3d Printing

How to 3d Print:

3d Printing is an extremely quick and effective way to prototype or even produce a final design. When working with 3d printed parts we have a few different rules, guidelines, and advice for producing the best possible product.

Fasteners and Inserts:

We limit ourselves to only M3, M4, and M6 screws and thread inserts in keeping with our Design Standards. This might cause a problem with some of your parts. Whenever possible no matter how difficult we try to hold to this. Times were deviation is allowed is if you might be mounting a circuit board and it was designed with M2.5. Additionally we use helicoil thread inserts. Make sure to have left the correct size for the insert in your part. A M4 helicoil won’t go into a 4mm hole. 

Tolerancing:

Different parts will shrink at different rates depending on what parts are being printed. We are printing on one printer, with primarily one type of filament so our shrinkage is very consistent meaning if you print two halves of the same part on the same machine they should be toleranced relative to one another by default. That said, please think about how your part will shrink as it cools, and how it interfaces. For instance if you have a lid being inserted into a part with a lip you can use ribs to give the part some give for the inserted part to fit. 

Printing:

We print using a Bambu Lab X1-Carbon. As part of Bambu’s ecosystem we slice with Bambu Studio, the default slicer for Bambu.

To import the file into the slicer you need to save the part as an STL file. Then using the import tool import the file to the build plate. Make sure you select the correct nozzle (Insert nozzle here) and filament, (generally Carbon Fiber). Additionally if you need supports make sure this box is checked.