Day 330: I’m teaching this week!

I love mass effect, so I really thought this was a perfect header image for the post since I am… assuming control!

Well I mentioned it a few days ago, but it’s day one of four today. I’m teaching three courses on solid modeling and one on 3D printing * Shakes fist at 3D printer who keeps giving me problems * and I figure I can talk about how my classes go after the fact, but let’s talk about my prep for these classes so my students get the most out of what I have to teach them.

While the 3D printing course is going to be a super high level overview of the entire field of 3D printing, with particular emphasis on our use cases (some industry, but mostly research applications). I’ve put together some slides, printed some demo parts to teach everyone why 3D printing is a headache, and I’ve got my printer running now on my super long print (5-ish days) so I have something to show them in action when class starts.

Problem is, my print keeps failing! I had to pull it off this morning after it curled, I’m working with a new print material and it’s proving to be unruly. It’s esun abs+ the + means it’s a composite made up mostly of abs, but the added material that makes it a composite is supposed to keep it from warping. Supposed to… as in it’s not. In fact, I am starting to regret not printing in straight abs at this point since I’ve been quite successful in the past with it.

Oh well, that’s what I get for trying to find a good white for my print, the abs I was going to use would’ve come out a yellowish white and so I bought this instead. In any case, I’ve lowered the hotend temperature and double checked my extrusion rate so hopefully everything is working again, I’m a few hours in, but I won’t know for another 3-5 hours how it’s doing.

But enough about my 3D printer headaches, back to my other classes!

Normally I like to do things on the fly in solid modeling. That’s how I’m teaching my class to all of you, in the Solid modeling for beginners category. However, there isn’t really a lot of time for that, so instead I’m going to use the course I’ve made here as a template so I can just point my class this direction when I’m done so they have a reference. Actually, we probably won’t get as far as I’ve already gotten with my online notes, but that’s fine they will have other things to check out beyond the scope of my little intro course. Plus I still have at least 5 more weeks of solid modeling notes to write since I promised you all 10-12 weeks of courses and we’re only on week 5.

So basically I’m planning on updating my progress with my classes as they happen, so tomorrow you’ll get to hear how today’s course went and if I plan to make any changes going forward. It’s going to be a busy week, but I really enjoy teaching. I love getting to see people learn new things and with a little luck, become interested in some of the things I’m interested in. I mean, I do love solid modeling and 3D printing, even if they are both headaches sometimes.