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

Aviation Week Article.

The challenge is to think beyond current materials and designs. To that end, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee is placing thousands of 3-D printers in U.S. schools to give future designers and engineers experience with the technology. Already the lab has helped local high schools in the First Robotics competition—including building the first all-additive robot. Beginning this year with 250 machines, the lab plans to place 3,000 printers next year, then 4,000 and finally 28,000 so every high school in First Robotics has one.

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

Seems like the work of team 4265. I'll have to ask them and find out more details!

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

If they gave away $500 printers to 28,000 schools that would be a very generous $14,000,000 donation. I wonder which printer they have in mind, how many extruders the printer has and what material it extrudes?

Plus with each year FIRST grows. So in 2 years will they be giving away 30,000 or more printers to emcompass the whole competition?

I looked around briefly and found not much as far as this goes stated elsewhere.
Hope it is accurate.

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

It's good to know that the rumor I heard last month was more than just a rumor.

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

Very exciting!

Though, as a team that is not associated with a particular high school, I wonder how that works out for us, and other teams in the same situation.

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

And I just bought a 3D printer. My luck :yikes:

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

Which one?

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

That definitely sounds like them, We had the good fortune to work with them last year and it's obvious that they really care about what they're doing and put a lot of thought into it.

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

Thank-you to all thouse who are apart of this 3D printers for EVERY team. This is just spectacular. It really means alot to all the teams for someone to give 3d printers to all of us espically some of the smaller teams who barely have the money to pay registration. So thank you!
My second comment is where can I sign up for one!

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

I came across this earlier today about Makerbot trying to make this happen! http://www.makerbot.com/blog/2013/11...as-classrooms/

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

Would teams still get one even if they just bought one?

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

Thanks for the link to the Makerbot Academy!!!! I just applied, says 5 days for the application to get reviewed. I'm crossing my fingers because if I read it right, you only need approximately $100 for a Replicator 2, that isn't going to be a problem at all to find from local businesses!

Has anyone tried to get a hold of ORNL to find out more about the 3-D printing technology they are speaking of? I absolutely love this quote from the original article posted "Now the lab has developed a way to infuse reinforcing carbon fibers into the raw material to print parts that can carry loads." It reminds me of steel fiber reinforced concrete.

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

It looks like right now only schools in Brooklyn, NY qualify for the "almost home" funding. Are you reading something I'm missing?

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

Right, it looks like anybody can apply for the project, but only the Brooklyn schools qualify for the extra moolah.

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

A few issues I should bring up:

MakerBot recommends the Replicator 2 for PLA and the Replicator 2X for ABS.

MakerBot takes their MakerCare requirements quite seriously. If you manage to acquire a MakerBot printer make sure to follow all their directions for any issue precisely. Do not get clever and use the printer outside of the recommendations or you may find yourself unsupported under MakerCare. A Replicator 2X printer dual extruder head assembly (steppers, fans, ceramics, hot end) costs $500 and the MakerCare costs $500. The hot end assembly alone is $250. Always consider the long term costs of anything that you have to think carefully before you buy and make sure you can afford to keep it working.

Also they offer classes for the Replicator 2 not the 2X. So I can go about 10 minutes away in Manhattan, NYC and take a class for $35 but not for the 2X and they really won't cover the 2X during that class. I can also not buy printer parts in the Manhattan store though I can buy printers and materials (if only everything was always on schedule and I would never need to acquire anything on short notice :))

I just bring this up because not all 3D printers are equal. There are very real differences between the products, the capabilities, the software, the wearability of the prints and your experience with the company(s) providing the printer or the parts. I strongly recommend doing sufficient research before you build or buy. One size does not fit all.

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

We are NOT a Brooklyn team (by about 300 miles), and MakerBot just covered all but $100, and our DonorsChoose.org project was fully funded in about 20 minutes....we're getting a MakerBot 2 for Christmas! :D

So, were I you, I'd get on this right away!

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

We're also getting a 3d printer for christmas!!!! Everyone should apply

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

Ditto. My team is 4-H based. Any ideas for non-school based teams?

