Page 1 of 2

Gigabot

PostPosted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 8:49 pm
by bdring

Re: Gigabot

PostPosted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 9:32 pm
by Enraged
Looks like they are using Makerslide, Azteeg, and Wades with a J-head.

I find their international shipping costs amusing.

Re: Gigabot

PostPosted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:30 pm
by vgordin
How do you think they're heating the build platform? They mention ABS, so I'm assuming it is heated.

edit: on their site, they mention that the build surface is honeycomb aluminum, but no work as to the heaters.

Re: Gigabot

PostPosted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 11:34 pm
by bdring
I don't see any mention of a heated bed. That might heat the whole house.

Hey, maybe you could print on a radiant heated floor. Just crank up the thermostat to 11 in the bathroom.

A big bed does not just need to print big things. It could print a lot of little ABS parts.

Re: Gigabot

PostPosted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 12:23 am
by Enraged
I can see the appeal for people who produce 3d printed parts, like people on ebay selling reprap kits. Set it, come back a few days later to see a half dozen kits finished.

For multiple smaller parts, wouldn't it be more efficient to use multiple heads? Alot of the big CNC routers use multiple heads.

Re: Gigabot

PostPosted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 12:53 am
by SystemsGuy
My worry would be coming back in a couple of days to a massive rats nest! :-) Theres a guy who posted a "dual" extruder carriage on Thingiverse with the concept of "mirrored" printing... I always seemed to have better luck just splitting the job between two or more printers.


Enraged wrote:I can see the appeal for people who produce 3d printed parts, like people on ebay selling reprap kits. Set it, come back a few days later to see a half dozen kits finished.

For multiple smaller parts, wouldn't it be more efficient to use multiple heads? Alot of the big CNC routers use multiple heads.

Re: Gigabot

PostPosted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 1:59 am
by vgordin
Imagine how long it would take to print objects that big.

The MTBF for 3d printers is nowhere near good enough for this to be a better solution for printing small parts than a farm of normal sized bots. (which would get the job done quicker as well)

To my mind, it only really makes sense for parts that won't fit onto a 200mm or 300mm bed.

Them mentioning water storage and planting worries me. I heard Brita from WindowFarms speak a few weeks ago in NYC and she said that they looked into all of the available and experimental 3dprinting materials before deciding none were food-safe for prolonged exposure to water.

Re: Gigabot

PostPosted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 3:02 pm
by flurin
vgordin wrote:Imagine how long it would take to print objects that big.


My main rule is: "Don't design Things, that need more than 1 hour to print!"

Re: Gigabot

PostPosted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 6:24 pm
by brnrd
There aren't a lot of things that can be printed in under 1 hr. From experience, 24 hours is my current limit.

Re: Gigabot

PostPosted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 6:51 pm
by vgordin
Agree. Most parts that I've printed in the past month have been over an hour. My point with the comment above is that (1) longer run times increase the risk of jams, failures, etc., and (2) this bot doesn't really make sense for printing multiples of the same thing.

Also, I was curious as to how they're heating the bed (they list ABS as a material) and sent them a message via Kickstarter. They just wrote back that the bed is unheated and that what they meant to say is that someone could use their printer to print ABS if they were to add a heated bed. hrrrmmm.