Interested in building a RepRap, have machine shop access

Hello everyone!

I found this project on the Fab@Home site and thought this looked a lot more like I wanted and a lot cheaper. I am a Mechanical Engineering student currently working at a small military prototyping company. We have a full machine shop with CNC and a waterjet. I am also a RC hobbyist in my spare time and a Linux user using Ubuntu as my main system.

I was wondering how fast and accurately these can make parts and if they would be good enough grade for RC models. My main dream would be to be able not only to make a few RC parts but a whole model with this.

I am very interested in building a RepRap and I would like some help. Does anyone have a full list of off the shelf parts with prices and links to buy the parts? And a good list of the custom parts with SolidWorks or similar models. I'd like to order all the electronics and such right away and then look into making the rest of the parts. I already have a great 12v 10amp power supply for my chargers so that would be a non issue. And I am running Ubuntu on both my Desktop and laptop which both have serial ports so again another non issue. Plus I can solder pretty good and understand basic electronics so that shouldn't be too challenging.

As far as the custom parts go, Obviously you want to make then with the RepRap which is awesome, but not currently viable. I can CNC them out of plastic but I would prefer to use aluminum and to waterjet them. How much of the parts can be reduced to 2D profiles of any thickness for the majority or any part of them? And how much milling or CNC would I need for the rest?

I am looking to make the custom parts at our shop out of 6061 aluminum as cheaply and easily as possible.I would also be happy to make batches of parts an sell them at very good prices to the community. My company may even be interested in being a supplier of parts.

Thanks and looking forward to a response and getting into this!

teh BOM is here.


for the robot
[www.reprap.org]

with a list of the stl files underneath

For the extruder
[www.reprap.org]

not suree where the stl files are for this.

That is exactly what I wnat to use it for rc modeling. At the moment it is not precise enough and the print area isn't big enough. However this can be over come with gearing the motors down and such like. I would say it's def possible with a few tweaks (software depending). You probably could do it at the moment but you would need to sand the outside down.


But then, I haven't got a machine so I'm just going by pictures and videos.

.STL files are in subversion. See my thread earlier asking where they were

Also if you have access to all this cnc mills. I know theres a few of us who would be very interested if you could machine the parts for us.

You can find the model file for the parts here:
[sourceforge.net]

You want to download the file 'Darwin-STLs'.

From looking at the object files, I'm not sure if some of them can be done with a milling machine exactly as they are, since they have internal spaces larger than the holes to access them (for internal nuts and such). To get an example of what I am talking about, look carefully at inside of the models for the corner brackets or the diagonal tie brackets. You will probably have to make a few modifications to those parts to get them millable, or come up with alternate parts.

Please feel free to post with your progress once you get started - I'm sure a number of people would be interested in finding out how to make a millable version.

-Eric M.

fantastic!

i know that the darwin parts were designed to be made through an additive process, so it might be a bit tricky to do them in a machine shop. i do know that it is possible. i know in the builders blog, a few people have created them out of MDF, so i would imagine if you apply some creativity to the problem you can definitely make the parts.

on the supply side that is fantastic news. i can think of a few different parts that would be very nice to get machined, notably the metal parts for the extruder. the rest of the project is designed to be able to be printed by the machine, so ideally the only machining you'd have to do is on those. there are 4 major items: the extruder barrel, extruder nozzle, drive rod, and half-bearings. if you check out the extruder page, you can find all the info you need.