Hello from Toronto

Hi folks

Looking forward to getting some free time to work with my SD3, whenever that happens lol

I'm a mechanical designer living in Toronto. In about 8 months I should be legally allowed to call myself an engineer in Ontario.

I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and before that a diploma in Mechanical Engineering Technology from George Brown College. I've worked as a mechanical designer / draftsperson for a little over 10 years now, but in that time I went back to school to get my degree. I'm also working on a masters degree in engineering which I should have in about a year, if all goes to plan.

I work in the plastics industry, developing robotic take-out systems for injection molding machines. Lots of issues faced by SD users (axis alignment, belt tension, motor drivers etc) are issues I deal with at work (granted, on a different scale), so hopefully my experiences will be of some benefit to the community.

I've been working with 3D CAD software since 2001 when I started using Pro/Engineer at college. Since then I've picked up a variety of 3D tools, including Sketchup, Inventor, SolidEdge and Solidworks. My tool of choice these days is Solidworks, and I teach some workshops at Univ. Toronto once every few months in the use of the software.

My first exposure to 3D printing was around 10 years ago when the company I worked for had prototypes made using stereolithography and FDM (powder binding) technology. Back then, the cost of a print the size of a coffee cup would have run me about as much as an SD2 today, and those prototypes were fragile little things that weren't functional. So naturally its exciting to be able to print workable prototypes of my ideas at home!

Looking forward to being a part of the community!