3D printers?

[Martin]

This observation is limited to FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) machines
feed with low melting point temperature plastic filament like PLA and ABS.

I first encountered a Rep-Rap Darwin at HacDC about five years ago.  It
took hundreds to thousands of hours tinkering on it to successfully print
anything.  We are up to a heavily modified Prusa Mendel II.  It does work
but requires constant attention and tweaking to keep it running.  Many of
the low cost hobby machines are probably not better.  I believe that a
fraction of the Makerbot kits were never successfully made to work.

A large obstacle is design entry.  This involves learning a 3D cad system
to create the models to be printed.  It seems that this is one area where
you get what you pay for.  There are some popular free programs like
Blender and OpenSCAD.  While easy to learn Sketch-up models don't print
well.

Another limitation is the printed part melts at a relatively low
temperature.  This isn't a problem for some things, but something used in a
hot car interior could fail.

So there also the limitations of tool work size, accuracy, limitations on
what can be built due to shape, etc.

To see some thing that were 3D printed, check out
Thingaverse<http://www.thingiverse.com/>


For me, between the time and money investment in a printer and CAD
software, a CNC mill would be more useful.

HTH,

Martin KB3UJQ


On Mon, Mar 17, 2014 at 11:30 AM, William Fenn <bfenn at cox.net> wrote:

> Terry,
>
> Mike (KA2ZEV) was making a lot of things with a 3D printer where he worked
> several years ago.
>
> Bill
> N4TS
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Terry Fox
> Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2014 9:16 PM
> To: tacos at amrad.org
> Subject: 3D printers?
>
>
> Anyone in tacoland using a 3D printer?  I'm doing some research, and would
> like to know if anyone here has first-hand experience?
> 73, Terry, WB4JFI
>
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