rapman-education's posterous

rapman-education's posterous

Dave White  //  A place for educators, teachers, lecturers and students to find "stuff" about RapMan,BfB3000 and BfB 3DTouch printers... The unofficial Blog by Dave White, Advanced Skills Teacher and Head of D&T in Clevedon School UK.

Sep 23 / 7:57pm

In the news

Times

In my previous post on 9th September 2010 I reported about the donation of a new BfB 3000 printer by BfB for me to use in my capacity of Advanced Skills Teacher for North Somerset (UK). Well the local press have eventually caught up with this fantastic development and two newspapers have published a report. I thought you might like to see it so I’ve attached a copy here.

Dave

Filed under  //  Education   Media   News   Teaching and Learning  
Sep 9 / 9:35pm

BfB, PTC and Scalextric

Two Blog posts in one day! Must be more good news!!!

 

Over the summer holidays I was contacted by PTC (the company who produce Pro/ENGINEER) about testing out some ideas for an international project that they support in schools and colleges. I couldn’t resist the challenge and the opportunities that it might offer for students.

The project is called Scalextric4schools (see http://www.scalextric4schools.org/  ). Basically students can design (using Pro/ENGINEER) and make scalextric slot cars to enter into an international competition.  Tim Brootherhood from PTC was at the DATA Digital D&T conference and wondered if BfB printers could make a scalextric car body shell.. so he sent me the files to see if it was possible (btw the Makerbot guys had already given it a go but the size of their machines means that they can only produce the body shell split into parts). As you can see from the pictures in this post with a little help from the guys at BfB we printed a body shell with support materials (those of you who visit the BfB forum may have seen some of these before when I started a discussion about twin extruders and support materials).

(download)

So, If you are looking for a new project for your school or college you might like to consider taking part in this competition, full details are on the website mentioned above.

When I get all the parts to complete these cars I’ll post some more pictures. If you have a go please think about posting some photos on the BfB forum.

Dave

PS. If you are wondering about the strange looking red car in the photos it’s a printed mould for vacuum forming car body shells... another experiment that we are trying out.

 

Filed under  //  Education   Resources   Teaching and Learning   printing  
Sep 9 / 8:31pm

Thanks to BfB.

Bfb3000

Ok, so by now most of you guys in “RapMan Land” know a bit about me and the things I am getting up to with 3D printing in education, but I thought I would break some fantastic news I have about some recent developments.

I am what is known in the UK as an AST (Advanced Skills Teacher) so as well as teaching Design & Technology in a “normal” secondary school (11-18 year olds) I also work with schools in my local area of North Somerset.... It also means that I try to get involved in some of the new developments in teaching and learning and that’s one of the main reasons I have been so enthusiastic about what RapMan and 3D printing can offer to D&T (STEM) students.

To help schools and colleges get the best out of setting up and using 3D printing I started to produce some Teaching and Learning resource and I made these freely available on the BfB Wiki http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/wiki/index.php?title=Teaching_Resources  and to date the main page has been accessed over 4500 times.... so, if only a small portion of these visits have resulted in these resources being downloaded and used by teachers with their students then I’m more than a little bit happy... and as it turns out so are Bits from Bytes!

So, what is the fantastic news? .... well, BfB have donated a new machine to me for use in my school and around the local area.... It’s a lovely twin head BfB3000! Of course what this means is that students will be able to experience some of the new advances in printing with support materials and a choice of ABS or PLA without too much filament swapping etc.

The other thing is that students (worldwide) will also benefit as I am now in a much better position to produce Teaching and Learning materials specifically for the BfB3000, printing with support and other more advanced technologies.

You may be wondering what’s going to happen to my RapMan.... well it won’t be forgotten now that we have a new machine to play with... RapMan Roadshow is about to start happening... The unfortunate RapMan is going to bounce around in the back of my car visiting other schools and as I mentioned previously I’m going to look at doing Masterclasses in cross-curricular projects that involve 3D printing.

Anyway, much too excited to blog any more tonight (Ok so I am a bit of a geek) ... I’m now off to process some .stl files to print on the BfB3000 tomorrow morning when i get back into school... watch this space and I’ll post some photos.

And most importantly.... Thanks to all the guys at Bits from Bytes, from me and students all over the world!

Dave

Filed under  //  Education   News  
Aug 17 / 1:02pm

Printing with support

This resource is for the slightly more advanced. It introduces the idea of printing using support material for more difficult or complex objects

Support_
The full PDF file can be downloaded from...
http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/wiki/index.php?title=Printing_with_Support

Filed under  //  Resources   Teaching and Learning   printing  
Aug 11 / 8:46pm

Thin Walls... testing the limits

Over the last few weeks I’ve been playing with all sorts of settings and software to try to really get to grips with what they really mean. I got frustrated by doing large prints so I designed a couple of objects along the way that allowed me to see results quickly. The square and diamond are simple 25x25 parts that allowed me to check on solid surfaces (shells and surface layers at 0, 45, and 90 degrees.

