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.

Jan 3 / 9:26pm

I lost it!

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Ok, I've left myself open to comments like "what do you mean, you lost it ages ago" ... Well what I really lost was a tiny bolt from my 3D Touch printer ( yes, that will teach me for messing around with it). Anyway, the bolt dropped down a gap between my desk and a filing cabinet that my printer stands on and I really didn't want to start moving that lot around.... So...
All I needed was one of those clever "magnet on a stick" thingies, but I haven't got one. But I do have an aerial (antenna) from an old FM radio and a 10mm rare earth magnet, only problem... How do I fix them together (blue tack only resulted in the magnet sticking to the metal filing cabinet).
So I printed a little adapter .... Result, one retrieved bolt and a new "magnet on a stick thingy" for my toolbox.
Neat! 
Attached are some shockingly poor photos of the thingy, a CAD render and the adapter in Axon
Filed under  //  printing  
Jan 1 / 8:35pm

More 3D printing in colour

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Now having easy access to a 3 head BfB 3D Touch printer I really couldn't resist doing some colour printing for myself. But where to start? Well perhaps nowhere better than the lovely globe by "m6mafia" http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:11660 and previously printed by the guys at BfB. The only problem was that Axon requires 3 stl files - one for each colour and a combined file... But I only found the files for each colour! So after a bit of a tussle with Meshlab and Netfabb I was on the point of giving up when I remembered that I could import the 2 stl files into Creo Elements/Pro as an assembly and then export the combined file... Success!!! 
Unfortunately I don't have any blue PLA, so green for the land and transparent for the water would have to do. I suppose the final result doesn't look too bad.
I can't wait to get back to school next week to show the Geography teachers... Hope they're impressed!
Filed under  //  hardware   printing  
Dec 30 / 5:40pm

Mobile 3D Printing

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Just found this from a couple of months ago....Mobile 3D printing...

Ok, not a "hot off the press" story but I love the concept.


This is a project by UNFOLD Design Studio....

"KIOSK,a project that explores a near future scenario in which digital fabricators are so ubiquitous, that we see them appear on street corners, just like fast food today is sold in NY style mobile food stalls. A place where you can quickly get a custom made fix for your broken shoe, materialise an illegal download of Starck’s Juicy Salif orange squeezer that you modified for better performance or quickly print out a present for your sisters birthday.

Unfold gathered information from various designers and labels about how they position themselves towards this scenario. During the Salone del Mobile Unfold three-dimensionally scan new objects presented by these various designers and based on the acquired data, appropriate, sample, remix, improve, up/downscale or copy new objects 3d-printed on the spot".


More information here http://unfold.be/pages/projects/items/kiosk-design-sampler  

attached pictures and text also from UNFOLD.

 

Some of you may remember that UNFOLD was also involved in early experiments in 3D printing ceramics and food items. http://unfold.be/pages/projects/items/3d-printer/lab/date
Filed under  //  article   printing  
Dec 23 / 9:42pm

Santa came a little early

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Santa came a little early this year, bringing a lovely triple head BfB 3D Touch.
Anyway, It's all set up and working ... Ok so a couple of days early, anyway it's too big for wrapping paper and it had to be tried out and tested (good excuse eh?) And what better way of testing it than to do my first 3 material print, which of course had to be a Christmas themed coaster from the BfB advent calendar of free downloadable stl files.
Of course I shouldn't forget to say a huge thank you to Santa's elves at BfB for all their help and support throughout the year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.
Dave
 
Filed under  //  hardware   printing  
Dec 14 / 9:16pm

Worlds smallest 3D printer

Ok so we have a RapMan and BfB 3000 printer in school... And I'm really pleased with them and what they can do.... But this is really impressive... The worlds smallest 3D printer!
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/klaus_stadlmann_the_world_s_smallest_3d_printer.html
Wonder how I can get my hands on one of these?
Filed under  //  article   hardware   printing   video  
Dec 14 / 9:10pm

Tealight holder with a Christmas theme

It’s a good job Christmas is only once a year (bah, humbug)… I got home from school this evening and my wife was waiting for me to do the dreaded job of putting up the tree and making it pretty with lights…. (yuk). It’s not that I hate Christmas it’s just that I can never get the lights to work and I always manage to get grubby marks on the carpet from the tree trunk. Anyway to put this job off a bit longer I somehow found that I urgently needed to 3D print a tealight holder… (Mrs W likes the nice glow of candles and soppy stuff like that so I’m on safe ground there). And here’s the result in these pictures… looks really Christmassy in translucent red PLA I think as it sort of sparkles. And hopefully Mrs W will like it so much I will be forgiven for not putting the tree and lights in the lounge!!!!