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

Well, our school is not a public school, so, sadly, we don't qualify.

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

Incredible opportunity. Thank you so much for sharing!

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

We already have a 3D printer in our shop.
No one knows how to use it so it just sits over by the programmers.

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

Very interested to see how this will work for teams not working in their schools.

We work in a warehouse off school grounds that is owned by the school. So, technically a school building, but were not actually a classroom. We applied last night. I'll let everyone know the results as soon as I know if we got it or not...

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

I think your programmers need more working space...I'll be happy to send you a postage-paid box with my address on it!

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

I'm wondering if Canadian High School's will be able to take advantage of this to. Sounds like it will greatly benefit FIRST in the USA either way.

Great job to the teams who were able to make this a reality :)

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

It doesn't belong to us. It belongs to team 73.

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

I am pleased to report that Tribe Tech 4485 has also received an early Christmas present.

This was very quick and painless. In less than 48 hours the Donors Choose project was written, approved, and fully funded.:)

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

Team 2359 is also expecting a Christmas present. I filled out the information Thursday about 1:00am as I was in the process of writing a grant that included purchasing a 3D printer, and I ran across the MakerBot opportunity. I don't know if I will get the grant, and now it really doesn't matter because as of about 6:00pm here on Friday thanks to MakerBot, DonorChoice and 1 anonymous donor the MakerBot is now officially 100% funded. Woohoo.

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

It appears to be a US initiative to promote American education. DonorsChoose.org is only open to U.S. high school teachers.

Nonetheless it's great news for our friends to the south

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

These guys did it in their shop. ORNL may have come up with something much more robust for industrial applications.

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.

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

Makerbot is now only supporting Brooklyn area high schools..... :(

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

Source?

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

Looks like there is no more funding :(

http://www.donorschoose.org/blog/201...ces-a-mission/

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

Could the above statement from DonorsChoose be any more vague? I sent in a question to them. I sure hope these get funded. I have my fingers crossed.

It's a pretty bold statement to say you're putting these in every classroom by making over $2000 of funding available for every full time public school teacher in the US. It would reflect pretty poorly on both MakerBot and DonorsChoose if this claim turned out to be false, after public announcement.

If these are not funded as originally announced, my school and I will have literally lost several hundreds of dollars in time to get our teachers signed up for nothing. I really hope more funding comes through.

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

I have several concerns about the donation process at work here:

1. Did they fully anticipate the speed with which the requests for donations could accumulate? It's a donation after all and if MakerBot is taking a loss for this perhaps there's a finite limit before which it impacts their operation's costs. Perhaps if the donation requests were metered over a longer time frame it would be less of an issue.

2. If this is completely outside of MakerBot and MakerBot makes full cost on each and every printer. As I've stated previously I am not sure that was as wise a use of the donor's money as it could have been. There are other printers that are less expensive that may of sufficed for a wider range of materials. If the printers are half the cost (for example) the donation could go twice as far.

In any event: I would like to thank the parties involved with that website for their generosity. A donation is a donation even if there are limits. I am sure that whatever prompted the sudden blockage was as difficult for the donors as it was for the reciepients who may now go without.

In the event that further opportunities like this are limited I'd like to point out that there are respectable printers down into the $500 range. They might not be MakerBots but they print and like the MakerBot you may encounter some typical issues for this technology. So the question is not really do you have nearly $4,000. With RepRap style printers it might be as simple as being patient enough to accumulate the parts a bit at a time for less than $800 in the end.

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

From http://help.donorschoose.org/app/ans.../almost%20home

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

Definitely agreed. People should be careful about sounding a little ungrateful when posting here. Who knows, maybe more funding is in the works?

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

Exactly what I was thinking.

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

The update now says all the Almost Home funding has been spent. I should mention that it seems Makerbot projects under the Visual Arts category still qualify for half off, but I'm rather disappointed with this news. This sure sounded like a much bigger opportunity than it looks like it's turning out to be. How many non Brooklyn schools were funded? A dozen?

I submitted my project less than 18 hours after the announcement, and proceeded to get about a dozen other teachers onboard. None of us would have taken the time to submit (and had the 2 "points" deducted from our accounts) had we known funding would be exhausted before our projects were even posted.

