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.
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
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.
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.
I dropped into BfB HQ the other day to get a bit of help with one of my student's projects. Whilst there Ian showed me one of the new machines.... not exactly certain what it's called (BfB3000, BfB 3D 3000; 3D 3000, RapMan 3D 3000 ? ).... but it looks really impressive. I didn't want to step on toes at that time by saying anything on the forum, but it looks like it has made an appearance on the internet
http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=...
Attached some pictures for you.... interesting to note.... some very fancy print heads (3!!!) with horizontal plastic feed ; z axis/build platform two guides and one leadscrew; nice acrylic case.I Reeeeeellllly want one