[HH] 3D printing

[Drew Van Zandt]

Re: fragility: properly treated, both the MakerBot and the uPrint can make
structurally useful things.  It's not steel, but it's pretty good - more so
in compression than in tension, but there are many materials like that
which are pretty widely used - concrete, for example.  I can stand on a
20mm x 20mm block printed on the MakerBot, and it won't break.  The
strength of the output depends pretty directly on the care taken in
calibration, however.  It took me several months to get mine
well-calibrated, learning all the way.  Post-printing treatment of the
parts can make them an order of magnitude or so stronger than they come out
of the printer, as well.

A CNC router is $130,000 or so; they're not novelties, and are often used
to produce parts in the $50 range.
The CPU you're using probably cost less than $300, the machine used to make
it cost more than $3 million.

Yes, expensive tools like that are hard to afford on your own.  If only
there were some sort of organization you could join for $40 - $125 a month
that had some of these expensive tools and kept acquiring more.  ;-)

The CNC aluminum router that can handle a 4'x8' sheet of 1" aluminum should
be coming online in a month or two, depending on the electrician's
schedule.  Then we build the 12' hydraulic hexapod robot.  (No, I'm not
kidding.  With a saddle.)

*
Drew Van Zandt
Artisan's Asylum Craft Lead, Electronics & Robotics
Cam # US2010035593 (M:Liam Hopkins R: Bastian Rotgeld)
Domain Coordinator, MA-003-D.  Masquerade aVST
*
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