Acquiring a 3D Printer?

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by MrBasse

It's a Form1+. I messed with it for about 6 months testing everyday. The big problem was that a failure destroyed the print trays so continuing with it actually cost more than our Stratasys Uprint machine. And as most that 3d print know, stratasys is anything but cheap for consumables...

My experience is dramatically different than yours with the same machine. Seems like you've been pretty plugged into trying to fix/tune it, so not sure what else there is to say. I've been using the 2 print trays we have for the past 18 months...

-Brando

[Bald & Bearded]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

3D printing is very dynamic marketplace right now, and for consumers that means a lot of potential landmines out there.

Expanding on this, consumer 3D printing still has a ways to go, to get to the print and forget stage. There are just so many variables and moving parts. Every consumer 3D printer I have seen from $3K to $100 has had some of the same issues.

I have had times when I printed hundreds of parts without a failure, then times when it seemed every part failed on the same printer. Printer parts fail, jam, and wear out. Figuring out where the failure happens and how to quickly solve it brings a lot of details in here.

But this is a great chance to give students hands on troubleshooting and maintenance experience.

We have printed a wide variety of parts. Some performed better than others. We were able to use the failures (both in printing and in operation) as teaching opportunities.

[Cothron Theiss]

Originally Posted by troy_dietz

FDM/FFF is the way to go 99.9% of the time (SLS being the .1%).

Do you know of any specific teams that use SLS? I know 3824 had a few parts made on an ARCAM machine via EBM for their 2013 bot. It might be interesting to find all the teams that use methods of additive manufacturing other than FDM.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Cothron Theiss

Do you know of any specific teams that use SLS?

Yep. Troy, you might want to check the '05 robot for white sprockets.

Back in '05 330 managed to get a sponsorship from a local company that did 3D printing (SLS/SLA). Had a few small parts--and some large parts--in a run or two. The mecanum wheels didn't make it to the competition robot, but we did have a demo unit in the pit. On the other hand, there was a sprocket or two that were mounted on jackshafts to connect encoders to arms/drives(?).

I don't think they've had SLS parts since, though.

I think the best way to go with SLS is if you've got a sponsor who can put your parts in the empty space in a normal run (if there is any).

And I know there's a team that 3D-printed just about their entire robot, can't remember who, though.

[Cothron Theiss]

Originally Posted by EricH

And I know there's a team that 3D-printed just about their entire robot, can't remember who, though.

I'd say you're thinking of the team I mentioned, 3824. They've always printed pretty significant portions of their robots, including structural and frame components on a Fortus 900 printer. For 2014 and 2015, they printed large portions of their robot in a few large pieces on ORNL's BAAM. Their 2015 bot was featured in Behind the Designs. It's a really good read. This year, they went with pultruded fiberglass as their structural material after they did some prototyping with a printed chassis and decided Stronghold was too rough for an all-printed robot. However, their drive sprockets were printed v-belt pulleys, which I think is one of the most interesting ways to do power transmission in FRC.

[marshall]

Originally Posted by ImMoMo

Hello everyone,

Firstly, I apologize in advance if this post is in the incorrect sub-forum. I felt it was the most appropriate to post my question in.

So, has anyone had any luck in asking or contacting a company in regards to donating a 3D printer to the their team?

I'm trying to obtain a 3D printer for my team, before the start of the 2017 FRC season - so I thought I would attempt alternative, more direct route.

Thank you so much!

We had one of the ecocycles from the FIRST Choice grant a couple years ago. It was an ok printer but a bit limited.

We are now the proud owners of a Fusion3 F400-S. They are fairly local and gave us a bit of a discount on it and saved us shipping costs because we could pick it up. Their support is simply phenomenal and the printer is proving to be valuable so far.

[ollien]

Originally Posted by marshall

We had one of the ecocycles from the FIRST Choice grant a couple years ago. It was an ok printer but a bit limited.

We are now the proud owners of a Fusion3 F400-S. They are fairly local and gave us a bit of a discount on it and saved us shipping costs because we could pick it up. Their support is simply phenomenal and the printer is proving to be valuable so far.

How's that printer working out for you? My team was in talks of buying it for a while but that $4500 price tag was a bit hard to swallow.

[marshall]

Originally Posted by ollien

How's that printer working out for you? My team was in talks of buying it for a while but that $4500 price tag was a bit hard to swallow.

It's awesome. We've turned out a few parts but we've got an FTC team we're sharing our space with that is turning out parts left and right on it.

