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Collecting up concepts to build a course...

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by JohnStack, Mar 26, 2014.

  1. JohnStack

    JohnStack New Member

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    As an experienced 3D printer, what experiences have you had that you strongly feel should be in a course or courses? I don't want to boil the ocean - but what do you strongly feel should be included?

    (Edit: The first course would be introductory. The desired outcome would be that a person would want to buy a printer or alternatively, enthusiastically run home and get printing!

    So far, I've got the following:

    Types of 3D Printers
    Actual and Potential Uses of 3D Printer Output
    Basic Idea of How 3D printing Works
    How 3D Printing Works - Specific to Additive
    Elements of a 3D Printer (Mendel Type)
    Different Plastics and Behaviors
    Software Flow from Drawing to GCode (Wide and Deep here)
    Safety
    Printing Trial
    Where to go from here:
    Cleaning Up your Prints
    Painting and Post Printing

    And a few more... anything to cover in depth?
     
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  2. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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    That's a pretty good outline.

    I'd say add in a troubleshooting and common failure modes session.
    In that different plastics and behaviors, I would also talk to some of the fundamental properties of the material that affect how it prints and how it acts on the print bed. That same class probably should also hit on a really quick mechanical properties of materials basics.
     
  3. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    The FIRST LAYER

    This is the most critical part of printing and people who are new do not know what to look for and get into all kinds of trouble trying to fix things that are not broken such changing from tape to glass or slurry or getting frustrated and just quitting when the issue was the nozzle is simply too high.

    This technology is so new to the general public that they do not know what to look for or understand it.

    An example
    When the nozzle is too high the filament is simply laid down on the bed surface and it will fail. Filament needs to be PUT DOWN onto the bed surface then it will stick

    Identification or knowing what to look for will help keep frustrations at a minimum.
     
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  4. JohnStack

    JohnStack New Member

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    Thanks - and this topic is really open ended. I just read a 24-page long thread about PEI surfaces. I've ordered and am going to try it. Crazy. PLA and ABS are so darned different. I was going to collect up the loads of bad prints I've done (for the last year and go through them):

    Squirting - too much or too little, too fast or too slow, edge curl, uneven heat surfaces, uneven hairspray, layer thickness, speed adjustments, extruder multipliers v. speed...
    Potential surfaces (slurry/juice, hairspray, kapton, PEI, glue stick, etc)

    3D printing - requires multi-variate analysis tendered with common sense.
     
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  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    +1
     
  6. AxisLab

    AxisLab Well-Known Member

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    History of 3d printing. Many people are surprised to hear it goes back to the 80's.
    Also don't pass on the chance for good topics to come out of questions. So many people wait until after a lecture to open up for questions, My thing is open with a Q&A first, and leave them comfortable to ask many questions during. If they ask something you are going to cover just say great question and were going to cover that. But you may be surprised how many good questions you can get to open up the class.
     
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  7. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Might be good to include some information so people understand how the steppers count steps to understand the position of the extruder.
     
  8. JohnStack

    JohnStack New Member

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    Thanks for these. Not quite sure about how much detail I would get into about steppers counting steps for head movement but the general concept will be covered in an infographic.
     
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  9. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    For introductory level an overview of that is enough. You get enough detail to glimpse the complexity of it.
    The details of HOW to use it and get started turning out good prints is more useful.
     
  10. JohnStack

    JohnStack New Member

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    Thanks. I plan on building curriculum for three different classes. Up and Running (a 3 hour course), a full day course, and an advanced printing and configuration course that is also a full day.
     
  11. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    Where are you going to do this
     
  12. JohnStack

    JohnStack New Member

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    I'm going to offer a 3-hour course at MakerSpace in San Diego first. Second, I have been arranging for corporate training space near Carlsbad for the more extensive courses. Of course, I hope to travel a bit too...
     
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  13. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    very nice
     
  14. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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    John, if you ever make it out east for anything, let me know. I've done a few minisessions at libraries and maker events. I really enjoy doing it and would be glad to help.
     
  15. twistedwords

    twistedwords New Member

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    Hi! I saw this 3D printing infographic/video/animated gif that could be a cool resource for beginners new to 3D printing.:) I don't consider myself a beginner exactly, but there were something in there I did not know a 3D printer could do.
     

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