3D PRINTING in your Home How 3D prin5ng can be used in our Hobbies & how you can build your own
Please remember, all information used here in is at your own risk. Tuesday, June 11, 13
Author: Dwayne Myers
[email protected]
3D Printing - How • 3D Printing has been around for some time now. • Printers come in may forms and use may different types of material to print. • Some use powders that require resins in a post process to make the printed objects hard. • Some use different types of plastics • Others have the capability to build objects using metal powder and lasers to weld the powder. Tuesday, June 11, 13
3D Printing - How • All 3D printers build an object through an additive process. • The object is built by adding material • This is opposite of a machine like a CNC cutting machine which uses a process to cut away excess material - subtractive process.
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3D Printing - How • A 3D printer builds an object 1 Layer at a time
• Videos: http://reprap.org/wiki/Videos Tuesday, June 11, 13
3D Printing - How • The Printhead is lifted one layer at a time in the Z axis and left to right in the X axis • The table is controlled in the Y axis Z X Y Tuesday, June 11, 13
3D Printing - How • For the Home 3D Printer, plastic filament (thread) is feed into a heated extruder - like when you pull the trigger on a hot glue gun. • The plastic melts and comes out of the extruder head at only 0.35mm in diameter. • Being molten, it melts the surface of the material it touches to bond and build a new layer. Tuesday, June 11, 13
3D Printing - Material •
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Material comes in serval types and a multitude of colors, transparency, and even glow-in-the-dark. •
PLA - provides low working temperatures, translucent colors, but is brittle and not overly strong.
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ABS - (Material of Choice) Strong & Flexible Durable Higher temperature to extrude and requires a heated print bed.
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Wood Composite - Provides a stainable sandable surface.
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Nylon - Flexible, strong, currently only comes in white, but can be died.
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PVA - Water Soluble so it can be used as support material and washed out later. It absorbs moisture so it is difficult to store.
3D Printing What can you do with it? • Custom parts with a perfect fit • Battery Boxes • Servo Trays • Electric Motor Mounts • Custom gears and control arms • Project Boxes • Repair parts for your car • Anything you can think of... Tuesday, June 11, 13
3D Printers - Software 1.
Can you draw and think in 3D? •
Google Sketchup •
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• 2.
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AutoDesk Inventor (Makers of AutoCad) •
MAC (Free)
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Windows (Pay)
Many others - required output format is “.STL” (Stereo Lithography file type)
“Slicer” Software - This is the program that takes the design file (.STL) in and slices it into the 3D printed layers. Generates a “.Gcode” file. •
Slic3r.org is the most popular.
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Calibration of the software is required for your printer and material type.
Printer Interface Software - Talks to the printer and sends the design file (.Gcode) to the printer. •
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MAC & Windows (Free)
Pronterface (Choice) Mac & Windows Free
3D Printers So now you want to build one • Buy the parts & build - $400 • RepRap.org - Open Source project to build a 3D Printer • http://www.reprap.org/ • McMaster Carr • Ebay • 3D printer vendors like LulzBot • Buy a kit & build - $800 -> $1200 • Buy prebuilt - $2000 Tuesday, June 11, 13
3D Printers So now you want to build one •
I built mine from the RepRap open source project files
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The RepRap is made of: 1. 3D Printed Parts from another person (EBay, Me, Online Store) 2. Threaded Rods, Drill Rod, Nuts, Bolts, washers, Drive Belt (McMaster Carr) 3. Stepper Motors, Controller Card, Motor Controllers, Print Head, Linear and Standard Bearings, Heated Print Bed, Limit Switches, Power Supply (Ebay, 3D Printer Online Store) 4. Plastic Filament (Thread) - Amazon.com & Other online stores
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3D Printers So now you want to build one •
What do you need to know? •
A working knowledge of electronics
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Some basic software knowledge •
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Firmware for the controllers are righten in Arduino code. You need to be able to edit the configuration parameters, compile and upload.
What skills do I need to have? •
Mechanical - Nuts and Bolts
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Wiring & Crimping
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Soldering
Tools? •
Sawzall - to cut rods to length
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Wrenches
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Soldering Iron
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Plyers
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Hand Drill & Various bits
3D Printing Website Resources • Download “Things” other people have designed http://www.thingiverse.com • 3D Printing Community, Manuals, Build Guides, New developments http://www.reprap.org • Popular premade printers http://www.makerbot.com Tuesday, June 11, 13
