Hi Paul,

Right! This 3D printing enables so many different projects, is relatively EASY and LOW COST !!! To share some of the salient points for those not too familiar with 3D printing:

A good-quality printer can be had for $250 (Ender3 is a VERY popular printer) Parts the size of your fist cost about $1 to $2 (roughly speaking) As Paul noted, there are materials which nicely survive UV and heat. You could print PETG parts for outside, or in the heat of your car. Parts take between an hour and a day to print, depending on size, complexity and density. FreeCAD software is really, really a nice match to what we do in amateur radio. A couple of hams here in Tucson love it, and it is very nicely suited to making ham radio widgets :) Cura software (also free) is used to take the output of FreeCAD and create "gcode" which drives the 3D printer.

The heat insert tool that Paul referred to in his previous email can be seen at the link below: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078K72615/?coliid=I1K4DNMRZKIRXN&colid=2BL2OM...

As for material, I get filament made by eSun which prints very nicely. I use PLA+ for stuff indoors, and PETG for outdoor products.

Fun Fact: I print 27 whistles in a batch (takes 23 hours), add split rings, and give them away as gifts. They're about a dime each.

Another Fun Fact: "Thingiverse" contains 1000's of projects that can be printed.

All of this information is well known to avid 3D printer people, and I'm sure others can chime in with their perspective / ideas / product recommendations.

BOTTOM LINE: If you like to build stuff, ANY stuff, and are willing to learn a very minor amount of software, the payoff is very very high!

Curt / K7ZOO Tucson AZ

On Wed, Sep 2, 2020 at 9:05 PM Paul Andrews w2hro.fn20@gmail.com wrote:

Curt,

Nice presentation. I also started 3D printing in May and recently discovered heated brass inserts. These items can really expand the range of possibilities. I have designed a folding satellite dish with 3D printed parts and waterjet cut aluminum. We recently improved the strength of a few parts using the brass inserts for M3 bolts.

A standard soldering iron works nicely but you can achieve better accuracy using a soldering iron tip specially designed to install the inserts.

What plastic are you printing? I found that PETG is easy to print, UV stable and will hold up in summer heat outdoors.

73 - Paul - W2HRO

On Wed, Sep 2, 2020 at 10:39 PM Curt Laumann via AMSAT-BB < amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:

...

Hi All,

To support my interest in building amateur radio equipment I recently dove into 3D printing. I'm sure many are aware of the technique below, but still others might find it interesting.

*You can easily install threaded brass inserts into 3D printed parts, making them very robust and useful.* Feel free to view the PDF file at the link below for a brief introduction to this technique.

Curt / K7ZOO Tucson AZ

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pk_TxQrJCwZ3NnAyDzvdfZ9ijtQBwNNq/view?usp=s... _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. 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: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb