Engineering drawings of RepRap parts

Hello everyone,

I'm sorry for the very basic question, but I'm a newbie, and I spend few days trying to solve the problem.

I'm trying to build a RepRap mechanics. As long as I want to order the things from a workshop, I need something like engineering drawings with all dimensions of the RepRap parts.

Can you please tell me, how can I get engineering drawings of all necessary mechanical parts for my first RepRap Darwin? I've found and downloaded .stl files of everything, however, I have no idea how to determine dimensions of an object. I've tried to look in AOI files, but also I found graphical representation only, without any technical information, necessary to create the part.

Is there any way to export 3D objects into classical 2D images (front, horizontal, vertical), with the dimensions in mm (or in).

Thank you very much for your answer.

Sergii

What do you want the dimensions for?

Not nice, Forest... ;-)

I think I can help you out with part of that...I posted the millable extruder pieces here
[forums.reprap.org]
There are no guanrantees as to accuracy of my drawings so take what you can get. They have been milled--mostly as they are--and work so you should be okay as long as you proceed carefully.

Demented

Demented Chihuahua Wrote:
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> Not nice, Forest... ;-)>
>
I've seen this over and over. People come on-board and immediately ask for measured drawings. My question is, what are you intending to use them for? You want to frame them and put them in your den? You use STL's to generate print instructions or milling instructions.

>You use STL's to generate print instructions or milling instructions

Not if your trying to give the information to a machine shop you don't.

On the original question somewhere in sourceforge there are Solidedge drawings of the early version of Darwin, most parts are still current. The biggest problem is many of the parts can't be milled ar in fact made by any method other than 3D printing due to the internal voids (thay can't even be injection moulded!). That been said most parts can be modified to allow machining but at this point you are creating your own drawing anyway.

Hope this helps.

---

Ian
[www.bitsfrombytes.com]

Machine shop? Why on Earth would someone want to cut these parts in a machine shop? Even with shipping it's much more cost effective to buy a laser-cut kit from you or Vik.

then that would be a better response

@Sergii

I agree with Forrest on this. you really shouldn't try to make a Darwin with traditional manufacturing techniques.

I suggest you either try to build a RepStrap, which is a sort of improvised Darwin from parts you can easily get.

Or....

you could buy a kit from [www.bitsfrombytes.com]

-Leav

Thanks to everybody for the answers.

To Forrest:

The price of the kit (380 Lb) is not a nice price for a poor student from former soviet union. It is my 2month stipendium. Even the price for only laser cut kit is extremely high.

From the other side, it is very chip to order whatever you need from the technician of university. It will cost 2-3 bottles of vodka. I'm serious. So here to use machine shop is much-much-much more effective.

Also I have an access to a nice mechanical workshop, where I can make some of the parts.

For doing this I will of course need an engineering drawing.

I'm not telling of course that to order the kit from GB will last more than month.

Your "traditional" technology of laser cut is the very far future here, nobody knows much about this.

That's an interesting switch around from what most of us are used to, Sergii. Good luck with that.

Demented

Sergii Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> The price of the kit (380 Lb) is not a nice price
> for a poor student from former soviet union. It is
> my 2month stipendium. Even the price for only
> laser cut kit is extremely high.
>
> From the other side, it is very chip to order
> whatever you need from the technician of
> university. It will cost 2-3 bottles of vodka. I'm
> serious. So here to use machine shop is
> much-much-much more effective.
>
> Also I have an access to a nice mechanical
> workshop, where I can make some of the parts.
>
> For doing this I will of course need an
> engineering drawing.
>
> I'm not telling of course that to order the kit
> from GB will last more than month.
>
> Your "traditional" technology of laser cut is the
> very far future here, nobody knows much about
> this.
>
Ah! I wish you'd said all that at the beginning. Now, I understand your situation.

Okay, what kind of equipment have you got in your machine shop? Do you have anything like a numerically controlled (CNC) milling machine? That's not critical, mind, but it would be helpful.

If you do, you can take the approach that Nophead has, which is to use a CNC milling machine to cut the parts to make an extruder and then mount the extruder on the milling machine and print the rest of the parts.

Stepping back for a moment. It seems to me that your biggest problem in Russia (I'm assuming you are in the Russian Federation) will be getting plastic filament. This stuff is 3 mm plastic welding rod. The best is ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), though high density polyethylene (HDPE) can, I think, be made to work.

Failing that, can you get sheet HDPE? My Reprap machine is being used to mill that instead of extruding.

Tell us more!

Thank you for understanding. I didn't tell it from the beginning because I am not professional in mechanical operations.

In my machine shop I have basic instruments (drill, electrical saw etc.), no milling machine. I can have access to the manual milling machine, but no CNC. I thought to make some parts from alluminium, wood and PE (or other plastic, possible teflon).

