3D Printer Advice

[thefro526]

I've been using 3D printed parts on robots since ~2007/2008 or so and they're definitely neat. That being said, what you plan on using the printer for will define what kind of printer you're looking for.

Realistically, if you're just looking for something that can make light load parts like spacers, sensor mounts and things of that nature, you can get away with just about any 'Hobbiest +' level 3D printer like Makerbot's Replicator2. Most people that 3D print rarely ever need anything more than that, especially if it's something that's not being used that often.

If you think that it's going to see a lot of use in terms of volume (not size of parts, but number of them) it's worth looking into something like a Dimension Uprint. It's basically the same technology from Dimension's Larger Printers in a smaller package. There are some weird quirks to the machine, but all in all, it's pretty good. It might be a bit out of the price range though, IIRC, the prices went up last fall, so now a Uprint is 12-15k depending on what package you want/need.

Honestly though, considering that you've got 10k or so to spend, I'd get a Makerbot and a bunch of material. That'd set you back right around $3k or so, which leaves you $7k to invest elsewhere. The real problem with looking at 3D printers on a limited budget is that you can't have it all. You'll either sacrifice reliability, quality or parts throughput to get something in that range.

[RyanShoff]

We used a Makerbot Replicator 2 this year. Its way under your budget, and the material is cheap. The resolution is very good for FRC type stuff. We've made fan mounts, encoder brackets, shifter lockouts, timing belt pulleys, hex shaft spacers and even protoyped our climber linear bearings.

I'd go for the Replicator 2x so you can print in PLA and ABS.

The plastic is very strong in compression. It's pretty strong in tension but a little weaker in the direction of the layers. Consider that when you design parts. You can control the percentage of fill to trade strength for weight and print speed.

PLA plastic has a shelf life (moisture absorbtion). Don't go too overboard on material if you go that route.

[kristinweiss]

Thanks for all the feedback! Right now we have the Solido 3000 Pro (http://www.solido3d.com/) that the school district bought for many of the schools in the county. It ends up wasting more material than is needed to create the actual object and it is a hassel to remove the objects from the block it produces and even then the pieces tend to break apart in the process. Now that our season is over (sadly didn't make it to worlds) we have some time to look at some of these different models and find one that's right for us!

[engunneer]

that's a very interesting printer technology, but I agree that it's probably not the right printer for robot parts. Would be great for prototyping, though. It looks like another one that requires you to match your design to the technology. Even in the promo video, you can see that he has a few slices through all the waste material so that it will be possible to break the parts out of the block. Properly adding these slices in the right place is critical to this kind of part removal.

I did quite a bit of prototype work on some of the first 3D waterjet parts for the company i worked for, and the waste removal slices were certainly the most interesting part of getting things made.

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

What other machine tools do you have? What are the issues with your current 3D printer? The $10K may well have a better use, depending on what your current capabilities are.

This was my first thought as well. Does the grant absolutely have to go towards a 3D printer? If not, there are many, many things I could think of devoting 10K in funding towards that would benefit your team more than an expensive (or inexpensive) 3D printer. Honestly you could probably find another team or a mentor that has access to one locally in the off-chance that you need a few parts printed up, or you could have Print To 3D contract print some of your parts for you (ran by 222's mentor Brad). Just some food for thought; I'm a huge fan of 3D printing and we use it a lot at Boeing so if you think your team would benefit a lot from it then go for it.

[kristinweiss]

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

This was my first thought as well. Does the grant absolutely have to go towards a 3D printer? If not, there are many, many things I could think of devoting 10K in funding towards that would benefit your team more than an expensive (or inexpensive) 3D printer. Honestly you could probably find another team or a mentor that has access to one locally in the off-chance that you need a few parts printed up, or you could have Print To 3D contract print some of your parts for you (ran by 222's mentor Brad). Just some food for thought; I'm a huge fan of 3D printing and we use it a lot at Boeing so if you think your team would benefit a lot from it then go for it.