The right thing to do would be for DonorsChoose and MakerBot to at least fund the projects that were posted up through today, or at the bare minimum, add points back to our DonorsChoose accounts so we can run more projects in the future.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but it's now seeming like I've wasted a lot of teachers' time and made myself look foolish chasing something that was stated to be rather absolute, yet turned out to be nothing more than marketing hype and a dream now lost.

The other thing that gets me is I saw even 2nd grade classes get funded. Not to say that teaching elementary school is any easier than teaching high school (it likely is not) but how many 2nd grade teachers do you know who can design in CAD and operate such a machine, and teach 6 year olds to do the same....

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

One could posit something similar about high school students that build robots. 3D printers are additive and have only slight forces at work on most of their parts. One can buy extruders basically fully assembled. It should be well within the facility of most FIRST teams to assemble a printer when there are kits available. You can build a Prusa i3 out of mostly wood.

On the other hand: a grade school teacher might have a harder time justifying the hands-on likely to fall on that teacher because the students lack the dexterity to build a printer. They may need a more 'out-of-the-box' experience. We don't ask Jr. FLL to operate a lathe and we do hand them things we feel they can safely interact with. It is possible to build a 3D printer with mostly Legos.

This is just to say: obviously the donors have their reasons. There may be more logic to it than it appears.

I have to wonder: will the FRC people with their hopes set here accept a cheaper non-Makerbot printer and what if they can't get it in time for this build season?

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

Autodesk 123D Design Suite is designed for this exact purpose.
http://www.123dapp.com/

If a teacher's goal is to promote interest that early, I see no problem.

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

We would gladly accept even just the raw materials for a RepRap if it meant we could produce prototypes overnight.

EDIT: Actually, we would accept any donations. It's free stuff, people!

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

There are quite a few better options than a Makerbot at a better price. Makerbot gives you support, which is a huge selling point for a school environment.

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

The key elements of MakerBot support are:
1. Follow their instructions precisely.
2. Never print using any material they don't expressly say works in your model.

So I agree support is important but so is knowing the conditions of that support as a purchase criteria.

In fairness, MakerGeeks which is a small company selling RepRap and Chinese parts/printers, also provides support.
http://www.makergeeks.com/3dprinters.html

There are plenty of others. It's just a question of matching the product with the expectations.

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

Well, I heard back from DonorsChoose that they are working to extend the funding offer, so, I'm still hopeful.

It does look like several non-Brooklyn schools were funded. 225 schools funded in total. So, although I may have missed the first boat by a few hours, I'm glad this many schools got in on the deal, and I'm hoping there will be another chance.

I even see a kindergarten class that got one. Interesting.

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

In an amusing instance of symmetry, it is possible to produce LEGO bricks with almost any 3D printer.

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

That has been ultimately a primary motive for the RepRap project from the beginning

Building a mostly Lego based 3D printer to print Legos and therefore parts for more Lego based 3D printers is a fundamental form of a self-replicating machine.

Since generally RepRaps have some parts they can't print themselves it would be safe to assert a similar achievement toward the goal. Except the Legos have more general purpose application. So maybe someone can feed a Lego based 3D printer to a Lego based assembly machine that makes more 3D printers that....somewhere Lego is already thinking of expanding their 'lights out factory' using some of their own bricks I am sure. Hopefully the factory will stop building itself at some point.

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

I wish we could use a 3-D printer but the return isn't worth the cost when we can make it ourselves. Simply not economical. True, while you're fabricating one part you can be working on another, but in the pits that could be a draw back.

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

One of the things I intend to teach my students with the MakerBot we're getting through this AWESOME program (which, if people complain about just because money is finite, they need to re-evaluate their expectations of life) is the cost/benefit analysis of additive vs. traditional manufacturing. I intend to include materials costs, time, expertise needed, material optimization, and anything else I can think of in the analysis.

A good skill for students to develop in high school, methinks.

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

I have signed up through Donors.org for a Replicator.
I understand that Makerbot may not be funding any more teams, however did you have to do anything additional to be funded, or did they simply find your project?

