3D Printing

[hackentosher]

Along side my hack, I have also taken on the project of building a RepRap 3D printer. Just kinda wondering how many other people here are into the art of having a machine build things for you. Currently mine is not working due to some bad electronics, but I am working with the seller on that matter . Anyway, I opened this thread for people to talk about it and see if there are others out there!

 

[scruffydoo]

Wow, RepRap, your brave.
Life as it is I can't justify getting a 3D printer at home, but I have one at work.
A MB Rep2, that I negotiated work into getting at the beginning of the year.
I'm glad we got the Rep2 over the latest stuff from MakerBot. The Rep2 has matured well and doesn't suffer from a lot of the nasty faults found on the newest MBs.

Background-wise. I studied Product Design in university, used a range of 3D printers and CNC machines. The head of prototyping one year left me in charge of a MB Thing-O-Matic that needed fixing (it wasn't built properly). I learnt so much from that tiny beast. Twas a labour of love to get the smallest of prints from it.

What made you choose a RepRap over what's available on the market?
Also, which RepRap are you building?

 

[hackentosher]

Me? Brave? That is debatable. Anyway, what exactly do you do with that rep2? You mentioned product design and prototyping, but for what?

To answer your question, I chose to build a questionably cheap reprap kit because I am a highschool student with very limited funds. Believe me, if I had over 2k to blow, I would have an ultimaker 2 and a fancy graphics card.

When I bought the kit, most of the "inexpensive" assembled printers were still over $1000. In my search for a decent kit, I discovered a company that was selling prusa i3 kits for $450. I found someone who bought one and while they had some trouble with assembling it, the printer worked fine. Mine hasn't worked so well with poorly printed parts (for the parts that are 3D printed themselves) and rather troublesome electronics. Of course a month or two after I purchased my kit this was announced and at the time, it was in my budget range -.- http://www.robo3dprinter.com/products/robo-3d-abs-model-fully-assembled. But now that I'm stuck with my ghetto i3, I might as well get it to work.

Overall, it wasn't that bad to build (aside from a few hours wasted filing parts to get the right tolerances) but I still haven't been able to get the motors and some other parts to do what I say.

It's a very interesting field, but it's definitely more complicated than this custom computer business, but I love it.

 

[scruffydoo]

I'm a Product Designer at a Light Manufacturer. Before I joined, 3D prints were done by ARRK Europe (who are pretty great). The prints were high quality but expensive. So before me, printed parts would only come in when a high budget project demanded such parts, otherwise it's traditional engineering drawings and 3D renders.
With our Rep2, we prototype new light designs; individual components for updated lights or fully operational assemblies. Where possible, we also printed jigs, templates and tools for our factory.

Having something like this has really solved a lot of problems for us. If a picture says a 1000 words. A [3D printed] prototype is a full dissertation. Being able to walk into a meeting with the company director, chief engineer, factory manager, our supplier/s and show off a working prototype, detailing exactly what we want is just amazing. [add smug face here]

We recently had to do some metal work for 2 handmade glass lights (the glass alone was £500 each).
The problem? Only 2 in existence, so we're not going to hand them over to just anyone to get the metal work done.
Solution; 3D printed replicas.
It took me a day to recreate the glass parts in Solidworks. Being handmade meant they weren't exactly identical. When I eventually replicated the parts on the PC, I added mount points, so it could be fixed to a board, split the model up so it could be printed the in sections, then glue together and skin the parts in sticky backed aluminium foil (to survive any tack wielding happening around it).
I wasn't stupid either, I printed a spare set. Manufacturing has taught me that people are clumsy. OR, forget that they're working with plastic and melt the damn things.

So yeah, 3D printers are great. Especially when you need to refine a design before laying down a £10k-£20K investment before launching a new product.

Prusa i3? Interesting. I eyed up a metal framed kit a while ago.
Don't get too upset about the ghetto-ness of your Prusa. The MB Thing-O-Matic was an absolute pain to get working. I spent more time tinkering with the damn thing than printing. Plus it had the added bonus of a conveyor belt print bed, which NEVER WORKED (nothing stuck to it and it failed at being a conveyor).
Ahh, the belt tensioning routine, re-calibrating after every print, reloading filament, the slow 10mm/s print speed (any faster would spell disaster). OH, and the g-code! Oh how I loathed g-code.
Yeah, the thing was like a moody girlfriend.

I'm not sure about the Robo3D... If it was my money I would save for a Flashforge Creator Pro (Rep2X clone) or possibly save more money and get an Ultimaker Original+?

Any pics of your Prusa? Examples of any prints?