Purpose:

It's going to be loads of fun to be trying to put together 3D printers and test them. Fortunately my expectations go well beyond just putting it together and turning it on. This week is mostly a lot of staging and getting things set up. These include visiting the iFixit website and looking at how they document a tear down (a build out is the just the same thing in reverse). You will also need to do some searching for existing build manuals for 3D printers and other documentation. You will also need to remember your LaTeX skills so you can start constructing a template for your builders engineering manual. Lots to do this first week...

Procedure:  

This is an implementation week. Start a new folder on your computer and keep track of the sequential versions of this spreadsheet as you go.

1) To begin with I want you to read the iFixit Tech Writing manual. It's only 50 pages so it's not a big deal. Besides, the CEO of iFixit is a Mountain View grad and he's doing a great thing here for our world. Then, when you've done that, find the repair guide for some bit of technology you own (here's the global guide page and here's the phone guide page) and look through the steps of the repair guide. You will be asked to comment on what you learned from this experience in your memo to me.

2) The next two steps can be in either order. I want you to look through the parts list for one of the commercial 3D printer kits with your team and identify and label all the parts on the butcher paper provided. I will probably only ask you to do about half the parts so that everyone can share in the confusion. Try to figure out what various crytic labels mean and whether the most common labels are metric or american standard. Notice terms that you don't understand or haven't seen before.

3) Then consult the BOM (bill of materials) for one of the scratch built kits and see if you can find the same, or similar parts on this list. Notice differences and similarities. What's different about motors and threaded rods? Metric or american?

4) In each case notice how they document and describe the printed parts (from another 3D printer). What is the standard file extension for 3D printer files? Who in the class knows how to generate such files? Are there freely available tools for doing this or only commercial ones?

5) Is there a builders manual in pdf format or only in a web format? Is it licensed under Creative Commons (do you know what this is?) or some other open source model? What other resources to support your build can you find on the web. Do you know how to get to our class 3D printer resource page?

LAB Deliverables:

 

 

 

This week I would like a memo (LaTeX of course, posted to Bb) that responds to the following prompts:

1) What did you learn about your device from going through the iFixit repair guide? In what ways did they follow their own guidelines?

2) Describe your experiences trying to identify the various parts of the commercial kits. Where there particular parts that seemed hard to understand or identify?

3) Compare the BOM for the scratch built projects to the commercial ones. What are the similarities and differences? Do you find yourself focusing on details or generalities as you answer this question? How might this mislead you?

4) What do you know about 3D printer part files and how they are generated? Give some thought to how they will be printed and the efficiency issues that may plague us.

5) Analyze the character and quality of the builders resources that your found. Provide clear links and suggestions for items that you want to have linked on the 3D printer resource page. Show me that you know how to get there.