Mechanical Failures with plastic parts - venting session?

Hello All,

Just a conclusion I'm coming to after all the hours I've put into my plastic huxley thus far. This is taking too long to fiddle with all the plastic parts because they are not capable of being used in this type of machine.

The heat makes the x-carriage bend too much.
The gears need to be permanently glued onto the motor axles
a lot of working on skeinforge to make it work properly or even close
A LOT of different trials with hot-tips.

I think I'll give the project 3-4 more years till maturity then come back to see advances since I cannot put in that much time into it. I really appreciate everyone's efforts in the project. I think I might just purchase an UP!

Anyone have any other suggestions in purchasing a 3D printer?

I would strongly recommend that you get in touch with someone or a group in your area. I haven't built a Huxley, so I can't say for sure. But the Mendel design works and it works now. There are a lot of people, including me, that have been productive with the current design. It's not perfect but it's impressive on how well it works. This forum is a very effective resource and a great avenue to seek help, but it's not as good as direct interaction with an experienced reprapper. There are many things that can't be explained in words and pictures alone.

If your motors are getting too hot to soften the plastic, then you probably have the trimpot on the stepper controller turned up too high. If you have to turn it up that high in order to move the extruder or axis, then you probably have a mechanical problem that needs to be fixed first.

Skeinforge is not really all that complicated. Don't let the number of parameters scare you. Focus on the important ones that people on this forum has pointed out. The documentation that it came with is not great, but it's sufficient to get some understanding of what most of the settings do to make the sw work.

Thanks Brnrd. The motor temps are fine. I believe its the heat from the hot-tip which is slowly bending my x-carriage. I need to purchase a fan.

I will look into skienforge perimeters more. I read throguh the whole guide and made settings as I thought best.

Which are the most important ones?

Thanks for the encouragement. I am the only one within 3 hours driving radius who has a reprap. I think I just need to pull away from the project right now to deal with other goals in life right now.