As I understand, my idea of making parts in "very traditional" way is a bit wrong.
Probably I need to contact some good people which already build their RepRap and which could be so kind to supply me with some spare parts. For other parts I'll collect information step by step and ask the questions in the proper forums.

To the point, I'm not from Russia. but from Ukraine, working now in Czech Republic (making my PhD). Me with my brother are building RepRaps in CR and Ukraine.
I am chemist working with organic semiconductors, and my brother is a programmer.
I work in the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry of the Czech Republic, so I have an access to any kind of polymers. Moreover, our department works with organic FET, diodes, solar cells and gas sensors. That's the reason why I decided to make RepRap.

Sergii

oh boy, get a quote on ptfe (teflon) first, that is pretty expensive stuff,
and is only needed for the extruder (just because PE would melt).
So best thing is to go with HDPE that's not as expensive as ptfe and much easier to drill than aluminium.

at least in my opinion

'sid

You have everything you need to (painfully) make a reprap from raw material. Mostly I'd suggest you use aluminum for the extruder as I've had good luck with that. Plastic works fine for the body but I haven't ever gotten it to mill as nicely as aluminum or steel.

I'd suggest getting the extruder done first and then see about one of the RepStrap cartesian bots. Could be you can put something fairly reasonable together to get yoruself up and 'Strapping.

Good luck!

Demented

Sergii Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> To the point, I'm not from Russia. but from
> Ukraine, working now in Czech Republic (making my
> PhD). Me with my brother are building RepRaps in
> CR and Ukraine.
>
Ukraine! My current landlord if from Ukraine. Interesting! I may be moving to Prague after the New Year. It would be really nice to have somebody I knew in the CR.
>

I don't know why no-ones suggested wood, I built my reprap out of bits of wood I had lying around, and managed to follow the darwin design almost completely. I also managed to make it without any advanced tools, pretty much just a saw, a pillar drill and a sanding belt. (The extruder I bought from bitsfrombytes only because I verestimated how difficult it would have been to make. Here are some photos:

[picasaweb.google.com]#

I found the dimensions on various parts of the reprap site after a bit of hunting, I could send you a pdf with most of the part designs if you wanted? I don't know why people are saying making a darwin manually is difficult, I managed to make all the wooden parts in 10-15 hours or so and I'm just 16. A hint though, some of the part details are redundant. For example, the 8 corner blocks are all identical and so have more holes than necessary. Make sure you don't do unneccessary work. Good luck, Jame

---

My reprap: [picasaweb.google.com]

James,

That looks like some customer electronics, but fairly bog-standard opto endstops and the sangino board. Why did you go with custom electronics for some parts and not for others?

---

--
I'm building it with Baling Wire

James, the cartesian bot isn't the hard part by any means. You can throw together a McWire bot in a day with only a hacksaw and a cordless drill. The hard part is the part you bought--the extruder. He can't buy one of those. He has to make it.

By the way, your machine looks great! Look forward to seeing your first prints.

Demented

John,

That picture was a fortnight ago, so some things have changed, I'm now using a normal arduino, one rrrf stepper driver, one breadboarded driver, and one I soldered on to stripboard. I went with the standard opto-endstops because the rrrf kit was about 10p more per endstop than I could find the ir bit itself. The rrrf stepper driver and the arduino instead of the sanguino is because I had a horrible problem with the usb ground on my laptop being at about -19v in relation to my bench psu ground, which fried the sanguino and one stepper driver. The rrrf was simply the quickest way to get new parts. At some point I should really tidy up the wiring, but it works perfectly for the moment.

Nice RepRap, James! You've used parts that are available everywhere! Great idea to use chains instead of toothed belt, which I have no idea how to get in Ukraine. I thought also to make some parts from wood, but was not sure it is a good idea.

james glanville Wrote:
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> I found the dimensions on various parts of the
> reprap site after a bit of hunting,

I thought it is possible to do that, but I was not sure if there is an easier way .

> I could send
> you a pdf with most of the part designs if you
> wanted?

Yes! It would be great if you'll send me your part designs. Send it please to my e-mail. It is s.pochekailov( -- at -- )gmail.com

Thank you very much in advance,
Sergii

Forrest Higgs Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sergii Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> > To the point, I'm not from Russia. but from
> > Ukraine, working now in Czech Republic (making
> my
> > PhD). Me with my brother are building RepRaps
> in
> > CR and Ukraine.
> >
> Ukraine! My current landlord if from Ukraine.
> Interesting! I may be moving to Prague after
> the New Year. It would be really nice to have
> somebody I knew in the CR.
> >

Forrest, it will be great pleasure for me to meet you here. Please, if you'll go to Prague (or to another city of Czech), write me on e-mail s.pochekailov( -- at -- )gmail.com. I hope at that time I'll have my reprap working .

You might want to try using PVC bar stock for the corner blocks or better yet aluminum. I used oak and they have split a little.. I did buy some PVC stock to try.

Good luck and I can help with drawings and ideas..


Bruce