Cheap milling setup for making parts

I was looking at how high the bidding was getting on ebay for the set of Mendel parts. It quickly grew too rich for my bank account and I realized that it was approaching the cost of a micro milling machine. It occurred to me that I might just as well buy a mill and make the parts. Then I would also have a mill to convert to CNC later or just sell off to recover costs.

While researching mills I found this milling setup for a drill press:

[www.harborfreight.com]

For only $55(US) I should be able to use this on my drill press to make the parts. Much cheaper than the $500 for a mill. I know that drills are not built to take the side loads that milling generates but this would only be a limited amount of work in plastic so I'm hoping that it will work.

I have downloaded the drawings created by Swighton and Jags to give me the measurements I need.

Anyone have any thoughts on this brilliant plan? Have I come up with a cheap option for those of us seeking parts or am I completely mad?

I have a design-challenge running for someone to design such a table as a printable object.
I even provided a basic XY-setup to start with.
(fully parametric)

[www.bitsfrombytes.com]

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You could make some Mendel parts as-is on a 2.5D mill, but not all. You would end up designing your own jigs for all the angled holes.

There is a design coming that makes all the parts for Mendel easily built on a 2.5D mill. We are still testing it, but it is coming soon.

bfleming, please take a moment to put that up in the wiki when you do it, that will help a lot of people.

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-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

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Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!

Yes, please do. My stopping point and I suspect a lot of first time builders is getting a set of printed or machine parts to start with.

Yes, it is frustrating to be sitting here with some $600 invested in parts but still being unable to build anything. My queries on various forums about RP parts aren't even answered and the only places that advertise the parts are out of stock and have been for months. The weakest point in the whole RepRap philosophy is that people don't seem to actually be willing to print parts for anyone else.

Or is there a community passing parts around that I am just not part of?

Or is there a community passing parts around that I am just not part of?

I think RepRap may have gone viral. I think there's a lot of friends making mendel sets for friends, and in that case, there's no fingerprints on line.

You may or may not have luck with your local RUG, but one issue is just that a well-tuned RepRap takes ~4 days of 16 hour printing in order to make a Mendel. It's not necessarily hard work, but you want to keep an eye on the machine.

So you tend to make them for someone you like. Semi-anonymous RFP (requests for parts) tend to get ignored.

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-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

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Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!

Thanks Sebastian,

That is pretty much the conclusion that I had come to as well. It is actually apparent from various blog and forum posts that parts are getting printed and machines are getting built. It's just that the parts are not yet becoming available to the larger market.

I was amazed to see Adrian's set go for over $600 CAN. It just shows the demand that exists out here. It is really very exciting but it would be more exciting if I was on the other side of the equation with a reprap of any kind up and running.

I will probably have better luck in a few months once the furor dies down. After re-reading my own posts I am also sure that I will be more likely to find someone to help me if I stop sounding like such a whiner :-)

Cheers

There are two more sets of parts on eBay now. I think that now people have seen the price they fetch many more will appear soon.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Anyone have any thoughts on this brilliant plan? Have I come up with a cheap option for those of us seeking parts or am I completely mad?

Also: If you're making a Mendel via a thermoplastic-deposition process, I suggest a well-built RepStrap:
[objects.reprap.org]
or similar.

If you're making things to sell, I suggest Mendel parts.

I don't have time to learn how to use the wiki just yet. But I've got a blog in progress here. Once we have Version 1 done (within days I hope), I'd love for the community to run with it and modify the parts. Any good ideas we'll turn around and update the design and new parts sets will have the new designs included.

If someone here already has electronics for Mendel, and possibly even the rods and bolt, send me a note. I would like to get the first sets into those hands first.

Keep in mind that this was Adrian's auction; not just some random person who printed parts. It's practically a collectors item if it comes from him.

ksmith5135 Wrote:
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> I was amazed to see Adrian's set go for over $600
> CAN. It just shows the demand that exists out
> here. It is really very exciting but it would be
> more exciting if I was on the other side of the
> equation with a reprap of any kind up and
> running.

That is a good point. I actually stayed in the bidding up past $450 for just that reason. Whoever picked them up definitely purchased some bragging rights along with the parts.

I am now following the Fleming brothers blog and looking forward to the publication of your design. It probably represents my best chance of getting a Mendel in the short term.

Great design, by the way. Being belt driven places it well above most of the repstraps out there and really makes it a redesign of the Mendel itself. It looks like there would be a direct upgrade path from your machine to the Mendel with a minimum of wastage, simply replacing machined parts with printed ones if that was even necessary.

ksmith,

That was our plan from the beginning; to keep the Mendel's dimensions so that it is both a Repstrap and Reprap(able). Each piece was redesigned to be both machinable and printable.

We also tried to simplify it along the way, so far we are down from the original 95 RP parts to roughly 45 RP (wood/plastic/???). It may go back up a few parts this weekend.

Thanks for watching us! Hopefully we'll have the last of the part changes cut out this weekend for our second iteration. If all goes well we may start offering kits by next week; and the design files to go with it for those who have access to their own CNC machines.

I don't have time to learn how to use the wiki just yet. But I've got a blog in progress here.

The best way to help RepRap is to push documentation straight into the wiki ... It may be best to spend a few minutes getting in to that. Just log in and click 'edit'.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2010 08:05PM by SebastienBailard.

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-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

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Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!