rocketguy101
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- Jan 17, 2009
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3D printing is a process that takes a CAD file and prints an actual part from some material like plastic. Industrial printers cost tens of thousands of dollars, putting them out of the reach of most hobbyists. In the last few years, low cost printers have shown up and modelers on rocket forums have been asking about them.
This report describes the experience I have had with a particular low cost printer. I am in no way an expert on 3D printing (or rapid prototyping as the industry calls it), nor are the statements I make about printer capabilities applicable to all printers.
A friend at work bought a Mosaic hobby 3D printer from MakerGear https://www.makergear.com/ to see what it could do. James is a certified SolidWorks professional, so he knows his way around SolidWorks (SWX) and has written many VB programs to create parts libraries for our employer. As soon as he found out I was into rockets, he asked if there was anything I wanted to try printing.
I have several rockets modeled in SolidWorks, but settled on testing the system with Chris Flannigan's beautiful D-Region Tomahawk he posted on Scaleroc. I used the SWX "scale" feature to scale the full-size model to fit a BT-60 tube (1.637 / 9.00 = 0.181888889).
I wanted to print the fin shroud, lug, fins and fin attachments as a single unit that would slide over the BT-60 tube, and the nose cone.
This report describes the experience I have had with a particular low cost printer. I am in no way an expert on 3D printing (or rapid prototyping as the industry calls it), nor are the statements I make about printer capabilities applicable to all printers.
A friend at work bought a Mosaic hobby 3D printer from MakerGear https://www.makergear.com/ to see what it could do. James is a certified SolidWorks professional, so he knows his way around SolidWorks (SWX) and has written many VB programs to create parts libraries for our employer. As soon as he found out I was into rockets, he asked if there was anything I wanted to try printing.
I have several rockets modeled in SolidWorks, but settled on testing the system with Chris Flannigan's beautiful D-Region Tomahawk he posted on Scaleroc. I used the SWX "scale" feature to scale the full-size model to fit a BT-60 tube (1.637 / 9.00 = 0.181888889).
I wanted to print the fin shroud, lug, fins and fin attachments as a single unit that would slide over the BT-60 tube, and the nose cone.