From RobotLab

Contents 1 About 1.1 Contact 2 Usage 2.1 Warming up the machine 2.2 Building 2.3 Removing the model and cleaning

About

The Stratasys FDM 2000 is our older and less detailed rapid prototyper. The support material must be scraped away manually, as it is not water-soluble, which is the major downside to this machine. Its resolution is also lower. On the plus side, we have a large supply of excess material for this printer.

You can find some miscellaneous info and specs about this machine here.

Contact

Contact Matt Bell for further information.

Usage

Note that these are not fully detailed instructions. If you've never used the prototyper before, find someone who knows how to help you.

Warming up the machine

1. Turn the machine on with the big white button.
2. Set the appropriate temperatures as indicated by the stickers (Model @ 270, Support @ 265, Envelope @ 70).
3. Load material if it isn't already loaded.
   1. Press Load. You now have about 30 seconds to feed the material in from the rear of the printer. Do so gently, and at a certain point you will feel the feeding mechanism start to pull in material on its own. If not, pull the filament back out, cut off the end, and try again.
   2. Press Model/Support and repeat for support.

Building

The prototyper should be connected to tiktok via serial.

1. To start a build, run Insight, load your STL file, orient it, slice it, add support, create toolpaths, and build. Then, go over to the prototyper.
2. Hit the Pause button. The print heads will move to their home position.
3. Use the arrow buttons to move the print head to the desired zero position (the center button speeds up motion). This is what the printer will consider to be the lower left corner of the build tray that you set up in Insight.
4. Pick a starting point that has enough room in both axes for your model(s), and that has enough clean foam for the entire model.
5. Press Z-Axis to control the z-axis with the up and down arrows. Lower the tip slowly until it is just barely above the foam.
6. Press Pause again.

Removing the model and cleaning

1. Unless you are about to start another print job, lower the temperatures to their standby values.
2. Use some sort of flat blade to separate the parts from the foam (the wide spatula from the Objet machine should work). If you can manage to not disturb the foam too much, you may be able to build another part on the same piece of foam.
3. Use knives, picks, etc. to clean the support material off. Be careful to not cut yourself during this process.