Introduction to 3D Printing by Sebastian Fadel

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One of our new Makerspace@LHS stations is a 3D printing station. Before students can use the printer, we need to problem solve and work out some of the initial issues with the printer. We will continue to update the status of our work, trials, and tribulations with the printer. Sebastian Fadel  is leading the charge with this task.  He will write a series of blog posts chronicling his work

What is a 3D printer?

You can watch objects come to life with 3D printing. 3D printers build three dimensional objects using computer aided design (CAD) software. Each object is printed using filament or plastic that passes through a printer head. The object is printed from the bottom up, layer by layer. Using the Printrbot Metal Simple printer unnamedwith TinkerCad,software we have experimented with some basic designs. 3D printing requires patience since it takes some time to find the correct settings. There is a lot of trial and error. There are many sites that provide templates that can be used if you don’t want to do your own  design such as MakerBot Thingverse.

Why should we have 3D printers in school?

I think 3D printers allow for a different type of learning to take place in our school. I think they also open up a large amount of new possibilities for both educational and creative projects. I think 3D printers would allow for physical examples of education topics to be presented in class, as opposed to having to settle with 2D pictures or online examples.

3d-Printing-EDU-Infographic

Update on Current Issues we are having:

Problem: Half way through a 3D Print, the printer appears to lose calibration and the extruder randomly spews filament.

Solution: ongoing

Problem: The filament tangled while heading to the extruder.

Solution: I 3D printed filament guides.  I found the guides on thingverse and then scaled the measurements based on the size of our printer.

Problem: The print is not sticking to the bed (it is not a heated bed).

Temporary Solution: Using glue and painters tape.

Permanent Solution: Purchase a heated bed.

Stay tuned for a more detailed analysis of our work with 3D printing.

Category : Makerspace, Tech News & Events, What's Happening at LHS