We received a Next Engine 3D scanner a little while ago to try out.  This is a scanner that I would call a mid-level machine as it's not a Makerbot Digitizer (low end) nor is it a high end device.  My first impressions are that it is a well built machine that is relatively user friendly.  Our first scan was of a caveman (our mascot here at the high school) and it turned out fairly good.  Any mistakes that were made with this first scan should be attributed to us and not the scanner.  You really have to coat your object to be scanned with powder (we used foot fungus spray powder) in order to diminish and reflectivity.  The scanner doesn't like shiny surfaces at all.

In the photo above we are scanning a part for a student that goes on a small river racing boat.  The part is not only expensive to purchase but my understanding is that it can be quite hard to find.  Hopefully we can reproduce it with enough accuracy for it to be useful.

We are going to use the heck out of this machine while we have it.  I hope to get our science department involved in our endeavors as well.  I'll update our opinions as we spend more time with it.

Hyrel System 30 Unboxing

http://www.hyrel3d.com/

We finally got the chance to unbox our new System 30 from Hyrel.  The people in Georgia worked very hard to get it to us in time for the OACTE conference and we received it just a day prior to leaving for Sunriver.  It was all I could do to wait for everyone to show up to open the box but it was well worth it.  The representatives from Hyrel cautioned us that we should not expect to have the machine up and printing as quickly as we may have liked but that didn't stop us.  Hyrel asked us to work with them via Skype for the initial assembly and start up in order to avoid any unnecessary issues but that would have meant waiting a couple hours for them to be available.  A bunch of CTE teachers really don't have the patience to wait when it comes to new machines so we gave it our best shot.

Initial assembly was straightforward and not too difficult.  We were all very pleasantly surprised with the fit and finish of the machine.  This is one very well thought out and engineered printer.  Everything about the machine screams quality.  This is a large and heavy printer when compared to our present arsenal.  Our students are going to have a unparallelled learning experience with this beauty.

We were able to make our first print without the assistance of Hyrel but I do plan on having my advanced students sit down with Hyrel for a Skype when they start it for the first time in the classroom.  They are going to learn so much from this initial session and I am looking forward to seeing it happen.
I should mention that the machine printed flawlessly for the entire presentation we gave at the conference.  There was a lot of interest in the machine and we are expecting that our machine will no longer be the only one in the state in a very short time.

Thanks again to everyone from Hyrel for their understanding and patience with us.  We look forward to a long and productive relationship with them.

Thank you Mark Dill; Extrusionbot!

Fresh back from the OACTE conference in Sunriver, Oregon.  We had the opportunity to meet Mark Dill from Extrusionbot and I can't remember the last time I have had the chance to speak with the owner of a company who was more excited about helping educators  in any way possible.  There were a lot of teachers and district representatives who spent time with him at his booth which made us all quite happy.  Mark has a fantastic product that can save schools and programs a ton of money.  This isn't the only plus though;  Students are going to have a chance to learn about the chemistry of filament extrusion, ratios, cost analysis just to name a few possibilities with the new machine.

Mark was there for us when our mouse failed at the start of our presentation and he took a few minutes to take questions from the group.  This gentleman and his company are going to be there for us for a long time to come and we look forward to learning as much as possible from Mark.

Extrusionbot first print

The new Extrusionbot produced it's first filaments before Spring Break.  Works great but we made a mistake in our ratio of PLA to colorant beads.  Way too much colorant made the filament too soft for use in printing.  The drive gear that feeds the filament into the extruder nozzle on the printer just couldn't grab it well enough.

As you can tell from the images above, the blue filament has the normal "bite" marks on it from the printing process.  The blue was commercially purchased (Matter Hackers 1.75mm PLA).  The orange filament is our first attempt at extruding with the Extrusionbot and we apparently used way too much colorant (it was a 2 to 1 mixture of PLA to colorant).  This softened the filament to the point that it compressed too much during the print process and the teeth of the drive gear bit into the filament way too much.  It also left an excessive amount of residue on the drive gear.  The stuff just wouldn't extrude.

We got in touch with Extrusionbot and they confirmed what we suspected regarding colorant ratios.  As an aside, this will be a GREAT opportunity to enlist our Science department (Chemistry in particular).  The chemical make-up of filaments is critical to their performance, effect on print temperatures, ability of the material to feed into the print nozzle, adherence to build plates and so on.

So we altered our ratios to approximately 4 to 1 PLA to colorant and started extruding.  The filament came out at a consistent 1.75 to 1.8 mm which is what is expected.  Now for the real test...does it print?  Well, yes it does! 

A student designed and printed a lid for the hopper on the Extrusionbot since we are in a pretty dusty environment here in the woodshop.  It works great and we are incredibly happy that we were able to extrude and print with our own filament after such a short time working with the E-bot (the new name our kids have given their Extrusionbot).  We have to take into consideration the fact that we are working not with a simple melting of plastic and spitting out weed whacker line.  What is occurring on this new machine is a highly complex fabrication of 3D printer filament from scratch.  This is not an easy thing to do without the proper machine.  The Extrusionbot is a fantastic piece of technology that our students are going to be using and learning from for a very long time.