www.TK560.com

tmatter · Joined: 26 Apr 2010 Posts: 2 Location: virginia

Hello all,

I am new here but hope to be able to learn much.

I am the industrial designer at Virginia industrial plastic inc. A heavy gauge thermoforming plant located in north western Virginia. www.vaplastic.com

I am fairly proficient with solidworks, and I have access to 2
3 axis cnc's a 5 axis cnc and a laser.

I have a personal interest interest in both mendel, and makerbot. My wife and I home-school our children and I thought it would be a great project for the kids and myself alike. Then they could print off things like the inner ear for school models and such. or maybe some toys for their siblings.

I am completely clueless about the software involved. what kind of files will they print from? STL?

also is there anywhere I can find the plans/dxf to laser cut my own makerbot body here at work?

any help will be much appreciated. Very Happy

_________________
if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got.

Benjaminvegeta · Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 1:47 pm Post subject:

Hi there.

Makerbot is an opensource project, so you can simply download the needed files from the official makerbot site
Here on Thingiverse,too:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:457
_________________
If it doesn´t exist, build it!

tmatter · Joined: 26 Apr 2010 Posts: 2 Location: virginia

thank you.

After actually getting to look around the site I saw that there are several references to material for forming as we as materials for making molds.

If anyone is interested From time to time we end up with odd lots of material. Usually .093, .0625, .125 black abs, and styrene. occasionally it's not haircell. we also have kydex, hdpe, Ldpe in the same thicknesses. and even some .040 white smooth/smooth styrene as well.

as far as mold materials go. if we are doing smaller qty. jobs we'll use a dense urethane foam. "ren-shape" we usually end up with odd smaller sized pcs of that as well. It would be good for weapons, communicators, or a whole array of small things.

if anyone is interested send me a pm.
_________________
if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got.

jdougn · Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 7:36 pm Post subject:

jegner · Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 11:51 am Post subject:

Welcome to the board. Neat project. I wish I had the time to do the same thing. Sad