Quote:
Originally Posted by 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?
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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!