Designing Better Parts for 3D Printing

This may become a series of posts on some tips for making better 3D printed parts.

When using extrusion deposition, as we do with our MakerBot Replicator, there are some limitations on what you can actually print. Here's our printer in action:

A big problem is that you can't print overhangs without using support material. Support material is very annoying to remove and can leave a terrible surface finish. Avoid it whenever possible. 

Here's one trick to do without it. Suppose you have a bowl with a slot designed like this:

The bowl needs to interlock with another part that slides into the slot. However, the slot will need to be printed with support material. That nasty stuff will ruin your chances of creating a smooth interference fit. 

Let's change the design like this:

It's only a tiny change (you might need to zoom in), making the circular slot with a triangle at the top, but it makes a world of difference. This part no longer requires support material.

Look at the two profiles:

Notice the 45 degree angle. That is the minimum slant angle for overhangs. Depending on your printer, part size, ect., you could change that number, but 45 degrees is a good standard.

This trick is a real life saver. Hopefully, you'll find it as useful as we have. Good luck!

Hello World!

InventIt is on Google!

Phew... There is so much to do to get a business online these days. There's Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Google+, Google Maps, LinkedIn, websites (weinventit.com), emails, ect. ect. It get's a little crazy, but it's worth the effort.

It's nice to take a little breather and just talk to you, right now.

Today, we want to talk about the two approaches to finding invention ideas and why one tends to work better than the other.

The first way is to start with a great idea or technology and see if you can find something useful to do with it. This is very tempting, but it's a trap.

The second way is to notice a problem and attempt to find a solution, the better method.

The difference is subtle, but significant. What happens with the first method is that the idea looks really cool (!), but doesn't actually make a significant improvement in people's lives. (Think Segway or flying car.) However, when you start with a problem that you already know is bothersome or a demand that you already know exists, it just becomes a matter of finding a good solution.

With the problem based approach, the idea may fail at the prototype stage if it doesn't work. With the technology based approach, the idea may go all the way to market, after millions of dollars, before people realize the demand just isn't there.

Obviously, both ways can work, but it just seems to work better when you look for solutions instead of problems.