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Additive Value for Your Subtractive Manufacturing

by Steve Johnson

You may be thinking: “Why would a machine shop need a 3d printer?”

Turns out there are a lot of uses! In my case, we needed to make new fixtures to take advantage of the capabilities of our new 4th axis and the full travel of our machine. When making fixtures, cost is always a main concern, and making a bad fixture can be expensive in terms of both material and man hours.

By using re:3D’s Gigabot 3D printer, we were able to design our fixture in Solidworks, export the model, and print a full size model of the fixture overnight on Gigabot (no time wasted).

This morning, we tapped the holes for our cam clamps, put the printed fixture into the machine, and checked for clearance and travel issues. In the process we found two issues that we corrected in the solid model, and we are now printing the revised test fixture.

Without the benefit of Gigabot, we may have wasted a 4in diameter by 20in long piece of material, as well as hours of labor. Right now, our only cost has been a few dollars worth of plastic.

This experience has been a great opportunity for me to learn Solidworks and I’m looking forward to using Gigabot again to cut costs, create efficiencies, and to have fun in the shop!

~Happy Printing!

Steve Johnson

Blog Post Author

Drones & Open Source: Partnering with Local Motors

LMDRONES: re:3D Gigabot

As part of the LMDRONES projects that you can find on Local Motors, we want to welcome re:3D and their Gigabot 3D printer as they join our LM Drone efforts!

May 7th was International Drone Day and the Local Motors Teams, from both Vegas and Chandler, paired up with Matthew Fiedler, Co-Founder and Chief Engineer at re:3D, to bring their Gigabot 3D printer to the world’s first drone port, the Eldorado Droneport, in Boulder City, NV.

The all day event included open tuning, demonstrations, races, and freestyle flying. Matt Jackson, Alaric Egli, and Alex Palmer of Local Motors brought a variety of different drones to take part in the event. Matthew began printing with the re:3D Gigabot as soon as it arrived, showing it’s potential and usability for creating parts, wings, and even a full size Wing FPV.

Stayed tuned for what’s next with the re:3D Gigabot which just made its successful journey from Nevada to Chandler, AZ at the Local Motors Headquarters!

Gigabot arrives at Local Motors Phoenix facility after participating in the International Drone day festivities at Aerodrome near Las Vegas, Nevada. Engineers at Local Motors are excited to train on the Gigabot and start running their first prints!

re:3D Gigabot can now be found at the Local Motors’ headquarters in Chandler AZ!

3d printing 3dprinting america drone engineering Events gigabot lmdrone local motors Open Source R&D

#Road2Collision Take 2 & a Southeastern Roadtrip to Digital Now!

We still can’t believe that a year has passed since Matthew, Katy & I packed up Gigabot and embarked on an unforgettable adventure to Collision in Las Vegas. The week was a milestone for re:3D.

Not only were we honored to win PITCH, the same evening at an afterparty we had the chance to share our vision with Local Motors in an elevator (ironic, we know:), which consequently resulted in a tour the next day of the Las Vegas Local Motors Microfactory and several partnership conversations (stay tuned for more details!). We could hardly contain our excitement when the staff allowed us to take the Varrado Electric Drift Trikes out for a spin!

During Collision, we also finalized our acceptance in indie.vc, an inaugural cohort of 8 proudly bootstrapped companies. As the program launch was in San Francisco, just a few days after Collision, we made the real-time decision to continue driving from Las Vegas to Silicon Valley while visiting customers. Safely in San Fran, Matthew flew home while Lara & Morgan joined me & Katy for the indie.vc kickoff, the Bay Area Makerpro Event (thanks to our friends at OATV), and the San Mateo Makerfaire the following weekend. Katy & I then drove quickly back to Houston where I met up with Rebecca & Ernie for 4 days of Cosplay and 3D printing at Comicpolooza.

It was a crazy season for our team as we collected requests that informed Gigabot Generation 3.0 while actively engaging with the community (which was well overdue!). We learned a ton and grew a lot internally, while taking in the beauty of natural parks and inspiring Gigabot use cases our customers shared along the way.

The journey revealed the importance of listening to those outside of our factory, and the value of sharing our experiences with friends & partners who can support our goals. For this reason, we are thrilled to announce a second roadtrip, this time throughout the Southeast United States as we return to Collision, cheer on this year’s winners, and also attend the Digital Now Conference in Orlando. Once again, we’re hoping to squeeze in a few customer visits and parks along the way. Most importantly, we hope to catch up with new friends & old, and to possibly see you. We’ll be updating the itinerary below as the next two weeks evolve. Please email marketing@re3d.org if you’d like to set up time for coffee, a demo, some soul food or a beer! Also, to anyone looking to hitch a ride post Collision to TX, we’ll have a couple seats available if you don’t mind squeezing in with our large 3D prints!

