makes and showed what was coming at Nationals last year. The students from 3824 have become an integral part of the MDF. They are working with us on a new printer that makes carbon fiber reinforced plastic parts. On top of that, it's big (8 ft x 8 ft x 8 ft) build volume and fast (500 cubic inch of material an hour). I'm hoping that they use this system this year to print their entire robot. By the way, I hire about 25 interns every summer to work in the MDF. Almost all of them are FIRST alums.

Why are we doing this? ORNL was established during the Manhattan Project to help win WWII. We, like all FIRST mentors, are concerned about our country's future. We see FIRST as the mechanism to train our future manufacturing workforce. We also see Additive Manufacturing as the perfect tool for establishing dominance in manufacturing. Who better to help develop and mature the technology than FIRST students? We are convinced that, if we just put printers in the classroom, they would gather dust. However, if we start with FIRST, you students can lead this revolution.

Buckle up. It's going to get wild. All we ask is that you do what you do best, innovate and inspire.

Lonnie

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

Heads up, based on a search of all donorschoose.org projects, the MakerBotAcademy bundle "almost there" donations (which take the crowdsourcing goal down to $100) are now limited to only Brooklyn teams. Maybe a few teams squeezed through, but it looks like the majority of submitted projects are now not being funded by MakerBot.

Oh well, worth a shot. No way we're going to commit 2.5k to this printer. We have bigger fish to fry.

-Mike

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

Yes that is true, but from what I can tell Makerbot has made 216 projects "almost home". I'm not sure what the criteria is?

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

I'm hoping they're just waiting until normal business hours again, tomorrow. A lot of the projects got posted (went live) over the weekend. This is the most recent news we have from DonorsChoose which indicated funding is available for all full time public teachers.

I really hope I didn't spend 6 hours getting a dozen of our teachers signed up for nothing. I do see a lot of completed projects with Almost Home funding from outside of Brooklyn, NY. So, that's hopeful.

I did notice that a lot of the MakerBot projects are under the Visual Arts category and have received Anonymous donor 50% match, but not Almost Home funding.

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

I must have been looking in the wrong place, thanks for the link. Looking more hopeful :)

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

Maybe this is a dumb question. But what about those of us that pull from multiple high schools? Will they be given to the program itself or to one of the high schools?

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

Fingers crossed!!

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

Donor's Choose leans toward awards being given to the classroom - when a teacher leaves a school the award typically stays at the original school. I'd assume from that relationship that this program will tie the award to one of the schools.