OT, toy for son

motojoel1 · Jan 2, 2015

I am treading on shakey ground with this question, I know.

Thinking about getting a cheap 3-D printer kit for my son. As a toy, a learning experience and something to do together. I feel very blessed that he is 16 and still likes doing things with me. He loves the plasma table at work and think he would love this project.

I know this is not a hobby forum, but the only one I belong to and trust.

Any opinions?

Oh, and can I print an axle for my car with it? (Sarcasm)

Milland · Jan 2, 2015

You may want to check out a more focused forum, try 3D Printing Forum - 3D Print Board

They'll have sub-groups for lower end and maker-bot like printers

motojoel1 · Jan 2, 2015

Will try that, thanks.

Mike Henry · Jan 3, 2015

I've been using a Zortrax M200 printer for about 6 months and am usually pretty impressed with the output compared to pictures I've seen of the competition's printed parts. It's designed in Poland and made in China, but very well built as such things go. Around $2,000 which is probably the high end of the hobby market.

www.zortrax.com - check out their forum for photos of users projects if the price doesn't scare you off. Some of them are pretty impressive.

NASA has a pretty cool gallery of 3D objects that are available for download, though most are probably not well suited to 3D printing.

Models | 3D Resources (Beta)

The working ratchet wrench there that prints as one piece is pretty nifty. Just a toy so far as utility goes but still interesting to see what's possible with the technology. Below is the one I just printed out.

www.thingiverse.com has tons of designs available for free download too.

mach2 · Jan 3, 2015

Your title reads OT. Nothing wrong. I say go for it. What a great gift to a 16 year old. It will have computer control and all kinds of mechanics. Very chalanging and educational in an emerging technology.

Grumpy365 · Jan 3, 2015

2 questions come to mind.

1. What do you envision him creating?

2. How far has 3D printing software come? Is this going to be like giving a 16 year old a seat of Solid Works, or have things gotten easy to draw / create?

Mike Henry · Jan 3, 2015

Grumpy365 said:
2. How far has 3D printing software come? Is this going to be like giving a 16 year old a seat of Solid Works, or have things gotten easy to draw / create?

3D printers don't usually come with CAD software. Users either download open source/freeware like Blender, TinkerCAD, SpaceClaim or use mainstream mechanical CAD software like SolidWorks. They do include the equivalent of CAM software that converts a CAD part file (usually STL) into G-code for the printer.

Mike

mach2 · Jan 3, 2015

16 year olds can be determined, they find a way to make things work in ways parents won't even think of.

motojoel1 · Jan 3, 2015

mach2 said:
16 year olds can be determined, they find a way to make things work in ways parents won't even think of.

Lol, yep.

Thanks for answers.

My main concern is cad/cam. I have drawn 2d forever. I run a plasma table sheetcam/mach3. I figured once I got some idea on the machine, I would see what there is for the hobbiest for cad/cam.

Mike Henry · Jan 3, 2015

DesignSpark Mechanical seems to be pretty well thought of for hobbyist 3D printing and it's free. Spaceclaim is its bigger brother which runs $3k+ with the 1st year of maintenance included.

DesignSpark Mechanical » DesignSpark

There's also Cubify for ~$100-200 from 3DS. That's a feature stripped version of Alibre, now known as GeoMagic Design.

Mike

michiganbuck · Jan 3, 2015

Mike Henry said:
I've been using a Zortrax M200 printer for about 6 months and am usually pretty impressed with the output compared to pictures I've seen of the competition's printed parts. It's designed in Poland and made in China, but very well built as such things go. Around $2,000 which is probably the high end of the hobby market.

www.zortrax.com - check out their forum for photos of users projects if the price doesn't scare you off. Some of them are pretty impressive.

NASA has a pretty cool gallery of 3D objects that are available for download, though most are probably not well suited to 3D printing.

Models | 3D Resources (Beta)

The working ratchet wrench there that prints as one piece is pretty nifty. Just a toy so far as utility goes but still interesting to see what's possible with the technology. Below is the one I just printed out.

www.thingiverse.com has tons of designs available for free download too.

View attachment 126110 View attachment 126111

"Thinking about getting a cheap 3-D printer kit for my son."

Great idea...

How long would it take to make such a part?

Atomkinder · Jan 3, 2015

motojoel1 said:
Lol, yep.

Thanks for answers.

My main concern is cad/cam. I have drawn 2d forever. I run a plasma table sheetcam/mach3. I figured once I got some idea on the machine, I would see what there is for the hobbiest for cad/cam.

Fusion 360 offers a free Enthusiast license.

motojoel1 · Jan 3, 2015

michiganbuck said:
"Thinking about getting a cheap 3-D printer kit for my son."

Great idea...

How long would it take to make such a part?

It's not really about making the part.

If I had a part to make, and I couldn't make it, I would have posted it to the RFQ forum here. Would be a hell of a lot cheaper too.

JMG · Jan 3, 2015

Grumpy365 said:
2 questions come to mind.

2. How far has 3D printing software come? Is this going to be like giving a 16 year old a seat of Solid Works, or have things gotten easy to draw / create?

If he is like some 16 olds I know, he would have SW mastered in no time at all.

It's kind of scary actually. :eek:

snowluck2345 · Jan 3, 2015

JMG said:
If he is like some 16 olds I know, he would have SW mastered in no time at all.
It's kind of scary actually.

Yeah! Haha. I started using solidworks at 14 and its definitely not out of reach to learn for most highschool/middleschool students.

Mike Henry · Jan 4, 2015

michiganbuck said:
"Thinking about getting a cheap 3-D printer kit for my son."

Great idea...

How long would it take to make such a part?

The wrench took about 3-1/2 hours to print at the settings I selected and used about $2.40 worth of HIPS filament. There can be lots of variables that will affect the print time, though. Some of my larger prints have taken over 20 hours to print.

Mike

avongil · Jan 4, 2015

Autocad 123d Design. It's amazing for free. Makes solid models so they can be exported to STL without worry of being water tight.

Autodesk 123D Design

alexhawker · Mar 17, 2015

OnShape was also just released - today I saw it running in a browser on a Chromebook.

garyhlucas · Apr 23, 2015

So my grandson is eleven and he said he was interested in building a robot. To do that you need the right tools, so we started with this:

Ifactory Photos by garyhlucas | Photobucket

We call it the Ifactory. It's a lathe, vertical mill, horizontal mill, and 3D printer with 18" x 18" x 18" travels. It has two spindles, a high speed router and a minimill R8, a fogbuster misting system, shop vac and rollaway tool box underneath. It runs Mach 3 with a USB motion card andhas a DL06 PLC to control all the other I/O. I have AutoCAD, Rhino3D, SolidWorks and CamBam software.

So far we made parts for a paint scraper I patented about 15 years ago, machined two car bodies for a solar car project in school, and made a golf ball rack for him. Hoping he gets interested enough to tackle that robot!

OT, toy for son

Cast Iron

Diamond

Cast Iron

Titanium

Stainless

Aluminum

Titanium

Stainless

Cast Iron

Titanium

Diamond

Titanium

Cast Iron

Aluminum

Aluminum

Titanium

Aluminum

Aluminum

Stainless

Similar threads