Quote:
Originally Posted by evanperryg
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Intro to Engineering and Design, or Principles of Engineering? If you are doing Intro, I still have all of my notes from last year if you need some of them for whatever reason. Also, those long definitions, word for word, man. One word off and you lose points.
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Engineering Design and Development
http://www.pltw.org/our-programs/hig...eering-program
The last one here. I'm a senior and I've already gotten four PLTW college credit courses done.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stinglikeabee
Off the top of my head, here are some printers:
Ultimaker
Makerbot
RepRap (Mendel, Prusa, Kossel, Rostock)
UP! (inventables.com has these)
Buccaneer
Stratasys
Things to look for: reliability, ease of maintenance, replacement of components, material costs.
Multi-color: This is not a requirement for most things. It will make your peices attractive, but at a huge increase in cost. There is a printer out there that can print any color on demand (I already forgot which company made it).
Extruders: There are two basic designs: direct-drive or Bowden. Many Bowden setups require fine-tuning to dial in the retraction rate. Direct-drive is basically a stepper motor on the print head which feeds directly into the hot end.
Hot end: This is the part that melts the plastic filament. Depending on how hot / how well the temperature is maintained, this will limit your material selection.
Heated bed: This is important for ABS plastic. It allows the first layer to adhere to the print surface and helps keep the next layers on target/aligned when printing up since the base layer has set well.
Materials: ABS, PLA, Polycarbonate, Nylon, Wood
Overhang:The overhang is basically how well the printer can print an "arch" without having to put support pillars under the arch.
Slicer/G-code: The software and firmware that convert the 3D model into paths, set the retract speed, print head acceleration and speed, as well as the thickness of the outermost wall (shell). Fine tuning in the printer software will result in huge variances in strength (more plastic is not always better), cost, weight, and durability.
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If it is for an engineering design class, why not have one that students and teachers can build, take apart, fix, and use. In fact, most of the videos are probably on YouTube already!
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That's some awesome information there, Tim. And I'll bring up building one. Is it more cost-effective than buying a COTS one?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bald & Bearded
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That said to add to what folks said above - Calibrate, Calibrate, and Calibrate.
From a cost basis the REPRAP kits are affordable and from what I have seen if carefully assembled and CALIBRATED can print things as good as the lower end commercial models.
Plus if the kids do the assembly and calibration it is an opportunity to learn about a lot of different concepts.
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I am looking to offer the 3d Printer class in the Northern Virginia area again later in the fall. Contact me directly if interested.
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I'll look into the kits. And emphasize
calibration.

North Virginia might be a little far to go for our class, though

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Quote:
Originally Posted by eli2410
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*uPrint SE is the main one we use, a powder one that doesn't have strong material that is used by the bioscience department for printing of dna strands that we have no access to (also not sure if the software on it supports inventor models or anything else we would want to make). The other (another department has it and doesn't like us using their stuff, but if ours is broken or is running something big, they will occasionally let us) is a uPrint SE plus. Our high schools have makerbots
*Support material (big thing for complicated parts that some don't do!)
*I personally think support material is a must, since it can make really complicated parts and models, like roller coasters
*See above
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Does the uPrint support importing Inventor models?
Is that a feature that is standard among a lot of 3D printers? Or is it only specific ones?
Thanks for your help, everyone! This could turn out really well for us.