General Questions, Training and Project Assistance Help

3D Fabrication
#1

I need 3-D printing assistance as follows:

1: What CAD/CAM software do we have access to at DMS? How do I gain access? Can I use the CAD/CAM software at home via remote access?

2: Do we have a 3-D laser scanner? If so, what is make and model? Does anyone have any examples of scanned parts?

3: I understand that we have a printer capable of make wax patterns for direct lost wax casting. Is this working? Does anyone have any photos/examples of projects? How fine of a resolution is possible?

4: I require training for everything I discussed above. Who are the training PoCs and when will training be available?

#2

We have Solidworks, do a search in the history of talk, there’s a member who manages it, and you follow the process he laid out, you get a 1 year lease that is renewable while you’re a member and Solidworks decides to be awesome to us.

That’s a good question. There’s been a lot of back and forth, get with the Mitch, he should have the latest @themitch22

I believe most people who want to do that does resin as an intermediate step instead of direct wax. I’m not aware of a wax printer at the space.

The 3D Printing Chair is probably your best contact.

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#3

I’ll do my best to answer some of your questions, but it would help if you would give a little context and explain what type of thing you’re trying to cast; object, material, size.

You are talking about the Elegoo Mars Pro resin printer. The training is online at this link and contains the info about print volume, etc. Yes, the printer is working.

Dunno what metal you want to cast, but if you want to do it at DMS we allow casting:

  • approximately jewelry-sized objects (< ~2 ounces)
  • in bronZe, silver, gold, and platinum
  • only from casting grain (i.e., you can’t melt down granny’s silverware)

The training contains this (and much more) info, but it is capable of about 0.002" resolution in X and Y axes (due to the resolution of the LCD array). It can print layers ranging from 0.01mm up to 0.2mm. 0.05mm is the “default”. Print time is solely dependent upon the number of layers (and the exposure time for each, which is resin-specific).

Having said that, however, there are limitations to the material (i.e., the wax resin). If you tried to print an object and it had some tiny little 0.003" diameter bumps sticking out of it, for example, those would print fine. On the other hand, if you wanted to print a 0.003" diameter spaghetti; the material would fail.

Just because you can print it doesn’t mean you can cast it. Normal casting principles apply to whatever you print; especially spacing between features and beveled edges. I can print something finer than I can cast. In fact, right now I’m struggling with something that has a raised logo and the space between the features keeps filling with bronze - possibly a challenge with the investment but IDK.

This part below isn’t printed in wax (but it could be). I printed this as 0.025mm layer height. The word STERLING is clearly legible, if you have great eyes or a telephoto lens. It’s the size of the date on a penny. However, if I tried to cast this I guarantee that the words would be a solid blob. (I think that if it were recessed (instead of raised) I would have better luck.) The layers are noticeable largely because it’s a large uninterrupted surface. If I were going to cast this part (assuming it had been printed in wax) I would take a sanding stick and sand off the layer lines on the tube and it would be just fine. Remember, you’re also looking at this at about 5x normal size, too.

IMG_0290_800px
IMG_0290_800px584×800 198 KB

EDIT: FWIW, I use Fusion 360 for all my designs. The free version has all the features you’d need to model and then 3D print.

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#4

Elegoo Mars Pro (resin printer) can print in castable wax. I’ve been doing this a lot.

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#5

I was under the impression that Autodesk discontinued the free version of Fusion 360?

#6

Mitch submitted a proposal to the Board to purchase one, splitting the cost between committee and DMS general fund. The Board voted it down. For time being, anyway. (Our cash flow ain’t what it was pre-pandemic.)

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#7

Yes, but also no. They greatly limited the features you got for free, and a lot of those features are ones that we used in the Machine Shop. Not sure so much if it’s still useful for 3D printing.

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#8

Nope. They just discontinued usage of some features in the free version - most notably tool changers for CNC machines, rapid transit for CNC machines, and you can only have ten parts active (i.e., not archived) at one time. However if you have one assembly that has more than ten parts, that’s considered to be one part.

#9

We voted to try to sell the existing Form 2 printers, get more classes, and create an RFID interlock to get some padding to purchase a really nice one. At least one of those things got done so far. Sorry. The last 3D scanner we had broke and the company hasn’t been too helpful in fixing it. I recommend using the camera and stuff available in Digital Media to do photogrammetry.

@Will1 Best you can do for now is go to learn.dallasmakerspace.org, sign in with your makerspace member credentials when you signed up, and take the 3D printer basics course and take the quiz. Completion of the Quiz gets your certified to use the Polyprinters. The Elagoo Mars Pro course certifies you to use the Elagoo Mars. Chris Marlow already answered the rest.

Of course DM me with any questions you might have, I haven’t been at DMS much lately but can point you in the right direction.

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#10

For CAD design, you should start with Tinkercad online. It’s for children, but it’s reasonably powerful and can get you started for simple stuff. You’ll quickly want to move on to Solidworks, which is an industry standard that we get for free as a perk of our membership out of the generosity of its developer, Dessault.

Here’s a link teaching you what Solidworks can do:

What’s great about Solidworks is “parametric modeling.” That means that when you say, “move this thing over there,” it’ll know what should adjust its position or size along with it, according to parameters you’ve previously specified (e.g., this thing is always horizontal with that thing; or that’s always a 22 degree angle, or this is colinear with that thing, or that thing never moves, and so on).

Here’s how to get your maker license:

Follow the instructions in this thread to get a free Solidworks license as a benefit of the membership:

Then follow these instructions to download and install the program:

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