The worst issue we've seen is that it can jam when printing at full speed on parts that have high fill levels but the fix is easy enough... just slow down the print speed.... which S3D makes super simple.

The support is amazing when we've needed it. We've got an early one so we needed a new extruder and they shipped it out next day and gave us help with installing it and then doing some firmware tweaking/updating.

So far, very impressed with the company.

Also, if you're a non-profit then they'll cut you a bit of a break via tax.

[Gdeaver]

Isn't FRC about engineering? So why buy a printer when you can design and build one? Our team did this over the summer and fall. The goal was to run the CAD team through the design process. This was quite the under taking and I'm not sure everything sank into the students brains. Their CAD skills are very improved. We settled on a cantilevered design based on Openbuilds Parts. Plates and other parts were cut on a cnc router. We are getting good at going from solid works to cutting fast. The printer is mostly done and the CAD needs to be cleaned up. At this point WE have < $500.00 into it. We have a printer now with a 12" x 8" x 12" build volume. I'm going to start pushing the students in November to write everything up into a package to post on Openbuilds. This was not an easy project, but learning experience for the student was excellent. Oh, some of the discussions were priceless.

[Tsukunea]

Our team uses the Applied Tech departments' 2 Athenas, they are RepRap 3D printers with tons of online resources on how to use. Also not only can they 3D print but our next project with them is to get them to do circuitry and laser cutting! They usually only cost ~$500. Alternatively the DeltaGo is a good printer too, same size as the Athena and same cost.

[troy_dietz]

Brook Drumm from Printrbot donated 4 printers to our team during the summer after we sent out a request email to several companies.
He mentioned it on the Printrbot twitter in August and invited other teams to send requests.
https://twitter.com/printrbot/status/760919047030439936

You might have better luck with local companies, there are several start-ups producing decent quality printer all over the world. The hardest part is finding them. (and an appropriate contact email address)

[Bald & Bearded]

So there are good printers out there less than $400.
Monoprice has there MakerSelect printer (it is a rebranded Wanhao I3) that I can recommend.

When choosing a printer avoid:
1. Proprietary filament cartridges
2. Proprietary and closed source software/hardware

Get a printer with:
1. Heated bed
2. All metal hot end if you want to do plastics like Nylon
3. Enclosed build space is nice
4. Wide parts availability

Also, there are some really good kits out there that your students can build as a learning project.

[otherguy]

Originally Posted by Bald & Bearded

So there are good printers out there less than $400.
Monoprice has there MakerSelect printer (it is a rebranded Wanhao I3) that I can recommend.

I picked one of these up a few months ago for around $350.
I've done quite a few small prints with zero failures and only some minor adjustments from the JetGuy YouTube videos to make sure all my axis were square. I leveled it once haven't done any maintenance yet. All prints are in PLA so far, but I have some ABS I'm gonna try out soon. Also haven't done many large prints yet, but my expectations are high based on other users reviews and videos.

I have to say this is a world of difference over the Makerbit Replicator 2 that we have on the team. I feel like its a dice roll just getting parts to adhere to the bed on that machine. Even with PLA. And this machine is more than 5x cheaper.

If you're looking to spend less than $2k on a printer, I'd definitely suggest checking out the i3 clones out there. I'm very happy with my purchase and there's a great community designing parts and developing mods for new features. Wanhow is also very responsive to the changes the community is making to make the printer work better.
I watched prices for about 6months and in that time they improved the way the extruder was mounted, fixed electrical problems, improved the print bed material, improved the adjustments for bed leveling, changed the way the LCD and button are arranged to make it easier to use. Lots of little things, but its great to see active and quick responses to problems found by end users.

[Munchskull]

Originally Posted by Bald & Bearded

So there are good printers out there less than $400.
Monoprice has there MakerSelect printer (it is a rebranded Wanhao I3) that I can recommend.

When choosing a printer avoid:
1. Proprietary filament cartridges
2. Proprietary and closed source software/hardware

Get a printer with:
1. Heated bed
2. All metal hot end if you want to do plastics like Nylon
3. Enclosed build space is nice
4. Wide parts availability

Also, there are some really good kits out there that your students can build as a learning project.

My Maker select arrived yesterday and it pretty good. 4 out of 5 stars so far.

[mman1506]

The Prusa i3 MK2 has been getting killer reviews lately for its reliability and print quality. It's considered by most to be the best hobby grade FDM printer at any price.
http://shop.prusa3d.com/en/3d-printe...3-mk2-kit.html


A review by a highly respected member of the 3d printing community: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfe_84FGJ8c