Skills gained from building a RepRap - Your thoughts please.

Hi,

I hope all on the forum are well.

Would you be able to let me know your thoughts on the following...

I am very close to completing a RepRap Mendel (Just need to get some SF41 settings fine tuned) and would like to know if the skills gained whilst building one would allow me to get a foot in the door to begin an apprenticeship/entry level engineering role. I have no engineering qualifications but would like to start a role in the sector. My biggest fear is that by saying i've built one, without any relevant qualifications/experience to back it up, i'd be laughed out of the interview room (if they let me in there in the first place).

Thanks,

Raj

I posted a complete set of my own SF41 settings in this thread Here

I would put it on your CV under interests and expand on the subject if they ask you what it is. Personally to me it shows you have initiative and commitment as it takes time to build and then calibrate a machine such as a RepRap. I built mine so that I could learn new skills at the age of 43 because I have had to give up my job as a carpenter due to personal injury (not work related).

Good luck

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Experimenting in 3D in New Zealand

I hire and fire so I think I can give you an honest opinion.

After building a rerap start to finish, You have the ability to
-follow instructions
-read basic technical drawings
-at least open and manipulate stl files, and in most cases repair stl files
-edit,compile and program Arduino source code
-you have troubleshooting skills
-experience material sourcing. (unless you bought a full kit)
-You can easily learn new software

your definitly a "shoe in" for apprenticeship or technician in small to medium size companies where your abilities out weigh your formal education, Engineering jobs these days usually require a complete skill set in a specific subject.

Thomas Edison had very little formal education and look at what he accomplished. Interesting bio to read.

Where you can gain valuable experience is by using your printer, at this point your one of the few in the world with your very own 3D printer.

Now my advice.....Pick the industry that you would like to work in and start designing stuff .....and printing them of course. From here you can put on your resume that you like to design and build prototypes. 99% sure your going to get a few questions on that.

Being able to design something then make it into a tangible item is true engineering skill that gets you hired.

CdnRepRap's advice is good; I'd just add that you could also bring photographs of the printer, and tangible printed parts in with you to an interview. One of the ways I got hired for my first internship was by bringing photos of a little Stirling engine I'd built. I'm not sure that's what did it but they asked me questions about that project, and as a second-year university student my formal education was pretty minimal, so I think they were most interested in my interests, work ethic, and project skills.

Just wanted to add that I've seen people with engineering degrees hired as testers / technicians so landing a job like that isn't anything to be too upset about. While you have that position I would find out if they're willing to pay for school (even partially) or work with you so you can take classes part time. Ive know a lot of engineers who did things like that for MBAs but don't know for sure if that also goes for technicians getting engineering degrees. Although the engineers going to school full time were easy targets when jobs needed to be cut so you might need to wait for economic conditions to change.

I would add (take only those that apply, of course):

BOM Preparation
Procurement
Improvisation
An eye for detail
Communication Skills (This include verbal, written, illustrated)
Work under minimal supervision

Make sure to list your skills from strongest down, and avoid listing any in which you are not completely confident. That will help avoid those awkward moments. Good luck!

I wouldn't want to add this to my "skills" I would mention that only verbally in "what I do and hobbies"...

To be worth a specific mention you would have to made a major contribution to the project, developed your own machine or similar...
People like Prusajr probably could do that... imho the contribution should be pretty substantial to be recognized as a qualification.

Skills!
Patients. But I already had that.
Frustration.
Obsesion.
Staring.
Fume Tolerance.
Experimenting.
Problem solving by systematic elimination. But I have always done that.
Dedication.
Tea and biscuits.

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Make your Mendel twice as accurate.
[www.thingiverse.com]

Besides the good advise from above... you should also have an answer the question that will be asked: "...now that you built the machine what do you plan to do with it?".

Probably no employer would actually appreciate this, but making a mendel print well is a real skill. Any mug can assemble one, but it takes good problem solving skills to be able to recognise the cause of quality issues with your printing and come up with solutions to correct them.

If I was interviewing someone who had reprap on their CV (and although I do interview people on occasion, I think that the chance of that actually happening is vanishingly small), I would be very interested not in the fact that they had built one, but in how they had gone about improving their print quality. Because that demonstrates true multidiciplinary problem solving which is gold in the engineering discipline.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the feedback. It's good to read others thoughts on this.

I would agree that there is a lot of skill required to get mechanical/software components configured to get good prints. I don't think any mug could build one though. Putting a printer together wasn't like putting together some flat pack furniture. That said, I'm not trying to suggest it was the hardest thing on the planet either, it was just something which had to be completed before I could move to the next stage and begin learning about something else.

I think the best thing (and worst thing) about building a Mendel is that you learn by doing and personal experience. By that I mean that people encounter different problems at different stages of the build and come up with a solution in order to continue.

I have tried to print using the settings outlined by NelsonRap (many thanks!) and have managed to print a 20mm test cube. I'm now tweaking these settings in order to get a better quality print. Time for some staring, experimenting, problem solving and maybe a cup of tea too .

Thanks again to everyone on the forum.

Raj

Patience!

Bring a nice print of the big gear on Adrians extruder with you. I guarantee nobody will laugh AT you when you tell them "I made that, and I can make endless more".

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-Nudel
Blog with RepRap Comic