3D plastic Printing, Makerspaces - Cross over into Christmas.

[SyPTo]

interesting , im gonna wait to see if someone else jumps on the bandwagon with this tech , but im interested in it as is.... its a heck of alot easier then etching boards....

[MindTrik]

I'm thinking that's not true....

[djulien]

The bigest drawback of 3D plastic printer is that it produces lot of plastic waste. It is true??

In general, not true for 2 reasons:
- 3D printing is an additive process that only deposits material where it is needed*. In contrast, a subtractive process such as traditional milling or machining is much more wasteful because unneeded material needs to be cut away from the oversized piece.
- object density can be precisely controlled. For example, the interior of non load-bearing parts can be printed using a honeycomb pattern, which makes the final object much lighter and uses *much* less material than a solid object.

* There are a few times when there is some wastage:
- when artifacts such as temporary struts are needed to compensate for gravity (ie, when printing a horizontal part in mid air)
- if you need a raft (temporary horizontal "platform" to hold the part onto the build surface)
- if the feed rate is too fast for the largest head movement and a little material oozes out the nozzle, creating a thread that needs to be cleaned up (similar to those from a glue gun)

don

[jpettit]

Instead of printing an entire enclosure, one could make use of an existing enclosure, but just print "adapters" for their boards. It may not only be cheaper than printing the entire thing, but much faster to print a smaller part (15-20 minutes). I've done this many times for Arduinos and Raspberry Pis.

[jpettit]

I also save all my scrap plastic and mix with a bit of acetone to create a sludge which is great for bonding or even polishing.

[buymyemu]

Ok, I have 10 SS16 boards and want to mount them in CG1500 (I think). instead of buying cutting boards to mount to, can someone print some offset mounts? (Pieces would screw to the cg1500 bosses, with an offset lined up to the holes in the circuit board.)

[budude]

Ok, I have 10 SS16 boards and want to mount them in CG1500 (I think). instead of buying cutting boards to mount to, can someone print some offset mounts? (Pieces would screw to the cg1500 bosses, with an offset lined up to the holes in the circuit board.)

The SS16's fit into the CG-1000s quite well - - diyledexpress has mounting plates for them as well - I used them on my 3x 16SS boards - highly recommended...

[jimbo3301]

Getting close to retirement age and looking for a source of extra revenue I bought a MakerGear M2 with the intent of providing 3D printing services for prototyping. I bought the kit to save a few dollars. I made several items last season to used in our display. Printed a mount for wireless Komby boards and used a length of PVC pipe and a cap to cover the assembly. To improve performance of our wireless floods replaced the existing metal cover with a printed one (dark gray, visible in side view of flood). Also printed a bracket to mount floods to a length of rebar. All the the Items worked as planned. Making some revisions to the flood mounting system for next season though. All the items were printed using PLA. It take allot of time to print an item. For example it took about 1 1/2 hours to print one flood cover.

[dmcole]

It take allot of time to print an item. For example it took about 1 1/2 hours to print one flood cover.

Yeah, but you're going to be retired; you'll have nothing but time! ;-) ...

\dmc

[buymyemu]

Yes, but, 1 1/2 hours is the time between Lunch and bedtime.