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

I didn't have to do anything but sign up, and they took care of the rest. I was informed today that the equipment is purchased and should be in our hands within the next three weeks.

While we're on the topic of 3D printers, does anyone know if MakerBot 1.75mm PLA critical, or can you buy 1.75mm PLA from other sources/companies that work as well/better? This is our first go-round with additive manufacturing, so I'm sure there's a lot of little details we'll have to learn.

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

I can not stress this enough:
Until you are comfortable with a MakerBot printer do not extrude anything that MakerBot does not approve of.

Buy their filament or be prepared they might waive off your other material as the cause of whatever issue you might have.

On the plus side there are MakerBot stores that carry their filament if you are near to one you can just walk in an get it.

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

I had heard something to that effect at one point--thanks for verifying!

(Me, near a store. That's *hilarious*! :D )

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

Looks like most projects are "almost home" now. Looks like they got more funding.

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

Looks that way...ours just got funded, down to $98.00 - then the remaining in about 10 minutes by friends of the team.:D

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

Yep ours got funded.

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

We're just waiting for $96.00 more dollars.

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

seems there's only three makerbot projects in Louisiana.

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

My recommendation is to go fund the $96 NOW! If your project was posted in the last 7 days, you can donate half that, and use the code INSPIRE to match it.

The "Almost Home" funding is not gauranteed until your project is "Completed." You might miss out if you don't just go apply the $96.

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

We just got ours fully funded!

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

We just had ours fully funded as well. This is fantastic for many schools and teams across the country. This was the most surprising Christmas present our team has received this year.(Well if we get it shipped in time ;) )

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

Congratulations to all the teams that got a 3d printer. Now my question is how do you use this printer? also what are some useful thing you can print

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

Apparently in one 12 hour period we got Almost Home funding and then lost it.

Sadness

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

This just happened to me as well. Hopefully it goes up again quickly.

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

Thanks to the original poster and everyone else with the updates. I went ahead and signed up as soon as I was aware of this, in spite of what looked like the end of the Almost Home money. They did start it back up, and we were fully funded in about 10 minutes last night. Fantastic! Can't wait to put this to work.

Same here. We contacted them, and they said it may go back up. My guess is it went to another project and will come back funding pending.

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

I think the difference may be how quickly you fund the remaining $100.00. I watched our project get finished and a neighboring middle school lose the "Almost Home" almost simultaneously. Have the requesting teacher closely monitor the email and have someone ready to finish it off as soon as you are notified.

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

Wanted to publically thank Team 330 - Beach Bots for contributing to our project. Your contribution triggered an e-mail which caused us to look at the donorschoose webpage. Only then did we discover that the "Almost Home" funding had been applied to our project. We quickly funded the remaining amount and had the process completed by about 8:10 last night.

In the first 10 days of the project donors who include the code INSPIRE with their donation can get up to $100 matched by other donors. We did test this function during our final funding push and found it to work. This suggests that even without the "Almost Home" funding teams might be able to secure the technology by raising only half of the funds.

I expect MakerBot to continue to search for funding to honor their goal. We did not have the resources to add this technology without their generous support. Check often, act quickly, and Good Luck.

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

Radio Shack has 1kg spools of 1.75mm PLA filament for $25 today. I wonder if it's any good.

Edit: I realized this price isn't really any better than what similar spools are available for on eBay and elsewhere. I'm still curious about the performance of these Radioshack ones though.

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

It would be nice to know if they work well though. Sometimes having a local supplier is handy in build season :]

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

These printers won't go to every FIRST team this year, but the ones who do receive them will have the option of a 3D Systems Cube, a MakerBot Replicator 2, or a MakerGear. As a part of 3824, we are partnered with ORNL, so we have had the privilege to use various 3D printing machines. We have found an incredible amount of uses for this technology, and we want to share our knowledge and experience with it. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

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

FYI, Cyber Monday is quickly approaching!

11 AM Eastern tomorrow, Amazon.com will be selling this printer (Up! Plus 2) at a discount. It is presently listed at $1612, and I've seen it as low as $1599 regularly. Others (Joe Ross, below) have noticed it at $1523.

