Month: January 2018

Why do you have a 3D printer?

Maybe already a thread for this, but after reading the ‘Buying Advice’ thread, I’m curious about the desire for having a 3D printer. Some basic questions I have:do you have part design experience using a commercial CAD tool? As a teacher for 3D printing, what I find is that lots of people want to use a 3D printer, but have no clue how to get what they envision onto the build surface of the printer.how do you interface with your printer (i.e., direct USB cable, sneaker net, LAN, etc)What software do you use between your desire to print something and the time it’s printed. I’m wondering about the entire workflow including CAD, output files used (STL, OBJ, etc), preprocessing software (STL editing/repair), processing software (GCode output for example), print/printer management software (Repetier, Octoprint, etc), post processing – not sure what that would be. Perhaps scanning?What sorts of things do you print? How much do you print?I’ll start.I bought my first 3D printer to make a prototype for a part I designed. At the time, no one wanted to even look at it for under about $3000. I’ve been a designer for the last 30 years and 3D printing for the last 4 years. While I got out of design about 15 years ago, I still design. Now I can do it for fun.I use SolidWorks Professional and output those files to STL. I have a few custom scripts to batch process into STL. I use Repetier with Slic3R for slicing. I chose Repetier because it has been the most stable and flexible for me.I have Repetier server installed on RPi Zero Wireless attached to each printer. In some cases I drive two printers with one RPi but this can be a hassle when powering things down and when the RPi goes down, you lose two printers. Future printers will all include RPi as the print server until something better comes along.With this setup, printing directly from Repetier over the network to Repetier server is super smooth. I tried this same setup with Octoprint and that worked but it was slow and not as rich. (It’s my understanding that Gina Häußge has made a lot of improvements). Also, some controller boards like Smoothieboard and Duet have built-in web servers and that could be the way to go, but it ties you to using that board. With Repetier server, you can use any controller. Even the old-timey coal powered RAMPS board.My goal is to have an extensive print farm. I currently have 14 printers and would like to get that over 20 and they have been printing more or less nonstop for the past couple of years. I use my printers to print parts for more printers. It’s also a great setup for large-quantity prints such as tokens/badges, awards, trophies, etc. One of the biggest challenges with this setup in my house was getting the printers on their own circuit. I highly recommend this if you have more than 2 printers. http://ift.tt/2DkR2G9