3D printing in SF bay area

[Nico Bouchard]

Hey guys,

Looking to use a 3D printer to print out some company logo style petri dishes. CAD file is about 6''x6''x1.5''. They'll be used for my middle school class to make time lapses of plants growing and slime moulds slime moulding. Compensation is negotiable. Please email me if you have a printer or know of someone with one!

Cheers!!

[Gordana Ostojic]

Disclaimer: I never used these before, just investigated because I need some 3D printing services. Anyway you can use local library, www.3dhubs.com (finds lcal printer owners) or www.shapeways.com.

One suggestion: 3D printing is expensive for bigger objects, also it not important for most of your petri dish, since only logo is detailed, the rest is plain flat (it's a a tedious waste to do 3D for this). It would be probably wiser to make either one 3D printed cast and then mold the acrilic resin in it so you can make many petri dishes, or maybe just do the same for logo and glue to the dish.

Good luck

[Nathan McCorkle]

I would feel more comfortable from a contamination standpoint using glass petris. You could make a stencil of your logo, and get someone with a sand blaster to etch your glass petri using the stencil.

This is a quick runthrough:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Glass-Etching-with-Sandblasting-and-Acid-Cream/

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-Nathan

[Bryan Jones]

One thing to be careful about: If you plan on pouring hot, molten agar into these petri dishes, that can soften and warp some 3D printer plastics. The typical plastics they use are pretty easy to melt (e.g. PLA has a glass transition state of ~60 C).

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/diybio/CA%2B82U9KTb951RQtmPcdBZrLzTrk1mT67E%2BkQ8nx-5QoC2b%2B85g%40mail.gmail.com.

[Patrik D'haeseleer]

Hi Nico,

We coudl easily do this on our UP printer at BioCurious. ABS only - doesn't work terribly well with PLA. Sudo Room next to CCL has 3D printers too, as well as a laser cutter.

I'm not quite sure I understand what effect you are trying to achieve. Do you want to print a circular insert that will sit on the bottom of the Petri dish, embedded under the agar? Or are you trying to mold the top surface of the agar, so slime molds will follow the patterns left by the mold in the agar?

If you're trying to texture the top of the agar, mold release may be an issue, but you can probably figure out some mold release agent that doesn't disturb growth of your plants or slime molds too much (vegetable oil?). Alternatives to a 3D printed pattern could include a laser cut one, or even a vinyl cut stencil that you float on top of the hot agar and then peel off to leave a shallow imprint.

Sounds like a fun project!

Patrik

[Patrik D'haeseleer]

If you want to float a template to form an imprint on top of the agar, another option would be Ponoko's laser cut silicone rubber:

1.5mm black silicone 

0.5mm clear silicone

Ponoko is a local company, so you can save some time and shipping costs by picking up at their shop in Oakland.

Patrik