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How many 3d printers?

Posted: Jan 31st, 2014, 11:12 am
by DavidF
Just curious how many rov builders are useing 3d printers for thier project and what printer they have.
I bought a rostock max and have been useing it to make the parts for my rov. I also have a manual mill and lathe that i will make some of the parts on but the majority will be printed. Im finding that printing the parts is very cost effective and while it does take some time to print the parts the printer can be left unattended while your working on other things.

Re: How many 3d printers?

Posted: Jan 31st, 2014, 5:50 pm
by olegodo
I use a Mendel90. I will try to use it for as much as possible on my ROV. Gripper, light mounts, thruster mounts and and shrouds, and whatever else I can print that will work :)
I tried to print various props, but I figured out its much better to buy these as the printed ones really won't be that efficient.

Re: How many 3d printers?

Posted: Feb 28th, 2014, 6:58 am
by a_shorething
Count me in too. I'm using a Prusa Mendel v2 I built two years ago.

I'm working on a magnetic coupling design of my own and prototyping and testing parts on a 3D printer is just too much like playing to feel like work. I love mine and wouldn't even think about doing an ROV without it right now.

I'm hoping to ramp up and get another test in the next few weeks but you can see version 1.0 and 2.0 in the thruster thread. I printed the inner hub and the thruster prop on my printer, as well as the parts I'm using to hold the housing to the test jig and the inner motor holder (inside the PVC pipe I'm using). I plan to use it to print most of the internal brackets like a camera tilt mechanism and the holder for circuit boards as well as some exterior parts. The exterior parts will be interesting because even printed at 100% density they may have voids in them and that could get interesting at depth, but we'll see. I only plan to go to 100 feet so hopefully small voids and gaps won't cause anything to implode.