On a technical point… it’s amazing how much this object overhangs… you would have thought it would need support material, but amazingly it prints very nicely without it. And finally, never leave candles burning unattended… it wouldn’t be nice to have to spend Christmas in temporary accommodation after burning down the house.

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Dec 13 / 11:59pm

Snowflake 3D print

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This evening I wanted to have a bit of a break after a busy day at school... So I decided to print a snowflake on my Bits from Bytes RapMan 3D printer. I thought that clear PLA might be appropriate for this.... It was! It came out lovely!
If you fancy printing this yourself you can download the .stl file (and other designs too) from the BfB advent calendar of free Christmas themed .stl files http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/content/christmas-2011
Christmas is only a couple of weeks away now so why not give it a go yourself... Or if you have a 3D printer In school why not impress your students with one of these fancy designs.

Filed under  //  education   printing  
Dec 13 / 5:37pm

3D Printing Masterclass

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As part of my teaching role as an Advanced Skills Teacher I get to
support other schools in my local area. Today was one of those days. I was
lucky enough to have a teacher and 2 A 'Level students visit my school to
find out all about 3D printing using our RapMan and BfB3000 printers. The students are currently working on their coursework projects, one a
design for an aerodynamic truck and the other a sensory toy. They had
designed some parts for their projects and we had been sharing ideas by
e-mail over the previous week or two, so we were pretty much able to start
printing soon after they arrived.
We started the session by having a look at the origins of RapMan and the
RepRap project and the theory of the designing, file conversion, g-code
production and the actual printing with different polymers. The students
then got down to work on their own projects. Time really flew by but both students managed to print their parts for their
projects, took loads of photos and screenshots and are now ready to include
this work in their design portfolios.. And their knowledge of 3D printing
and rapid prototyping has been greatly enhanced.
As for next steps. the school has already booked my time for a repeat
performance in the New Year with a larger group of students and staff. I'm
really looking forwards to that.

 EDIT...

I recieved an email from Lauren....

My morning spent with Mr White was educational and exciting. I learnt so much about 3-D printing and really enjoyed myself! It was so exciting to see my prototype layer up all 80 layers! It has increased my knowledge of modern technologies  and has made a great addition to my coursework.

Mr White was very helpful in explaining the machines and software...and he was hilarious! Thank you so much for the experience

Lauren

.... and from Robert

On the 13th of December myself and another student from my Dt class were given the oppotunity to have a part of our A2 project manufactured by a 3D printer.

 We started off with Mr White giving us a presentation on the evolution of the Rapman 3D printer, from a machine capable of building itself to the funky device which we used, while also showing us what the printer is capable making. I was extremely impressed by the car body and the detail of the turbine blades.

Mr White then went through and explained the whole process of programming the printer, he kindly took screen shots at every stage for us so we include them in our coursework. After this he allowed us to do the programming for our indivual parts.

Mr White's friendly personality (running to the window to watch the hail storm) made asking questions very easy and the visit enjoyable, so the time waiting for our parts to made went very fast.

Rob

Dec 8 / 7:29pm

Colour 3D Printing

File

BfB 3D printers with multiple heads can print in multiple colours! 
Using BfB Axon software and suitable .stl files this is virtually automatic. Quite a few users of these machines have had a go and ok it's not a brand new capability but the technical guys at BfB have taken things a bit further and printed a huge globe .... Great for lessons where D&T meets Geography.
http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/forum/post/how-print-two-colours-new-touch-printer 
Filed under  //  crosscurricular   education   printing   teachingandlearning  
Dec 2 / 6:12pm

New Bits from Bytes 3D printers videos

Here are 3 brand new and very professional videos of 3D Systems- Bits from Bytes 3D printers.. The just released RapMan 3.2 and the 3DTouch. Both machines are ideal for school use. Both machines have updated electronics that feature touch screen control and files are run from USB memory sticks.
 
 
 
Filed under  //  hardware   video