DaMan
Canada
Asked
— Edited
Hey EZ-B community!
I was wondering if anyone was thinking the same thing I did when I saw the Solidoodle on Engadget recently?
Solidoodle is a <$500 3D printer that would be freakin awesome for printing those robot parts you just can't find anywhere else. All it requires is power and a USB port.
If I can justify it, I will probably pick one up this summer, but if anyone else has $500 bucks burning a hole in your pocket and wants to give it a shot, please post your experience!
Wow that's a good price! I wonder if it can print some wall-e tracks?
Probably make your money back selling the bits to other hobbyists if you can build up a library of component parts. I wonder how easy it is to digitise them?
(Now, you do know this will be the next copyright warzone?)
:D
JOC
I'm in
I would buy one lol , so how much is the material? Does it makee strong plastic parts , like epoxy resin?
It prints ABS. Just like other 3D printers.
ABS is the same material Lego's are made of so it's really strong!
That's very interesting. This is like a CNC machine only for plastic stuff. Delrin is another type of strong plastic, flexible and light. It's great to make robot track and parts out of. In my business experienced in RC hobby upgrades, plastic parts are normally made of Delrin for durability. I'd like to pick one up but how do you create the 3D image? surely you must have that skill as well, it won't be simple for sure.
You have to use a cad program to build models and convert the files to the stl format for printing. There are many 3d mesh companies that sell pre made objects. You could use these to print from. But if you need a specific part for your robot you will have learn a 3 d modeler. I would suggest Googles Sketch Up. Very easy to create models that can be saved as obj then you can use the free program Mesh Lab to convert to stl for printing.
Yes, looks like that's the solution I've been reading up on this. This is something to think about, it could be great for making custom Robot parts/kits out of.