RepRap
Check out the progress of our reprap build.
Help Support the Cube Spawn Project.
cgantt — Mon, 02/01/2010 - 13:19
Its no secret that we are huge fans of anything and everything open source. The Cube Spawn project is one of our favorite open source projects on the net and right now they are in a close race for $25k in funding and need your help to win the race. All you have to do is visit this url ( http://www.refresheverything.com/cubespawn1 ) and vote for their project. Once you finish that you might also like to check out their Kickstarter page where you can help fund the project with small to large donations..... more after the jump
RepRap V2 is almost here.
cgantt — Mon, 11/23/2009 - 14:10
It’s almost here... That’s right the RepRap project is close to officially releasing RepRap Version 2 Mendel. Its kinda sad to see the Darwin design go but the improvements that come with the Mendel design more than make up for the cool looks of the Darwin. Mendel sports a larger print surface as well improvements in the plastic extruder and print quality. Keep reading after the jump.
We lucked out and found these NEMA 17 1.8degree bipolor steppers on ebay for $6 each. We wound up buying a total of 7 of these. 4 will be used to drive our McWire. What makes them really cool is that they have splined shafts. This makes using them to drive the pinch wheel plastistruder easy. These were brand new old stock....read more after the jump....
Time for another build update. I finaly got around to cutting out the new x stage plexi from the technical drawing I posted earlier. The jigsaw I used was a little on the old side of things and it did not do the job I would have liked. Oh well the plexy just has to hold parts in place. Nothing says it has to be pretty right?....more after the jump...
Over the weekend I got the chance to sit down and do a proper technical drawing of the X stage. This should help out those of you who chose to cut out your own stages for your McWire....Read more after the jump....
Well it seems we have hit a wall head on with the pedal on the floor. The reprap project recommends printing out the design of the x,y,z stages and gluing it to the plexi and using that as a cutting / drilling guide. The alternative is to buy the laser cut parts for about $100. It's literally $10 worth of plexi scrap from your local glass shop and straight cuts...... Read more after the jump.....
McWire Parts part 2. Bearings!
cgantt — Mon, 06/15/2009 - 15:00
The 608 sized skate bearings finally arrived. The silver shielded ones were ordered from VXB Bearings 20 for $13. They spin freely seem to be high quality. The rubber shielded ones came from a local bike shop. We bought their whole supply for $5. (12 bearings)......read more after the jump..
Well its time for another McWire update. I am still waiting on the 608 skate bearings I ordered from VBX bearings to arrive. I am also waiting on the stepper motors to arrive and for the Gen 3 electronic kits to come back instock at makerbot. Other than that and the plastic ectruder parts we have everything we need to build the McWire. Today I partialy got the X stage build.... read more after the break..
Over the weekend we got the chance to start the McWire build. After sorting through all of the documents and photos online of various McWire builds, none of the measurements seemed to match up from build to build. To further complicate this problem no one seemed to post or have any technical drawing of hole placements, critical measurements, or even non critical measurements. What I did find was drawings meant to be printed on sticker sheet and then placed on the various materials used in the build. The sheets were mainly hole locations...... Read more after the jump.
McWire Parts pt. 1
cgantt — Fri, 06/05/2009 - 20:04
We have began accumulating the parts we need to build our McWire. We ordered most of the mechanical parts and fasteners from McMaster-Carr. They were by far the cheapest source for the parts out of all the places we checked including the 2 major home centers. We got most of the stuff needed to build the support structure, xyz stages, and the drive system for under $100usd. A scan of the invoice including part numbers and prices can be found here. Continue reading after the break...