We just got a new shop at the school with a CNC, 3d scanner, 2 CNC mills, a laser engraver, 2 drill presses, 2 band saws, 2 scroll saws, a table saw, a circular saw, multiple grinders, and many hand tools. We do have access to 3D printers but the process of accessing them and retrieving parts takes more time than it's worth.

[jimwick]

This thread is a real eye-opener for me. There's a world out there we obviously don't know much about. The annual budget for our team is about $8,000. We bought a Bridgeport for $1,100, an old lathe for $175, got most of our tools by begging.

This is not intended as a hostile comment. We have had to learn to work with what we've got, and have been pretty successful; we were in the top 8 at the GSR.

But it's always interesting to see how others are doing it.

[kristinweiss]

Well our budget this year for the team was $5,000 including the pit and everything we needed as a rookie team but fortunately we were allowed to use the shop at a high school that many team members including myself attend and the school just got a major renovation including the brand new shop. The $10,000 grant is for the engineering teacher who does not know what to spend it on and asked our CEO and me what we would like to have in the shop that would benefit the team and help teach his students about new technology in engineering. Our answer was a 3D printer that we could use for the robot but also could be used to create models of his student's work.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by NorthernTaco

Our answer was a 3D printer that we could use for the robot but also could be used to create models of his student's work.

Get a RepRap. Just one.

Then get the metal parts for at least one more, and print the plastic ones, then build the machine. By the time you're done, I guarantee you'll know that machine inside and out. It's almost as fun as building robot parts.

[orangemoore]

This is a 3d printer on kickstarter that has a printing area of 2x2x2 feet

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...e?ref=category

[faust1706]

This is the first year 1706 has used a 3d printer. It is nice, but ours messes up. A lot. It gets very annoying. It's messed up 7 times in a row trying to print out a piece for our hopper to feed the frisbees into our shooter.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by faust1706

This is the first year 1706 has used a 3d printer. It is nice, but ours messes up. A lot. It gets very annoying. It's messed up 7 times in a row trying to print out a piece for our hopper to feed the frisbees into our shooter.

Can you describe the mess-ups in greater detail? I don't want to hijack this thread, so a PM or a new thread might be a good idea. (You may also want to include the type of printer, software, and material.)

[gabrielau23]

We (2537) have a 3-D printer, and actually my mechanism is pretty much composed of polycarb and the printed stuff. That being said, my mechanism rarely comes into contact with other parts of the field and is not expected to take a beating. Nor is it expected to be load bearing. What we've found is that they can actually serve as v e r y serviceable motor mounts and that one special "something" that you can't really buy and would be a hassle to machine.

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally Posted by NorthernTaco

We just got a new shop at the school with a CNC, 3d scanner, 2 CNC mills, a laser engraver, 2 drill presses, 2 band saws, 2 scroll saws, a table saw, a circular saw, multiple grinders, and many hand tools. We do have access to 3D printers but the process of accessing them and retrieving parts takes more time than it's worth.

Is there a lathe in there somewhere? Not saying that this list isn't impressive, but I'm still of the opinion that 10K could be better spent elsewhere. I like the suggestions of assembling your own 3D printer - you'd learn a ton about them and be able to better troubleshoot problems as they come about. It could be a fun off-season project for your team and they definitely cost only a fraction of the full ten thousand.

[techhelpbb]

I personally have 3 3D printers.

Something I constructed with high accuracy linear actuators and an extruder I designed.

SoliDoodle 2

Up!

SoliDoodle printers with the heated beds are cheap and very RepRap like, but be prepared odds are high you'll be messing around to get them working.

My Up! printer on the other hand works very well and has always worked very well though it's object size is relatively limited.

I am not clear on the durability of the print but the resolution of stereolithography is better than what most of these printers offer. Though the working area is really quite small take a look at the Form1.

The issue you are most likely to have with a 12"x12" work bed is warping. If you try this I encourage you to enclose the unit in something to retain the ambient air temperature around the print.

You may not need such a large work bed, nor the probability of a very long print time, and the risk of ruining it late in the print if you slice and divide your models carefully.