CerealBot

#Serial printing multiple prints on a 3D printer unattended

You know how you can send any number of print jobs to a remote inkjet or laser printer and it will print them out until it runs out of ink or paper without anyone standing there next to it? What if we could do that with a 3D printer? The idea is simple: right now it takes a person with a spatula to scrape the part off the build plate then manually start the next print. This Cereal Bot (Serial bot!) would do something like flex the print bed or cool and heat the print bed until the part unsticks itself, then the print head itself could push the now loose part(s) off the print bed into a bin next to the printer where people can pick up their printed objects later. We could then let people remotely send STL files or whatever format the computer needs to the printer remotely then come in later that day or even the next day and pick up their printed things.

#Parts and pieces

So, really you need:
- A hotbed
- A glass plate
- An inductive Z sensor ($6)
- A servo
- Raspberry Pi 2 (to run Octoprint)

#Notes

This idea was stolen from the same project going on at Makers Local 256 in Huntsville AL.
The code can be found here: cerealbox on Ctag’s Github