3D Printer Tools for Maintenance & Hands-on Troubleshooting

Funded Dec 24, 2024

Anyone who has used a 3D printer understands that these platforms require a LOT of hands-on troubleshooting. Bed alignment goes out, extruders stop extruding, motors and heaters fail...of course this is precisely why we use them in our Mechatronics program at Forest Grove High School to teach hands-on troubleshooting of mechanical and electrical systems!

The tools purchased by our donors are extremely useful in supporting the hands-on learning we focus on in Mechatronics classes. We've been using the putty knives for removing prints from print beds, the set of small files for post-processing parts, and the assortment of wire brushes for cleaning hot ends and extruders. The nozzle cleaning tools with varying sizes are incredibly helpful; my students had to unclog one nozzle 3 or 4 times before we realized it was reclogging each time it did a nozzle wipe, and we previously had just a single 0.4 mm needle (you can image the state of that poor nozzle cleaner after >20 high school students used it to unclog hot ends!). We have a lot of different printers with different nozzle diameters, so it was also great to have both 0.4 mm and 0.5 mm cleaning needles to fit our most commonly used hot ends. We bought some smaller 0.2 and 0.3 mm hot ends to try in the future, and now we also have cleaning needles for those sizes too.

One very important addition to our lab is the filament dryer. A previous teacher built a wall rack for PLA filament, but unfortunately they unpackaged everything and left about 30 PLA spools on the wall for multiple years exposed to the humid Oregon air. It has been invaluable to be able to dry out the spools and eliminate humidity as a possible cause of print failures, and the tool we received makes this straightforward for my students.

An amazing project my colleague does in her Mechatronics Processes class has students complete a soldering kit to make a buzzer circuit, then the students use SOLIDWORKS CAD to design and model an enclosure that they 3D print in PLA and install the the buzzer circuit and battery to create a real product. Students are using all of their Mechatronics learning, and during the 3D printing of enclosures they used many of the new tools and equipment provided by our generous donors. It really does mean a lot to our students to know that there are people out in the world willing to support their technical learning in this way. We are so grateful for all of your support at FG Mech!”

With gratitude,

Mr. McNeil