I've been working on my first antweight on Fusion 360 and it's nearly finished, but as I'm fairly new to the sport I have a few questions about 3D printing the chassis:
1). should I use PLA or ABS? those are the materials I've heard mentioned the most.
2). depending on the answer to 1), what thickness walls should I be using? Obviously needing thicker walls to face spinners than the base for example. And what infill should I use?
3). I don't have a 3D printer myself (nor do I plan to get one in the near future), so I'll have to send it to a third party to 3D print. Does anyone have any recommendations?
3D printing
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3D printing
Michael - Team MG Robotics
Fledgling Surrey based roboteering team
Antweights:
MicroNewton - flipper
ArmamAnt! - pusher
GFB - flipper (under construction)
Fight or Flight - flipper (under construction)
Fledgling Surrey based roboteering team
Antweights:
MicroNewton - flipper
ArmamAnt! - pusher
GFB - flipper (under construction)
Fight or Flight - flipper (under construction)
Re: 3D printing
1. Material choice
"basic" PLA is nice and easy to print but has dubious mechanical properties. It's generally OK I think for internal parts of the robot where there is armour of something else outside. Don't expect it to last long if it takes a direct hit. PLA is also quite brittle and tends to crack. That said, I use a flipper made of PLA, but fully expecting it to get trashed I bring some spares.
Lots of people use different types of material. ABS is not great because it's a pain to work with, prints are much more likely to fail. ABS is a bit better than "basic" PLA.
But nowadays there are *lots* of other types of material which are improvements on PLA or ABS. I have used carbon-fibre PLA and other types of enhanced PLA.
If you check the forums, you'll find a lot of people seem to be using Nylon or Nylon-based filaments, I've not tried it myself
2. Thickness
Thicker is better, but I wouldn't expect any thickness to take a direct hit from a spinner so don't worry about it.
3. printing services
I've not used them myself- my advice is to join a hackspace / makerspace etc, they probably have a 3d printer you can use and somebody that has some advice. You will definitely find yourself iterating the design a lot- I find that small changes, such as hole and cutout sizes - account for most of the iterations.
"basic" PLA is nice and easy to print but has dubious mechanical properties. It's generally OK I think for internal parts of the robot where there is armour of something else outside. Don't expect it to last long if it takes a direct hit. PLA is also quite brittle and tends to crack. That said, I use a flipper made of PLA, but fully expecting it to get trashed I bring some spares.
Lots of people use different types of material. ABS is not great because it's a pain to work with, prints are much more likely to fail. ABS is a bit better than "basic" PLA.
But nowadays there are *lots* of other types of material which are improvements on PLA or ABS. I have used carbon-fibre PLA and other types of enhanced PLA.
If you check the forums, you'll find a lot of people seem to be using Nylon or Nylon-based filaments, I've not tried it myself
2. Thickness
Thicker is better, but I wouldn't expect any thickness to take a direct hit from a spinner so don't worry about it.
3. printing services
I've not used them myself- my advice is to join a hackspace / makerspace etc, they probably have a 3d printer you can use and somebody that has some advice. You will definitely find yourself iterating the design a lot- I find that small changes, such as hole and cutout sizes - account for most of the iterations.
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Re: 3D printing
Around 3 to 4 mm wall thickness will take a good hit from a spinner and still hold together. but only if hit along the wall and not an edge.
i use ABS with 50% infill most of the time and have had then last the full 3 minuets aganst comptition winning spinners. the key think is to desine it such that thers not an exposed edge fot the spinner to realy bite on.
Lincoln Barnes
Maker of "SmartAnts", and other autonomous projects.
Electronic enginering student at Nottingham Trent University.
PM to order the RM NanoESC
Maker of "SmartAnts", and other autonomous projects.
Electronic enginering student at Nottingham Trent University.
PM to order the RM NanoESC
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Re: 3D printing
So what material do people recommend? I'm very new to this so have no idea what I can use. As I don't have a printer myself I'd send it to someone who knows what they're doing so I'm not too worried about a difficult print.
Do you mean like the Bristol hackspace, the one Bristol Bot Builders use? I could do, but it's not exactly nearby.
Do you mean like the Bristol hackspace, the one Bristol Bot Builders use? I could do, but it's not exactly nearby.
Michael - Team MG Robotics
Fledgling Surrey based roboteering team
Antweights:
MicroNewton - flipper
ArmamAnt! - pusher
GFB - flipper (under construction)
Fight or Flight - flipper (under construction)
Fledgling Surrey based roboteering team
Antweights:
MicroNewton - flipper
ArmamAnt! - pusher
GFB - flipper (under construction)
Fight or Flight - flipper (under construction)
Re: 3D printing
Look up hackspace foundation, they operate a number of hackspaces around the country.
Materials wise, I don't 3d print. BUT I know Peter uses various nylon based filaments, Shakey uses ABS (it's a pain to print but does hold up well), and there are a number of carbon cored / reinforced filaments out there.
I know T_Y used pla+ which is not ideal but for brackets seems to hold up alright (they break regularly but he prints spares).
Materials wise, I don't 3d print. BUT I know Peter uses various nylon based filaments, Shakey uses ABS (it's a pain to print but does hold up well), and there are a number of carbon cored / reinforced filaments out there.
I know T_Y used pla+ which is not ideal but for brackets seems to hold up alright (they break regularly but he prints spares).
A grabber? I CHALLENGE IT WITH JIGGY!
Re: 3D printing
On the subject of ABS being a pain, it sure can be. However I absolutely recommend a PEI sheet print bed, made a huge difference to my printing. With the bed at 110C I get great bed adhesion which cuts down warping a ton. Combined with tabs onto the corners of things you're printing and avoiding designing anything too tricky it doesn't really give me much hassle these days. And my printer doesn't even have an enclosure!
Tabs:
Tabs:
Nuts And Bots - For all your components and ready built antweights!
Alex Shakespeare - Team Shakey / Nuts And Bots / Team Nuts:
AWS 44, 45, 49, 51 & 55 Winner - Far too many robots!
Alex Shakespeare - Team Shakey / Nuts And Bots / Team Nuts:
AWS 44, 45, 49, 51 & 55 Winner - Far too many robots!