3D printed chopper?

[ironlichen]

Hello, first time posting.

I'm in an engineering program at my high school and have access to a 3D printer. I made a chopper in autodesk inventor and am going to make the housing on a later date. My main concern in that the printer prints parts with a rough finish similar to that of a plastic storage container lid. Also, to save plastic, instead of printing solid parts, the printer uses a honeycomb structure on the inside.

I don't want to have to repeatedly test designs through multiple printings, as our teacher charges us for the plastic used printing stuff unrelated to class. Is there anyway I could post the CAD files for someone to look it over for me?

And if 3D printing doesn't work, has anyone had experience with the online cnc machining services?

Edit: noticed the file attachment feature and added the CAD file.

Edit 2: after messing around I've found there is no way to upload the specific file type to this forum, and hiding it as a picture doesn't work either.

Edit 3: Added screencaps

[tridecagon]

I actually had something 3D printed from some website I would have to dig a URL up for. The thing had a rough finish, but there is an option to have it smoothed out for a little extra money. Also, there is an option to either have it hollowed out to save plastic (and money) or you can get it solid-filled for more money. It's a French company and it took about a week to get accepted and printed. But after it shipped, it took like two days to get to my house. It was a little tube (4" long and 1.5" diameter (I think)). But it costed ~$25. The wall of the tube is about as thick as a CD.

[Captain Dynamite]

I myself am looking at 3D printing siren rotors and stators in the future. I heard from my cousin who I talked to recently that a polymer 3D printer would be best for printing siren rotors since it makes one solid object where as a normal 3D printer prints in layers. I not sure where to even begin on how to design the rotor an stators like of a real siren to get the same sound as the big ones make. I'm not at the stage of making any mini sirens yet though so there is not much else I can say.

[tridecagon]

<snip>

2nd edit: after messing around I've found there is no way to upload the specific file type to this forum, and hiding it as a picture doesn't work either.

Did you try uploading it in a zip file? I'm going to attempt to upload an image of one I just designed. The fan disc is 2.5" in radius, to give a sense of scale. Those holes in the stater are one inch in height. The ZIP file contains the DWG for AutoCAD.

[ironlichen]

Funny that I never thought of just screen capping it. By hiding it as a picture I meant changing the ".ipt" extension to an image file extension.

[ironlichen]

Did you try uploading it in a zip file? I'm going to attempt to upload an image of one I just designed. The fan disc is 2.5" in radius, to give a sense of scale. Those holes in the stater are one inch in height. The ZIP file contains the DWG for AutoCAD.

Great idea!