3D Printer Help

[Jehosaphat]

Hello! In an amazing turn of events, last night a local business owner called and donated a 3D printer to our team. I have virtually no experience using one but was hoping to get it up and running so we could possibly use it for states.

Could anybody help me out? Any and all advice is appreciated.

[Jehosaphat]

Hello! In an amazing turn of events, last night a local business owner called and donated a 3D printer to our team. I have virtually no experience using one but was hoping to get it up and running so we could possibly use it for states.

Could anybody help me out? Any and all advice is appreciated.

So great to hear that! How far along are you in setting it up? I think we would have better advice to offer you if you bring up any specific problems you come into. I would suggest starting out with a few test prints to get used to 3D printing and to become more familiar with the material properties and slicer settings to better understand how you could use it in your builds.

[Jehosaphat]

We literally just were notified about it yesterday, so I think we are picking it up today. My general idea was to just mess around with it and see what happens as well. The only problem is that I'm a senior, so I don't want to become the exclusive expert on it or anything so it doesn't become useless in the future.

Another question I had is the durability of the builds. I typically do the bigger builds like trajectory, so I'm used to building with 2x4s and screws. Would the printed material last the whole season? I was thinking more a gravity vehicle application for the machine in general.

[Jehosaphat]

We literally just were notified about it yesterday, so I think we are picking it up today. My general idea was to just mess around with it and see what happens as well. The only problem is that I'm a senior, so I don't want to become the exclusive expert on it or anything so it doesn't become useless in the future.

Another question I had is the durability of the builds. I typically do the bigger builds like trajectory, so I'm used to building with 2x4s and screws. Would the printed material last the whole season? I was thinking more a gravity vehicle application for the machine in general.

I've used 3D printed parts for both my gravity vehicle and trajectory device and they lasted the entire season. You definitely have to have a strong design and print with a decent infill (I printed with 40%) to ensure they don't break, but overall 3D printed parts are definitely viable for high stress parts.

[knightmoves]

Your 3D printer will have size limitations. You're going to be printing parts, rather than builds. So perhaps you'd print a plastic piece to hold and adjust a bearing for the vehicle, rather than printing the whole frame as a single piece.

You'll probably also find it useful to print bits of a construction jig for the balsa events.

[JonB]

Hello! In an amazing turn of events, last night a local business owner called and donated a 3D printer to our team. I have virtually no experience using one but was hoping to get it up and running so we could possibly use it for states.

Could anybody help me out? Any and all advice is appreciated.

What type of printer is it? I might be able to help out with specific issues. Also, don't count on a print lasting all year if there is any sort of stress on it. PLA (and ABS) will deform over time. I agree with what else was said before this post- use it to print parts/pieces/jigs.

The majority of the work is in the design software, the printing is easy.

[CPScienceDude]

Ehhhhhhhh the printing can definitely be the hard part if you're new to printing and/or getting unlucky with build plate adhesion or layer adhesion or stringing etc.

Overall tho, yeah Id agree the printing tends to be easier once you know what you're doing and have some experience with printing