User:Jrf5222
Contents
Introduction
My name is Justin Frazier. I am in my 8th semester at Penn State studying mechanical engineering.
Blog 1
A. Something Amazing/beautiful
Here is a 2-color model of the Statue of Liberty: a long standing symbol of American ideals. This was probably made on a printer with dual extruders.
B. Something funny or strange
Here is a 3d printed model of the Hepatitis D virus ribosome. The attention to detail is amazing!
C. Something Useless
Here is a set of printable party glasses. They might look cool but are incredibly useless. I have found party glasses after parties and have been given sets by promoters at bars and after the night is over, all the glasses do is collect dust. Despite its uselessness, there is no harm in creating party glasses. Plus, the design looks very simple and easy to make. Not much time was wasted in designing these.
D. Something Useful
Here is a printable trouser clamp for bike riders. As a student with a bicycle in a cold-weather university, I find this very useful. Whenever you ride a bike with pants on, the slack in your right leg can catch the chain and rip. This prevents that from happening by holding your pant leg against your leg in the area by the bike's front derailleur.
F. The best printable raspberry pi case you can find
Here is the best Rasberry Pi Case I found. It is functional, customizable, and mountable. Mounted to it's equipment, it is all the protection the Rasberry Pi needs.\
Blog 2
Write about a topic (or two, or three) which interests you which we've discussed so far - or not discussed in detail yet.
The project I am going to work on is machining the hop tips for the extruders but I would like to delve deeper into this idea: variable geometry hot tips. I am not sure how these would be implemented into the current software used for 3d printing but I think this idea could be very beneficial to 3D printing. The current 3D printers use 1 hot tip per extruder. The hot tip is one diameter and only round. What if there was a way to control the geometry of the hot tip as it printed? I could see this being useful for 2 different things: better plastic bonding and quicker printing. Imagine if there was a way to implement the tip diameter as a variable during printing. If a printer was printing a cube, it would use the largest diameter hole possible for printing the body and the smallest possible hole diameter for printing the edges. This would cut down printing time drastically. Also imagine if there was a different geometry that would allow a better plastic bond. I am unsure of the research that has already gone into this, but imagine the possibilities.
The 3D hubs website looks like a fantastic idea for buyers of 3D printed parts and for people who own 3D printers as a hobby. When 3D printing just started taking off, a few companies emerged who would sell 3D printed parts. You had to send your drawing files to them and they would send you back a printed part. This was amazing at the time but it was cost-intensive and took awhile to get what you wanted. 3dhubs.com is designed to eliminate the middle man. It shows everyone with 3d printing capabilities by area so that you can reach out to the closest person and get the part you want for a cheaper price. This is good because the buyers don't have to pay as much and will spend less time waiting for their part but it is also good for people with 3D printers who want to make a little extra money.
Blog 3
Read some of your classmates blogs (you should be able to find them on the link above). I want you to look for the best post or two you can find, and link to it. Explain why you chose it, and what makes it good in your opinion. If there is anything you can think of to improve it, comment on that. While you're doing part two, keep an eye out for other blogs that could use improvement and comment on what might be improved in them. Bonus points for including more blogs in your general commentary. Extra bonus points for commenting on blogs which weren't added to the list by their users in step one (This would require some detective work).
http://reprap.org/wiki/User:Scottmilander This is the best post that I found because the technology used in his post has the potential to save millions of lives. The video itself could be improved by showing how the biological printing process works. The actual post does not need to be improved.
Blog 4
Comment on each project, and their mode of operation (give it away for free). How does this compare with traditional business models? Can you point to any companies using a similar business model? How does this sort of thing strike you?
This post refers to a YouTube video regarding the RepRap and Arduino projects. The idea behind both of these projects is giving away information for free instead of conventionally charging money for service. The advantage of this is that there is a constant influx of improvements done to your design by other people. You do not have to pay anyone to improve your design.
In my opinion, the Arduino project has the best of both worlds. The people involved with the Arduino project can make money from the physical product they provide (the Arduino board) and they openly share their design for improvements. This makes the Arduino boards much cheaper. I was amazed at how one can buy an Arduino microcontroller for $25. I think that from a business standpoint, the Arduino team's biggest advantage is a world of people that do creative things with their boards. They make something cool, post it online, people see it, and want to make something too so they buy more Arduino boards.
The RepRap project is slightly different. This project was started with a common goal of being able to print other 3D printers. The advantage these people gained is worldwide notoriety within the RepRap community. Individually, these people have not made nearly as much money as they would have running their own RepRap printing business, but they get the satisfaction of having many designers practically do their work for them. It truly shows how a little selflessness can go a long way.
