Ben from Maine

Hey guys, my name is Ben and I'm new to the 3D printing scene. I am a Junior at Husson University in Bangor Maine, and am a member of the Husson University Tech Club. At the beginning of the semester we were looking for cool projects to do when somebody suggested a 3D printer. We looked into them and found the Solidoodle 2, and we were convinced.

The University finally let us open it and try it out today, and the three of us who were there were extremely impressed with the simplicity of the program. Thanks to some help from Brad in the IRC channel we got it set up and working. We didn't want to break into either of the spools we purchased until next semester so we decided to make something small that would demonstrate the capabilities of the printer.

We found some models for coins on Thingiverse. They came out pretty well, however as you can see in the attached photo the printing was not consistent (and kind of looks like crap). Is this something that would be caused by a poorly designed object? Or are there settings that should be tweaked for optimum printer performance? It should be noted that we printed three different coins (different designs) and this was consistent on the first side printed on each coin (and that the second side looks much better).

Next semester we plan on playing around with this a lot more and designing our own Husson related objects. We plan on demonstrating the printer at our open house this spring and showing off its capabilities. From the images and videos we have posted on Facebook alone of this thing in action there is already a significant amount of interest from other students who think this is just downright cool.

We can't wait for next semester to start so we can start playing with this thing again. Until then, what are the best programs to design with? I have limited knowledge of SketchUp and that's about it.

Looking forward to doing some really cool stuff!

-Ben