TX Library Association

When: April 19th-22nd
Where: Houston, TX
More Info: http://www.txla.org/annual-conference
- (The Austin team is enroute to do setup with Todd now who will remain in Hou with the gang!)
Follow Online: #txla16

Digital Now

When: April 21-23
Where: Orlando FL
- Samantha Speaks at the Technology Showcase at 4:05pm on 04/21 with a Gigabot demo afterwards
- A second Gigabot demo will take place at 9:55 on 04/22
More Information: https://www.fusionproductions.com/fusionnews/four-extraordinary-association-stories
Follow Online: #diginow

Collision

When: April 26-28th
Where: New Orleans LA
- Samantha & Matthew exhibit Gigabot live at the START display: April 26 Booth S118
- Hardware demo time: TBA
- Matthew & Samantha will also be at the morning jogs and at night summit all week!
More information: https://collisionconf.com/
Follow online: @collisionHQ, #collisionconf, #road2collision

Forever Humbled,

Samantha, Katy, Matthew and the entire re:3D team

3d printing america collision digital now Events florida gigabot new orleans orlando Southeast team TLA

Testing MakeShaper PLA

Material Tested: MakeShaper PLA

Manufacturer: MakeShaper PLA

Filament Diameter: 3.00 mm

Color Tested: Orange

Date Tested: 4/01/2016

OBSERVATIONS

Ease of use: Working with this filament was very enjoyable. It printed easily, was consistent and predictable. No breakage was noticed. The PLA appeared to be of a high quality.

Appearance: The filament exhibited a pleasing orange tone that even the greatest orange pantone haters on our team found appealing. A slight sheen presented when printed.

Size consistency: Awesome, less than 0.1mm within the roll, however the filament measured 2.87mm, not 3mm

Color consistency: Great, consistent throughout the coil.

SETTINGS

Print temperature: 190-215 C (suggested)/202C was used: nozzle / 60C : bed

Printer Used: Gigabot

Speed: 60 mm/s

Layer Height: 0.3mm

Infill: 15%

Type(s) of print surface used: PRINTnZ

List of test files printed: re:3D’s test files 1, 2, and 3 (logo, vase, and Benchy Torture Test). After April’s UX meeting, it was decided to also print a Moai as a 4^th print.

You view watch a video summarizing our testing here:

FINDINGS

Odor: None

Bed adhesion (1: terrible – 5: fabulous!)

5- Great adhesion was achieved with no temperature manipulation.

Stringing (1: lots – 5: none!)

5 –No stringing was observed with our settings.

Shrinkage (1: lots – 5: none!)

5- The filament extruded and cooled with no shrinkage.

Interlayer adhesion (1: terrible – 5: fabulous!)

5- Perfect!

NOTES:

The community is fortunate to have several PLA vendors to select from, however we’ve heard cautionary tales from many of our customers that all PLA is not created equal. MakeShaper PLA boasts that it is a high quality and dependable PLA.
Seeing that we offer a limited color selection in our store, we are always eager to test additional PLA sources in order refer customers to other reputable consumer retailers.
This material appears to yield consistent, quality prints.
Filament size consistency was excellent and no breakage was evident in the 1 kg roll we examined, suggesting it was well mixed.
No curling was observed in any of the 4 prints created.
We used the mid point of the temperature range that the manufacture provided (190-225C). No guidance was given for settings aside from temperature, so we used the standard Simplify3D profile on wiki.re3d.org.
The unboxing experience was well done and the recommendation sheet was professional.
- A batch number was provided for traceability.
- Manufacturer recommended settings were easily referenced on the enclosed documentation.

RECCOMENDATIONS:

After printing 4 objects in our protocol, I support MakeShaper’s claims that they produce high quality PLA and would recommend it to our customers.
Upon review, we would also recommend that we include this filament in our ASTM test sample research.

Want to chat? Join our forum where we have initiated a thread about our experience!

https://re3d.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/206511376-Testing-MakeShaper-PLA

~Happy Printing!

Samantha snabes

Blog Post Author

3d printing 3dprinting america Austin engineering filament gigabot makeshaper Open Source PLA

3D Printing A Superman Hood Emblem

My 3D printed Superman Hood Emblem

By: Jacob Lehmann

I work at re:3D and my job is to figure out and test cool and unique ways to use our 3d printers. I have 2003 VW beetle (and I love it) but some of the aesthetics have been worn and aged poorly over the years. So I had the idea to custom print a rear hood ornament. My amazing bosses thought this was a great idea and helped me to design and realize this idea.

It was hard to pick what exactly I wanted to make for my car. After running through tons of ideas I finally decided that because of the deep sienna blue of my vehicle that a superman logo would look amazing on it. This is a picture of my car after I peeled off the old rusty and broken VW emblem.

