Fourteenth Day


Today, we were all around campus. In the morning, Peter and I went to the library to look at out SolidWorks part. We then went to the 3D printer at the Construct (in biomedical engineering building), with Emily and Paige, but realized our SolidWorks part had to be saved as an .stl file, so we went back to the library to re-save it. After re-saving our file, we went back to the 3D printer and started printing our part. The printer was really easy to use, which was nice. The Construct has a really nice online step-by-step guide that helped a lot. Will from the Construct was very helpful too. Our part took an hour and a half to print, so we took a lunch break with the group.

After lunch, Peter and I picked up the printed part, but it didn't fit over the collimator (to small), so we went back to the library and edited our part on SolidWorks. Then, we went back to the Construct and printed the edited part. Unfortunately, our edit was too large, so the new printed part didn't fit the collimator either (too big). Tomorrow, we will get back on SolidWorks and make the right adjustmens and reprint our part. Even though we made some mistakes, the process was really fun and I enjoyed using the printer. Tomorrow, we will also develop a system to block out excess light coming from the box that produces light (the box has vents that light escapes through, but we don't want extra light during data collection, so we need to find a method to block out the light while also making sure the box doesn't overheat). We are going to test out black construction paper, so hopefully that works.

Here are some pictures from the 3D printing process:

This is our part (bulky tube on the right side of the photo) with the collimator and light source "plugged in." In this case, our part is too big because the collimator and light source are loose, but you can't tell from the picture. Tomorrow, I will post a photo of our final part by itself with the dimensions.


This is the 3D printer we used, named Costello. We printed using PLA (type of material), and a program named Cura PLA Standard.
Our part in Cura PLA Standard
Non-scientific photo of the Lunch Bunch at the Construct (missing: Tristan and David Lewis)

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