What are you using your 3D printer for?

[Underdog_19]

My school just purchased us a Lulzbot 3D printer. I've printed a few things but I'm curious to see what everyone is using there's for in terms of FRC.

[Mk.32]

Originally Posted by Underdog_19

My school just purchased us a Lulzbot 3D printer. I've printed a few things but I'm curious to see what everyone is using there's for in terms of FRC.

The big 80/20 black framed one? I put a few of those things together, nice machine.

For team use mostly I've done spacers and washers and prototype parts for certain things. I find the ABS just to weak to use in most things, and even for spacers we started to lathe everything from alum stock after we got our lathe.

Enclosures for certain electronics and cases for Gyros is also useful.

On the flip side I've made jigs for light duty machining.

[Underdog_19]

Yup...that's the machine.

[mman1506]

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=122285

[Mike Marandola]

We have printed some motor mounts for an early version of our pickup, an adaptor to attach a RS775 to a Harbor Freight planetary gearbox, a master wheel for a mold, and a bunch of spirit stuff.

[asid61]

Hex spacers are really useful to print, particularly the 0.0625" width. We used these on our chain drive this year to space out sprockets.

[vboratyn6053]

As a beta testing team, we've made a 3D printed part that can be placed in the roboRIO to keep the cables organized, more resistant to swarf, and slightly more secure. Link to check out the Cable Magic.

[BigBen]

Originally Posted by vboratyn6053

As a beta testing team, we've made a 3D printed part that can be placed in the roboRIO to keep the cables organized, more resistant to swarf, and slightly more secure. Link to check out the Cable Magic.

Think you should call that the WildStang RoboRio Wire Wrangler!

[MrBasse]

We are currently using ours to prototype a compact frame rail with an integrated single speed gearbox. We have printed the gears and will be printing some pulleys to save on cost and also delivery time. It will let us control our gear ratio by simply being able to print a new set of gears in just under two hours.

[Tamster]

For our robot's intake, we used our Cubify printer to prototype, and eventually create, pulleys and spacers. We also made little "bricks" used to mount our shooter to the chassis.

For non-robot stuff, we used it to print keychains that were CAD-ed by students at our robotics summer camp. We also printed some medals for our mentors, and I think someone printed a feather.

[SharonO]

We don't have a 3D printer (yet), but I think this is pretty cool.

[cadandcookies]

A small selection of what 2220 used 3D printing for last year:

• Small spacers for our electronics panel
• Mounting blocks for our polycarb side shields
• Gearbox covers
• Camera/IR sensor hybrid mount
• The all important Scorpio name plate
• Prototype of the Stratasys 3D Printing Award trophy given at the MN FTC State Championship
• All sorts of minor electrical stuff

Here's some of what Eagan Robotics FTC teams used 3D printers for last year (in case anyone's interested):

• Hook to hang on the bar
• Small "flicker" arm for scoring the autonomous block
• A variety of electrical isolation mounting components
• Mounting for the Samantha module outside of the base robot frame
• Battery holder

Overall, they were extremely useful. Many parts we developed on the printers went through many iterations in a way that wouldn't have been possible if we were machining them. The finished products (printed in Makerbot PLA) were durable enough that there wasn't a single failure in competition (though we did destroy the original camera/IR mount in testing).

[RonnieS]

So now that we are seeing a lot more people with 3D printers, I want to know what ones you have found most successful. This includes print quality, price, and durability(how much you have to play with it to get it right) all put into one.
-Ronnie

[Lydia Yeckley]

We had two, one with better resolution than the other. We've used our for many different applications. Anywhere from extra spacers in custom gearboxes, creating a shield for a gyro, wedges to help pick up frisbees, to positive stops to reducing the amount of travel a polyU band along a moving apparatus.

Obligatory "The possibilities are endless!" quote.

But actually though, they're super helpful.

[JamesYao]

We plan to use our Lulzbot to print out the custom gearbox we designed before sending the drawings to the factory for manufacturing.