Recently, Jim has purchased a Makerbot 2x printer for our group. I’ve spent the last few weeks printing and debugging. It has the capability to print many different types of material, along with 2 separate nozzles. I have been able to get many fine prints done with ABS plastic, and I’ve put together a basic guide that will allow people to run the machine (n = Tejas), printing out previously designed builds. I am currently working on other parts of the guide that will describe how to design and slice up models for printing, how to finish parts, and how to weld printed pieces together.
Our Shiny new machine,…missing its lid. I’m told that it is on the way by Top Men. Top Men.
The neatly trimmed ABS plastic, ready for insertion into the extruder. It’s not transparent, unlike PLA.
Replicator 2x has 2 extruders! We can print in multiple colors/materials. Dissolvable scaffolds, 2 tone prints are both possible!
Nozzle extruding a thin line of plastic.
It’s really important to wipe down the build plate with Acetone (ABS dissolves in acetone) to make sure the prints stick. Otherwise, you may have wasted 3 hours for nothing.
Beginning a print. The nozzle purges it’s initial volume of ABS in a line on the front of the build plate..
And we are printing (in this case a bracelet)
Other larger pieces can be printed simultaneously. Here is a spin cup designed by Meghan.
Joining pieces together can be done using a hot glue gun (akin to resin) or ABS slurry (akin to welding). Each have their pros and cons.
Joined with hot glue. It’s water tight!.
We will be able to print PLA and dissolvable filaments in this printer as well, but I haven’t determined the best settings for these yet.
We still need help with NanoDays http://doodle.com/paq66krxtf7mt6tk There are two time slots: 10:45am-2pm 1:45-4pm Please wear your I Love Nano shirts from last year. I have a couple more size Medium and one size Small. The Rochester Museum & Science Center is on the corner of Goodman and East Ave.
For last many months, I am working on neutrophil migration experiments to develop protocols to inhibit them from traversing the basement membrane. My previous blogs are here and here. I want to prevent neutrophils from crossing the endothelial basement membrane (BM), and record the changes in TEER and try to correlate with the gain in…
This paper (SiN paper) by Ulrich Rant et. Al. details several experiments conducted with a single pore drilled through a SiN membrane via TEM. They measure the relationship of pH vs. zetapotential for both a model protein (avidin) and their membrane, and then see how protein moves across the membrane at different pH’s. Translocation is…
I talked with Jim last Friday about a second possible dialysis system using PDMS bound to a glass cover slip. I made a batch of PDMS and let it cure at room temperature over the past few days. Jim had suggested I try bonding the PDMS to a glass cover slip using the UV/Ozone system…
After our meeting with Professor Dumont on Tuesday it was decided that we needed to try and perform the BSA/DDM seperation with a more porous membrane (to allow for eventual pressurization). SC256 was choosen and as an initial step I ran a simple small dye diffusion experiment to verify that the pores were open. As…
Cancer cell metastasis is responsible for 80 percent of cancer-related death. The metastatic cells migrate through tight constricting spaces, therefore constricted migration and its enabling mechanisms have received a lot of attentions in recent years. The most famous research groups that are working in this field are Lammerding group, Discher group, Wolf and Friedl group,…
