Difference between revisions of "3D Printers"

Latest revision as of 19:10, 23 May 2019

FamiLAB has a variety of 3D printers. This article is a brief introduction. It describes them, the filaments used, and the diversity of printer characteristics. It also explains the types of printers with links to the styles of printers (cartesian, delta, corexy, etc). It explains that firmware and software and additional info can be found on each printers website.

Current working 3D printers available

(Status as of 3/04/2018)

Deltamaker (https://www.deltamaker.com/)

Rostock Max V2 (https://www.seemecnc.com/)

Current 3D printers needing repair

(Status as of 3/04/2018)

Modified Ultimaker Original (https://ultimaker.com/)

Material Compatibility List for the 3D Printers

If the material isn't listed here contact someone on the "Point of Contact" list and ask.

* To use these materials, purchase and install a stainless steel nozzle. To get help or advice on finding the right nozzle, contact the Fabrication lab point of contact(POC).

** Not supported by Stratasys but, at FamiLAB experimentation is encouraged (to a point).

*** The Stratasys 768 BST uses a proprietary ABS filament (higher extrusion temperature) with a second proprietary filament for support.

• All of our machines use 1.75mm Filament.

Stratasys

Basically: · Open door.

       · There's a dump tray for filament purging which should be regularly emptied. Now is probably a good time.
       · If there's a part on the build platform, you should remove it. If there isn't, the printer might not even know this so,... like,... pretend,... or something.
       · The printer will probably be querying you as to whether you removed the part. Push the button corresponding to 'yes'.

· You use a program called Catalyst (it has a shortcut that shows up prominently in the menu). · If you check the 'Printer Status' tab and you have not (or someone else has not) sent anything to print, it should be empty.

       · If it's not empty but you think it should be, you probably did not do the 'Open door' step (or you did it before the printer had gone through the full boot up process). Open and close the door. If that does not fix it, actually try deleting the job from the queue.
       · If it is empty but you think it shouldn't be, maybe you need to resubmit a job.

· Have an .stl ready. Having several .stl files ready might be a possibility too. · Load said .stl file from Catalyst from the 'File' menu using the 'Open stl...' option.

       · You can use the 'Properties' set of selection boxes within the 'General' tab to set printing parameters.
               · You probably want to use the sparse setting.
               · If you need to print more than one unit of your part, this is were you set it up so this will happen.
       · After the part properties are set, you may want to set the printing orientation for it by means of the 'Orientation' tab (your most useful tool here is probably going to be the one giving you the ability to rotate about the x, y or z axis by 90 degrees). 
       · If all seems correct, click on the 'Add to Pack button' (this is available from more than one tab but it does the same thing no matter where you do it from).

· If you wish to print more than one kind of part in this printing session, go back to the stl file loading step and repeat the process from there. · The 'Pack' tab will show how your parts will be arranged on the build platform. You can rearrange by hand (but you may not need to). · Click the 'Print' button. · On the printer, push the 'Start model' button, if necessary.