Printing Parts

[mastacox]

Pretty cool stuff, my work has a couple different kinds of these machines. I would be interested in building my own one of these, but I think I'm spoiled by what I see and do at work... The $250,000 laser sintering machine is just awesome!

..."FDM" usually means "Fused Deposition Modeling" by the way :P

[Obi..]

:P What about KMFDM? J/K..Stop mentioning the sintering machines, I miss that stuff, they're so fun to use and we made some pretty sweet snowboard bases with them.

[Seanz0rz]

..."FDM" usually means "Fused Deposition Modeling" by the way :P

lol my bad. thats what i get for staring at filament all day long...

as for strength, it depends largely on how the part is printed. what is the infill ratio (infill of parts is usually quite a bit less than the perimeter), how hot was the part printed (did each layer stick well to the one before it), which direction was it printed in, etc, etc, etc. tons of variables.

so far i broke one part i printed. it was still hot and had stuck to the bed more than it should have. when i went to pry it off i snapped it.

tensile strength for PLA should be around 15ksi, less than half the range for aluminum i believe. you would have to take into account the less than 100% density of most printed objects (you could certainly print one 100% dense, but it would be expensive and time consuming)

PLA is harder than ABS. PLA is much more likely to hold its shape until failure where as ABS will bend until it fails (that area that turns white when you bend something to its breaking point, much like bending a soft cookie, it will deform until it falls apart) each material has its uses. i print with pla because i dont need a heated bed to reduce warping, and because of the lack of toxic fumes.

[some_odd_girl]

Awesome! I've seen these things on tv, pretty sweet that you've made one!!

[Seanz0rz]

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:10219

im printing that RIGHT NOW!!!! come watch... http://www.ustream.tv/channel/reprap---seanz0rz#

[mastacox]

lol my bad. thats what i get for staring at filament all day long...

Well, I was technically being a PITA... Fused Deposition Modeling is a trademark of Stratasys. Reprap calls it "Fused Filament Fabrication" or other similar names to avoid copyright infringement.

On another note, another cool design is the MakerBot:
[img width=743 height=800]http://store.makerbot.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/t/h/thing-o-matic_product_800.jpg[/img]

They're significantly more expensive (around $1000-1200, unless you find a used one), but the print quality is impressive for the price. I could totally see printing useful-around-the-home-or-auto parts using your machine or this one.

It's only a matter of time until Toys-R-Us goes 100% on-line and you print the toys you buy right in your home office!

[Obi..]

Question here, can you "re-energise a part that is near a failure point, say like hitting the whitened area of an abs section with a heat gun?

~used to do this with the front section of my Tamiya Blackfoot after a frontal crash into a curb, heat up the section with a heat gun so the front frame bracket would last longer.

[Seanz0rz]

i suppose that might work, although there is a finite limit to the number of heat cycles, especially if reaching the melting point.

still streaming: RepRap - Seanz0rz

[Obi..]

Is it done yet?

Is it done yet?

Is it done yet?

Is it done yet?

Is it done yet?

Is it done yet?

Is it done yet?

Is it done yet?

Gotta goto bed to goto a job I hate in 6 hours..please post finished pics since I'll have to miss out on the making of it.

[Seanz0rz]

yep ill post finished pics of it. ill be stopping after this print for the night. dont trust it enough to let it run unattended (im watching the live cast in another room though!)

still streaming at 1:14PM PDT...