What are you using your 3D printer for?

[JamesYao]

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

[asid61]

Originally Posted by JamesYao

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

Be careful when printing parts such as gears or holes perpendicular to the table of the printer. We did not get very good results when printing gears due to the enges having some residual plastic and being unable to get it off.

[joeyprisaznuk]

We've used our Makerbot Replicator 2 at school for aluminum tubing caps and we also printed a bracket to hold cables in our radio so we wouldnt lose commuication with the robot. Also made 1507 keychains for all students, and lots of custom phone cases for myself.

[seg9585]

Lots of things! Here's a few items I've made with the printer in the past 6 months:

Stackable jaguar mounts:
http://eric.segonline.net/2014/frc/jagmount3.jpg

A fully working 3D printed Swerve Drive:


A modular, 3 foot tall high-powered rocket (fits I and J 38mm solid motors, max altitude ~3000ft)


Not robotics related, but here's my birdhouse:


Here's my Tiki Chess Set:



And here's a wedding cake topper I designed for a friend



And finally, here's the 3D printed gear heart and Big Balls I printed and gave to Jill Wagner when I competed on the game show "Wipeout":

[Certified Nerd]

I used mine to print many things (robot parts) for my team last year. I posted a video of one thing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFjenjGTKBc
All of our designs from last year are posted here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:415214

[azcalg]

Over the summer we had a rehab center for children with severe mental disabilities ask us to help them modify those little cars that the lucky kids drive around the neighborhood. We modified them with buttons on the steering wheel that the kids could push to make them go forward and made the seats better for them and made the steering remote controlled by a parent. We made the steering remote controlled by taking an old globe motor and having it turn the steering shaft with a couple little gears that we printed out. We had other designs with string and chain and stuff but the gears were by far the best solution. I'll try to find some pictures of it.

We're also printing out stuff to help prototype some new drivetrains we might want to use this next season.

edit: here's some of the cars during their photo shoot, we did like 4 of them. http://imgur.com/a/rziev

[MissDaisyGirl]

Originally Posted by seg9585

And finally, here's the 3D printed gear heart and Big Balls I printed and gave to Jill Wagner when I competed on the game show "Wipeout":

This is amazing.

[Amy33Amy33]

Our team doesn't actually have it's own 3D printer yet, so far we've been borrowing other people's 3D printers. There are a lot of parts of the vacuum that were 3D printed though, one of the most notable parts that was 3D printed was that black plate thing. I forget what the plate specifically does, but I think that it's an air release of some sort. There's also a few connectors for the vacuum that we 3D printed too because we couldn't find anything that would work for that.

[wajirock]

We usually use our 3D printer to make trinkets. But last year, we made a clip for our D-Link and we also made a hex spacer. Unfortunately, both of those eventually broke.

[wendells]

We use Autodesk Inventor for 3D dwg. Through motion analysis they are able to move the components of the dwg. then we create models with the 3D printer.
eg. Students must design a Circular Gripper to hold a 2" diameter ball.

One of my students did an excellent job; so, the drawing is now being CAM on the CNC Mill.

[Twins Inc.]

Last year we spent 40 hours of printing to make a LOT of the green and blue rollers here:
https://twitter.com/frc2605/status/436627785478848512

We also found them to be incredibly useful for encoder and sensor mounting. Be sure to test specifically for each part. Tolerances will change from warp, and the warp will change from the part shape to the printer. The more you use 3D printing, the more you will come up with ways to use it, and what you use it for won't be a question anymore!