Tag Archives: printing resolution

First part prototyped!

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I’ve just prototyped my first part for a client!  What fun!

He sent over some design files, we discussed some of the constraints of the MakerBot Cupcake CNC (overhang limits, printing resolution, ABS warpage, build sizes), went back and forth over several iterations of the design, and today I printed it up!

In getting ready to print his part I had tuned my ‘bot over the weekend.  The part has the absolute smoothest sides I’ve been able to print on anything to date with minimal stringing.  I’m really really proud of that print.  The resolution came out so well I want to reprint several prior prints – such as the TARDIS and dalek.

Anyone want a second hand TARDIS?

MakerBot Cupcake CNC print resolution

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Some people have asked me about the MakerBot’s print resolution.  Although this information can be found on the MakerBot wiki, there’s no harm in disseminating this data. 1  Before I get into some of the technical stuff, let me just say this – the print resolution is pretty freaking good for a $750 DIY robot and it will give a $15,000 commercial printer a run for it’s money.

As a printer that can create objects in three dimensions the normal two-dimensional printer resolution jargon of “DPI” or “dots per inch” doesn’t mean much.  The printing resolution for the X/Y axes is 0.085mm and the resolution for the Z axis is 3.125 microns.  Most of the time you’re going to have a Z axis resolution of about 1/3 of a millimeter.  If you print with layers much smaller than that it will take forever to print without a huge increase in quality.

Or, to put it another way…  if you were to hand me two objects one printed on a MakerBot and one printed on a commercial printer, I’m going to ask you why the heck one of them costs $14,000 more than the other.  I’ve printed some pretty intricate and detailed stuff on my MakerBot.  As I tune it I hope to improve it even more.

  1. If you haven’t poked around the website, I highly recommend it.  There’s a lot of information about the Cupcake CNC, RepRap, fused deposition modeling, robots, and all sorts of stuff. [↩]