Why radio hams should consider 3D printing

Why radio hams should consider 3D printing

Mike Grauer, Jr, KE7DBX, asks radio amateurs to think about how 3D printers can be used in home construction

He says:
As a member of the ham radio community, I have always been fascinated by the maker mindset which has existed since the early days of radio. From making radio equipment from scratch, to kits and even modifying commercially available equ...ipment, the maker movement and radio go hand in hand.

The 3D printing community shares many traits with the ham radio movement. At the heart of it all is making, creating and inventing.
And just like ham radio operators, those involved with 3D printing are constantly learning new technical skills that can be used in other areas of our lives.

Read the full story at
http://www.inside3dp.com/<wbr>ham-operators-consider-3d-print<wbr>ing/






Follow Southgate News on Twitter
Join us on Facebook

 

We use them every day. Oodles and oodles of them.If you go for inexpensive you are limited to PLA and ABS. Some ham things do well in such plastics, others do not.

Be prepared for learning to fix them.

Not sure how that builds career skills, and autocad around for ages...

They are fun!

73
Chip W1YW

 

I actually got into 3D printing before I started in ham radio. They are a good match. I've printed an antenna bracket to mount my 2m/70m antenna to the eave of roof. I've printed wire and cable guides to tack them to walls, etc. Also printed case for Arduino's and Raspberry Pi's for radio projects too. Building my printer was a very enjoyable experience as well. I had no prior electronics experience, but it turned out great. My printer is a delta-bot Rostock Max. I plan to print some items for my go-box soon.

Here's pics during the print of the antenna bracket, and the result.

 

If that little front door on the Icom IC735 could be made without a heart breaking price I would suspect many, many could be sold.
I'd sure snap one up as a spare.

 

Here in Colorado Springs our new Library 21C has three 3D printers. The cost is only for materials. Projects go on a waiting list and are printed during the next available time. They also have a lot of other neat high-tech equipment. I think they said they are getting some type of instrument for creating circuit boards. See http://ppld.org/c3/makerspace#equipment for more equipment available in the Makerspaces.

 

I've owned a Printrbot Simple Metal for about 3 weeks now and absolutely love printing various things in PLA (from websites like Thingiverse.com and YouMagine.com). Once I have the actual printing process down, I'll be experimenting with designing shapes to print - probably using software like OpenSCAD or Autodesk 123D Design.

 

Agreed. Bought my IC-735 without it, but would be nice to have it to make it complete.

 

If you two can produce an appropriate CAD file I will make a couple gratis

73
Chip W1YW

 

I've designed in Solidworks for personal use. shapeways.com will print your file.

The use of 3D printed parts for go boxes and such seemed incredibly obvious to me.

I was surprised at the amount of surprise I got when showing this off at first.




I designed this particular component and it was printed by a friend on his home 3D printer.

 

Pretty!

 

With my luck, I'd buy one then next week they would have created replicators ala Star Trek
I wonder , can it make a Hilberling rig yet? I'd go get one if it could Seriously though, They are interesting, I'd be interested to know if any have made like replacement keys for musical keyboards, those get broken and people always look for replacements when they can find them.
Guitar made by 3d would be interesting,might not be bad either.
73,Michelle

 

Who knows?? It may not be long before folks can make modern HW-101 or SB-303 replicas (at least the external stuff) in the privacy of their own dwellings. "Yeah man, just printed an FT-101E last night! Woo doggie!"

 

Print out some dipole suspenders or supports. Something to hang a dipole with. Make a fitting for an SO-239 or ladderline. Sell them. $$$.

 

For these types of printers, you can only do stuff in fairly limited plastic. Make a replacment case handle, definitely custom guitar picks. Maybe slides.

3d printers do have some advantages over other plastic methods, but in general, if you cant injection mold already, the 3d route only helps on price.

 

Yes, you can make ladder line separators...