Thanks to all who have replied, for your comments full of insight.
It's clear to me that competence in 3D printing is significant if not essential to the future Hamsat-er, so at my local hackspace I am going to learn how to manage a 3D printer, and maybe even build one myself! 73 de andy g0sfj
From: David G0MRF [email protected] To: [email protected]; [email protected] Sent: Thursday, 29 January 2015, 15:39 Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Hamsat uses for a 3d printer?
Hi Andy If you have a look at the current edition of Oscar News from AMSAT-UK, you'll see thatour team working on the payload for the ESEO satellite have used 3D printing to produce a model of the payload enclosure.I believe the original computer modelling used STEP files to generate all of the drawings and that these were thenadapted for use with the 3D printer.The final enclosure for the L band to VHF FM transponder has to be milled from a solid block. As we didn'twant to do that job twice (250 x 100 x 50mm and expensive) it made perfect sense to produce one with 3D printingto ensure that all the mountings and cut-outs were in the correct position. Thanks David G0MRF -----Original Message----- From: andy thomas [email protected] To: amsat [email protected] Sent: Thu, 29 Jan 2015 13:41 Subject: [amsat-bb] Hamsat uses for a 3d printer?
Hi I am thinking of investing in a 3D printer or using one at our local makespace. Here in the UK a magazine is offering a weekly build-by-component series to make a 3d printer that will run on a pc or mac and uses DOT stl files for the design. A lsow build but an interesting idea nonetheless. I have seen at ESTEC 3d printed model plastic cubesats and am aware of the experiment on the ISS but do not know the software used or data file format. I was wondering if anyone on the -bb has experience of using a 3D printer for outreach or (like SATNOGS) for building rotator gears, and if so whether the file extension DOTstl is an industry standard for this work? I wonder if the estec and nasa files would be reachable by, say, the freedom of information legislation, or would be handed over. many thanks 73 de andy g0sfj _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb