Documenting the printing of the first Mendel..

I will document the Mendel that I am printing so you can see where we are at. This set should be going to the Norman Robotics club. I will post pictures of the parts I print each day so that everyone can see it.

Troy

These are the parts you have already seen.



Bed springs 4 each



Drive pulleys 3 each

I have a jig for splitting belts printed too. More pictures soon. I spent several hours today working on gcode and uploading to machine's SD card.So many prints in the morning.

Troy

Belt jig



had a day printing today PLA does not like to feed like ABS so I was encouraging it by hand and CRACK there goes the retainer ring. So I had to disassemble the extruder, CAD up the replacment laser it and reassemble the extruder.







Ok so it is back together and I did some research to find out how to fix PLA, so it seems that you can give a light coat of oil and it will run better.

So I start to print again and the brass barrel slips out of the PTFE



Hope to be printing tomorrow, I will rebuild the extruder before school.

Cheers
Troy

Ok so I rebuilt the extruder this morning. I had a nut washer and extra PTFE barrel on hand so no worries.



here it is all finished



BUT..........PLA is really pissing me off. My new improved extruder is much better and stronger than the old one and even though I oiled the PLA it is just not going through the extruder like it should. it stays very soft even for a while after it has cooled and I think that it is just basically gumming up the works. So I removed the PLA and went back to ABS which I have not had problems extruding. Seems all my troubles started with PLA.

Now to address the issues that ABS has with warping I had to come up with a solution. Luckily I have a shop, some metal, some nicrome wire and an extra thermosister on hand. I built a heated build platform, I will update firmware and be back to printing in no time.





Thinking of ways to put quick connects on it but should have it figured out by tomorrow.

Cheers
Troy

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2010 08:32PM by troycoon.

Troy, you may want to ping the Heated Bed Working Group and compare notes.
[dev.forums.reprap.org]

Heated platform is all done and the makerbot is extruding correctly again now that I have the PLA out of it. Such a shame I had such high hopes for PLA. Will test the platform tomorrow.



Troy

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2010 08:25PM by troycoon.

Printed a couple of parts before I tried out the heated platform.





There is a little warping but they are serviceable. Next to test heated platform.

Troy

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2010 08:30PM by troycoon.

Tested the heated platform this afternoon. It heats WOOT!!!! but I am tired and keep screwing up prints. Going to take a break and try again in a bit.

Troy

If you want, I can demo on acrylic the friction welding technique on any non warped broken pieces you have. I think it would be interesting to document that process for those who don't have a laser printer to access.

We can do it next meeting, so no rush.

That sound like a great idea. It would be very nice to learn some friction welding. It could come in very handy someday. I wonder could you butt weld two pieces together?

Troy

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2010 07:43PM by troycoon.

yes, I can butt weld and also bridge gaps. Heck, I can also even free form structures with enough patience and some material to start with.

Had a good printing day today, printed for 4.5 hours straight before I ran into any problems. Made 3 good looking frame vertex pieces abou 1.5hrs apiece. Will post pictures tomorrow. I am going to laser a new acrylic platform first thing in the morning and hope to get another 4-5 hrs good printing tomorrow. I also worked on the new as yet unveiled geeksok site. Does anyone know how to create joomla templates? I could use some HTML/css help. I'm using joomla 1.5.15.

Anyway goodnight all
Troy

Picture Woot!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/2010 07:58PM by troycoon.

Z stage is skipping and losing steps. Leveled oiled and readjusted build platform. No quality prints today

Troy

Not good!

Having a good printing day today. Frame Vertexes are all done and working on y-bar- clamps have 5 printed and going to work a couple more hours tonight.I will put up some pictures tomorrow sometime.

Troy

You need to get a Ustream acct and stream some printing just for fun.

That is a good idea. I have a live stream account and can put it on my geeksok TV station.

Troy

Print six hours, tune up Makerbot 6hrs. I had about 6 more hours of successful printing and then the thermosister wire on the heated build platform broke from fatigue. The repetitive back and forth motion I guess. I repaired it and will be back in business today. Here is what I have so far.




We are getting there. There are still some files misnamed in the MendelSTL folder but since I now have pleasent3D and a picture of a complete set of Mendel parts, I have it under control.


Troy

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2010 08:27PM by troycoon.

If you put a list of files you need done, and the settings, I can do it, plus others will know what needs to be done. I have my server up and running now, so if anyone wants to throw some programs on it, let me know.