But what was really starting to frustrate me was printing objects with thin walls (containers). Walls that were really thin were not printed, quite thin walls ok, and thick walls were no problem… it was the ones in between that were proving difficult.

So I designed a “Walltester” with walls from 0.1 to 2.0mm in 0.1 increments and also 2.5 and 3.0mm for good measure. This allowed me to see…

The smallest wall size that is processed

Walls that print as a single line

Walls that print as 2 lines side by side

Walls that print as 2 lines with a gap

Walls that print as multiple lines

Walls that print as multiple lines with zig zag infill

 

Walltester_
Tester

The full details of my testing can be seen on the Bits from Bytes forum http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/forum/post/thin-walls-testing-limits You can also download the “walltester” which is on the BfB wiki http://wiki.bitsfrombytes.com/index.php/Test_Parts

I don’t think my testing was totally scientific or the results were conclusive but I certainly enjoyed finding out what was possible and gained a better insight into the capabilities of the various software packages… and also what I can and can’t do with my shiny new RapMan.

 

 

Filed under  //  Hardware   Software   printing  
Aug 6 / 1:35pm

Blast off!!

How about designing and printing your own rocket.... a real one that flies! Ok so this project is about using sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and vinegar to produce CO2 to power a model.

Rocket

http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/wiki/index.php?title=Blast_Off

Thanks to "tastybento" for the use of his idea and designs on Thingiverse for this project

Dave

Filed under  //  Education   Resources   Teaching and Learning   printing  
Aug 3 / 6:29pm

"How to" video.... changing settings in BfB Axon

In the previous post I announced a new video explaining how to use BfB Axon. ... Here is another "How to" video that shows how to make new profiles and change settings in Axon.

The video can also be viewed on YouTube Best viewed in HD and full screen.

Other "How to" videos can be found on the BfB Wiki  and more T&L resources are available

Filed under  //  Education   Resources   Software   Teaching and Learning   Video  
Aug 3 / 1:55pm

"How" to video... using BfB Axon

BfB Axon is a fantastic "free" program to generate the g-code to drive your RapMan or BfB3000 printer.

You can convert any .stl file generated in your 3D design software or downloaded from the internet

The video can also be viewed on YouTube Best viewed in HD and full screen.

Other "How to" videos can be found on the BfB Wiki  and more T&L resources are available

 

Filed under  //  Education   Resources   Software   Teaching and Learning   Video  
Jul 27 / 4:26pm

A new RapMan is born

Today I finished building a RapMan.

 

Term ended for me on Friday lunchtime, so on Friday evening I started to build the kit.... By Monday lunch time I was printing!

I’m really pleased with the quality of the build (took lots of care... not a rush job)... and the kit was fantastic, everything needed apart from a few hand tools. Ok so they were 2 pretty full-on days (about 10 hours each) but it does prove that building in 2-3 days is a reality.

 

And as for the print quality.... Take a look at the photos.... Fantastic! (I used BfB Axon and the new firmware)

 

Anyway, I had better say what I’m going to use the RapMan for. Some of you may be aware that I am an “Advanced Skills Teacher” this means that for one day a week I work for my Local Authority rather than my school, so this year I’m going to do some “Master classes” and I will take RapMan on the road with me to visit local schools. I’m thinking about teaming up with another AST (who specialises in Geography) and see if we can tackle some terrain printing.... more news on this when we get started next academic year.

 

 

 

(download)

Filed under  //  Hardware  
Jul 21 / 8:19pm

Case Study

You may have seen in the printing section of the BfB forum some of the fantastic prints that Marco has done for his company.   Forum post   The project is about terrain printing and a hydro-electric dam.

Case_study_dam
Marco (Sigma Design in Italy) very kindly sent me some designs, drawings, photos and information about this project to enable me to produce a case study.

This type of case study is extremely valuable for students as it shows them how 3D printing is used "in the real world" of business and industry. And of course the prints were done using a RapMan   

The link to this case study is here- Case Study - Dam project

... and of course a huge thank you to Marco for sending me the files and information that made this possible.

Dave
PS. If anyone else has similar information about a "real world" project that they wouldn't mind being made into a case study then please contact me and I will put together a .pdf that can be used in education.... and of course your business will get a free advert

 

 

 

Filed under  //  Case Study   Education   Resources   Teaching and Learning