3D Printer assisted Astronomy

[gecko]

Hey everyone,

Rings for my Celestron were quite expensive - and were going to take ages to get here from the US. So I did the only logical thing and printed them off! I think it turned out quite well - Used about 40 grams of plastic (or $1.60 worth) for each half, so all up will cost me about $6 for a full set of rings!

Printed with 0.4mm layer height to get the prints done nice and quick - highest resolution is 0.1mm layers and they're virtually invisible then!

[JB80]

Excellent!

Top solution to the problem at hand.
I want one of these 3D printers.

[leon]

Wow these printers are going to be big I must have items i reckon, nice job.

Leon

[acropolite]

Nice work, I've been eyeing off a 3D printer kit for a while.

3D printer kits are available from Emblem Robotics (http://emblemrobotics.com/), I believe Sean is offering some free shipping and some consumables with kits as well during June.

[Lee]

When I think of the number of times I've wanted a little bracket/adaptor/thingy/whatsit over the years.... I think I'll have to add a 3D printer to Santa's list.... :)

[gecko]

Here is the fully assembled scope mounted!

http://i.imgur.com/ZjuBPSj.jpg

[troypiggo]

I know next to nothing about these 3D printers, so please pardon the dumb questions. What's the material that's printed out? Plastic? What strength? I mean, if you're supporting 15kg of scope and cameras etc, will it hold? What about flexure? ie how stiff is it? In the cold, subzero maybe temperatures, will it get brittle and possibly shatter/snap?

[sheeny]

I didn't realise they were so affordable. The nerd in me wants one, but despite my main hobby being "collecting hobbies" I must resist! I must...

...but I could print patterns for the foundry... aaaahhhh! NNNooooooo...

:rolleyes:

Al.

[acropolite]

The most common material used is ABS plastic, but there are a wide range of materials used.
I doubt it would be suited to anything requiring ultimate ridgity, but things like focus masks, lens caps, eyepiece caps, trays, knobs, even gears can be easily made.

I've seen the emblem robotics kit first hand, it's made from printed components, even some of the gears are printed.

Here's some background info. (http://www.3ders.org/3d-printing-basics.html)

[gecko]

I print with ABS - it is a fair bit stronger and more resistant to the weather than the other popular alternative PLA. ABS is the plastic used in 99% of your home plastic goods.

It's about the same strength as any other plastic stuff you have at home - the best bit about it is that you design the part! You critically analyse which parts you think will break and give them the support you think they need. A 15kg load is going to need a fair bit of support, but with the appropriate design work you can easily do that.

ABS is quite stiff - I print with 15% infill, so inside the walls that you see on the prints, only 15% of it is filled. With 15% of infill there is a bit of flexing, but at 100% it is pretty stiff. For stiff prints, it's recommended to print with PLA.

I'm not really sure about cold weather unfortunately!

Edit: If any of you are interested in 3d printers, let me know and I can print you off a sample piece and send it your way!

[troypiggo]

Cool! Thanks guys. Some reading to do.

[AG Hybrid]

I had no idea 3d printers were so affordable too. You could spend a lot more on a single eyepiece.
This thing is definetly on my to get list before the end of 2014. There's a few other things inline in front of it first though.

[Ric]

Blimey, the last time I heard about these printers was years ago on Catalyst. Now you can have a personal one.

I think I'm having a Rip Van Winkle moment. :P

[CarlJoseph]

Nice work. Yet another revolution is upon us.

How do you do the designs for the printed widgets? Is it as easy as Google Sketch-up or a little more involved?

[gecko]

It is quite literally that easy! I run all my models through a cleaning process (netfabb studio) that gets rid of odd triangles and double edges becasue Sketchup seems to love making double edges for some reason.