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

It was $1523 on 10/20. Hopefully it will be cheaper tomorrow.

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

Currently $1290!

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

$1289 for the next two hours, or until they run out.

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

On MakerGeeks.com 20% discount until 2:00 PM EST 12/2/2013:
Read the next 35 minutes...so hurry :)

http://www.makergeeks.com/
Code: FLASH20a

So Duplicator 4 = http://www.makergeeks.com/d4prbot3dprd.html
Price is about $1,165

Code is not locked to hardware so: filament, Cube mod, RepRap parts.

Just grabbed the starter kit for $392 (savings $98 off normal)
Contains: RAMPS 1.4, 5 Pololu stepper drivers, 5 NEMA17 steppers, control shield, heated bed, glass bed, thermistor, drive cogs, belts (probably not GT2 belts but hey), VXB 8mm linear round rod bearings, cables, limits, single nozzle extruder

Worth at least $415 not including S/H if you parted this yourself:
Motors $100
Control kit $150
Extruder $75
Cogs / Belts $75
Bearings $15

If someone is still interested, till the end of CyberMonday:

15% off order over $350 is code CYBER25
12% off order over $250 is code CYBER15
10% off any order is code CYBER10

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

We got our Replicator 2 today! :D

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

Ours arrived today. Went from opening the box to printing a nut and bolt in minutes. I had no idea it was that easy to get started. Both my chemistry class and robotics team are going to have some fun creating. The only trouble I had was the objects were more stuck to the build plate than I expected. Having never used this technology before I guess I didn't know what to expect. They did twist off with some force.

On December 3rd the Donorschoose.org blog answered a few questions. Here are some quotes.

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

We also had the same problem with our printer getting stuck. We tried applying the blue tape to it but it wasnt that good unless you completly remove the tape. Also the lube isnt for the board.

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

That made me chuckle. :yikes:

The plate has two sides. One is quite smooth, and the other is slightly textured, almost frosted. I put the frosted side up. There really weren't any instructions on which side to use.

Just read a suggestion in another forum to use a transparancy sheet (we still have some old overhead projectors) to saw underneath the part to pry it free. Someone else recommended the Circut Spatula Tool to help separate the part from the build plate.

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

We received our makerbot yesterday and we were able to print off the bolt,bracelet, chain, and comb. We actually used the smooth side with rubbing alcohol and an old electronics spatula to get the parts off. The only part that was pesky to get off the build plate was the comb. Also as a future design note make sure that you don't use a pla part by a high heat source like the compressor due to it deforming. My beautiful comb didn't care to much for my space heater.:)

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

On the smooth side of the build plate is a sheet of Kapton which helps the filament adhere to the plate (at least is on the Replicator 2X). There are some other tricks for removing a build from the deck. Try holding a can of compressed air upside down and letting the cold air "shrink" the build momentarily. It usually pops right off. Also, you may not have to do a lot of rafting (building a stable adhering surface on the build plate) for the Replicator 2X that you might have to do for other printers because of the heated build plate.
Many downloads from Thingiverse (warehouse of 3D models) are made on other brands of printers and you may have to make adjustments to the printer settings prior to hitting "print".

Finally, I can't wait until there is a plethora of FIRST-specific models out there on CD's white pages or Thingiverse for teams to share. There are literally hundreds of parts that can go on a bot that can be printed and I think this year will bear that out. I just hope the Makerbot will accept the carbon fiber Pla from the Proto Plant Inc. guys. That could open a lot of doors.

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

So -

Imagine my surprise when I got back on our Donor's Choose site to find that our project had been fully funded.

Yay!

Now to wait for it to ship.

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

This was a pretty good deal.

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

All:
Attached is a portion of a presentation I gave at the FRC Workshops sponsored by Team 1418 this past Saturday.

The core of the charts are #6,7,and 8 which are some comparisons of the printers being offered in FIRST Choice, some highly reviewed printers from Make magazines 3d printer issue, and some information on kits I am familiar with.

The key is teams need to do an ROI and value analysis before they jump on this technology.