First I designed the hood emblem in a free Cad software called Onshape. You can access the tool at this link: https://www.onshape.com/ if you are interested.

After slicing the file for printing, we put it on the Gigabot and watched it come to life!

And then we tested it on my car. After looking at it closely, I decided I wasn’t happy with the size and printed a second to fill up the space better.

Before we started we knew that the final solution wasn’t going to be in PLA. In the Texas summer sun, thermoplastics such as PLA warp when left in a car, let alone on the boiling hood. Although this material is perfect for 3d printing because it melts at roughly 190+ Celsius, that very feature makes it hard to use outdoors, inside of engines, or pretty much anywhere that gets hot.

Thankfully our friends at Deep in the Heart Art Foundry (who own some of our Gigabots and use them in their lost wax casting) were more than happy to help us cast an alternative. We originally wanted to cast the piece in bronze and patina it, but they suggested that it would look better and be much lighter to cast it in Stainless steel. You can check out some of their amazing works of art here http://www.deepintheheart.net/. Here is the piece once we got it back (with a little bit of polishing).

And after I finished polishing and sanding the piece.

Here is the finished stainless steel piece next to the smaller PLA prototype.

Now all that was left to do was mount it on my vehicle. After cleaning the surface of my rear hood and the backside of the piece with some alcohol, and removing all the dust and grime, I placed some 3m double-sided tape on my car. NOTE: my bosses were concerned for my and other driver’s safety and have since purchased industrial epoxy.

And finally, the beautiful hood emblem is complete and placed on my car. Now I can drive around fighting DC supervillains as much as I want.

Happy printing!

Jacob Lehmann

Blog Post Author

@jacobelehmann

3d printing 3dprinting america Austin Design Education gigabot intern internships Open Source

You’re Invited: 3D Printing @ Sea!

Recently, one of our customers (and owner of Cruise Planners) invited us to support a 3D printing cruise. We are honored to participate and can’t wait to spend three days with you during this exclusive experience!

About the Event

3D at Sea is the first of it’s kind 3D Printing Workshop and Seminar at Sea. This Workshop will feature 3D Printing Experts both teaching and speaking on a variety of relevant topics. There will also be opportunities for community impact work in Cozumel, in addition to general fun and networking!

Whose Invited

Anyone with a passion for 3D printing is welcome to join us on the Carnival Liberty out of Galveston on 10/8/16! Pam, the organizer, is also accepting applications to speak or teach a class until May 5th. You can share your interest on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/3datsea/ or email Pam directly at: pam.stewart@cruiseplanners.com.

See you soon?!

Samantha snabes

Blog Post Author

3d printing 3dprinting america cruise customers Education Events

Made in America- Artist Micah Ganske

Over the past three years we’ve had the honor to connect with Micah Ganske, a New York based artist whose work challenges the frontiers of creativity & 3D printing. We first met Micah when he helped bring Gigabot to life in our 2013 Kickstarter campaign and we delivered the first Gigabot in North America to him live from the NYC World Makerfaire that fall.

Over the next several months, Micah blew our minds as he shared his vision for a large-scale art series titled “The Future is Always Tomorrow”, which was displayed during a solo exhibition at 101/Exhibit gallery in Los Angeles.

Two and a half years later, Micah continues to stun us with his human-scale gallery pieces. Last May, Morgan had the pleasure of witnessing his Augmented Virtual Reality work firsthand in San Francisco, which she described in this blog and is depicted in the video below:

A few months later, Tammie, Mike, and the rest of the team also had the privilege to meet up with Micah in Seattle where we printed his acclaimed wormhole design live at the Seattle Art Faire. Micah was a huge hit and Mike captured some of the highlights in his blog on the event.

We’re not the only fans of Micah’s talent. Recently he was featured in this video by Alex Amoling describing his creative process:

He’s also been highlighted by influencers including Adafruit and in multiple publications such as this feature in Nylon:

https://www.instagram.com/p/-tfWcPJ3Lx/?utm_source=ig_embed

In addition to producing gallery pieces, Micah’s found time to have fun with his Gigabot. This Halloween he spooked our team with the most realistic 3D printed sculpture we’ve witnessed to date, albeit an incredibly creepy siamese head.

https://www.instagram.com/p/9Wfwarp3Ij/?taken-by=micahganske

As for the future, you will have to ask Micah what he has in store.

Last spring he backed our Open Gigabot Campaign which will provide him a second large-scale 3D printer. Whatever he makes next is sure to impress!

https://www.instagram.com/p/9ePMbhJ3J3/?taken-by=micahganske

Want more? You can view Micah’s work and contact him through his website at: http://www.micahganske.com/

Happy Printing!

Samantha snabes

Blog Post Author

3d printing america art customers Events gigabot micahganske

Filament Testing: Printing with Algae!