Hello Toronto Group!

Hey there,

I'm based out of London Ontario (2 hours away), and you guys seem to be the closest Canadian group in the area. Are you guys/gals still actively playing with your RepRaps?

I (we, as my friend and I are building up a RepRap together) are looking for people to talk to about anything that may come up in our build. Also we are looking for anyone who can print off the extruder parts (I was directed here through another post).

We are getting together tonight to build up a Mendel (in RepStrap fashion, out of ply wood) and don't foresee any issues with the build. We are confident we can cobble together everything but the extruder bits.

If anyone can help us out please let me know ( I am following this thread).

Thanks a bunch!

P.S. Just FYI, we're both Engineering Technologists, so you needn't worry about having to hold our hands.

Hi Adam,

I currently have a working RepRap Darwin (Bits from Bytes v3) in my workshop in the GTA. I teach at UWO, however, and am planning to build two MakerBot machines with some students this coming spring. When we get up and running, you are welcome to visit my lab in London. Contact me via my faculty page:

[history.uwo.ca]

Best,
Bill

Bill,

That sounds great, I'm at UWO all the time .

We've pretty much finished our Mendel made from Plywood (we're just waiting on Nichrome wire and filament) but hope to get a printed Mendel up soon after we get printing material.

Cool. Do you have photos of your plywood Mendel online anywhere?

Oh, I had a blog, but had to send my laptop to my brother (He's still in university and his got stolen). I'll try to update the blog sometime today.

My blog is here:

http://adamsblog-reprapbuildup.blogspot.com

Does anyone in the London or the GTA have PLA filament for sale?

> ./hello_world

My name is Rob and I am building my first Mendel at Hacklab.TO. I am also upgrading the Hacklab's cupcake CNC with a heated build platform and themocouple.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2009 04:44AM by theOtherRob.

Hey Rob,

What do you guys do at your 'unpatched tuesdays'?

Hey Rob, I will be interested to see your MakerBot build platform when you finish. I am building two MakerBots with students this coming spring. I also have a Darwin RepRap which I am currently using to print the parts for a Mendel. Let me know if you have trouble finding a supplier for something. Bill

Hey all, I am a industrial design student in toronto and I really wanted to make my

self a reprap machine. I do have access to the school's machine but the line up and

and cost for is high and I also like have my own so I can print out my designs. I

have no background in robotics so I don't know how to start this project. I know

there are ready made kits but I want to get the cost down as much as possible ( plus need a project for the winter break).

can anyone tell me how to start this project .
thanks

Moe,

The best way to start with this is to make a RepStrap (like the McWire bot). If electronics aren't your thing its usually recommended that you get all the electronics and the program on your computer and get that working first.

That link above should have all the info to get this bad boy running.

Hope this helps.

Adam

Yea my electronics are not my strongest skills. thanks for the link although it made

me a bit more confused. Is this for practice only or I can use this to build the

Mendel model? also what do you mean by all the electronics and the program ? I

downloaded the program ( reprap for windows ). is that the one you are referring to ?
As far as the electronic do you mean the circuit boards already made on websites like makerbot.com ?

Thanks for the link,

Yeah. You can either buy the pre-fabricated boards or make them yourself. It's much easier to buy the pre-fabricated ones if your electronics are weak (But it would be a good learning experience if you made the circuits yourself).

Once you have the software working on your computer get the electronics (with the motors and all that good stuff) working. Just let the motors happily spin away on your table.

Then go onto the mechanical build (the "easiest" part).

The electronics are the compatible for the repstrap and the reprap (the repstrap is just easier to build mechanically). So build a repstrap, when it is working use it to print off some mendel parts, then make you mendel and use the electronics from the repstrap on the mendle.

I am in the final stages of my repstrap build, and will soon be printing off my mendel .

Adam,

Thanks for the advice. I'll start the project tomorrow ( buying the electronics). by

any chance did you buy any of the parts in toronto and if not, did you get them for a cheap price ?

If I wanted to make circuits my self is there somewhere on the web I can get how I can make one ?

finally, I have access to a laser cut and 3d printer in school. would it be easier if I print everything and make the mendel from begining ?

and the motor is a dremel right ?

no, i couldn't find any parts locally. Makerbot supplies most of the parts when they are in stock (they seem to be out of stock a lot lately), I got my stepper drivers from SparkFun.

You can buy some of the PCB's from MakerBot, but if they aren't in stock you need to use prototyping board. All the circuits should be on the RepRap main site somewhere. I have another post up looking for the latest schematics as the one I found seem to be a little out of date.

I bought the Opto Endstops from MakerBot and the Steppers from SparkFun and avoided needing to by anything else for the project in lines of boards and circuits.

If you can cut/print the Mendel parts now you will save yourself a lot of time (and possibly a lot of headaches) by doing so, I wish I had those resources

The motors are NEMA 17 Stepper motors, Dremel motors are DC motors and can't be stepped accurately, you need the precision to get the printer to work properly.

Send me an email ([email protected]) and I will send you the sites I used to buy all my stuff (I'll post it on here later, but i will forget to do it without the email as a reminder )

Hacklab.To I am in love with your laser cutter.

During the time I lived in toronto (I now live in peterborough) I found a store called active surplus on Queen west that had a good supply of electronic items and tools and lab gear and.....well, just about everything to make into something else.

thats nice!! thanks..

didn't check this thread for a while (following it now), my Mendel is almost complete now and the HackLab's makerbot is almost sorta working reliably. In response to comments:

Quote

Hacklab.To I am in love with your laser cutter.

Me too, Jed's the man when it comes to cnc hacks

Quote
Adam.M.Nelson
What do you guys do at your 'unpatched tuesdays'?

It's a somewhat insane free for all (picture a apartment crammed with 20+ people), anyone can come by to socialize and get to know us or bring a project their working on and do a little show and tell. Unpatched tuesdays generally get going around 6 or 7 and go till between 9 and 11 depending on when the last member leaves.

Quote
william.j.tuckel
Hey Rob, I will be interested to see your MakerBot build platform when you finish.

Go for it, I didn't build it initially but I've spent allot of time upgrading it. I'm usually at the hacklab.to for unpatched tuesdays and can give you a tour. Just PM me and I'll make sure to be there the week you come by!

haha thanks other rob. I stopped by a month or more ago and checked it out in person . We are tying to setup something similarin london

sweet, good luck!

Adam, let me know if you need a Canada-London RUG forum/mailing list.

---

-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

---

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!

hey will do,

We are currently looking for interested ppl. If you know any good places to advertise let me know . (we have an ad up on Kijiji)

hey will do,

I think that means yes. I'll create one tomorrow.

---

-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

---

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!

To whom it may concern:

I would like to get in touch with the groop.

How do I go about it?

Enlighten me,

Thanks, John

Try visiting hacklab.to or inter access. I'm usually at the hacklab on tuesday night (which are open to non-members) and I know inter access has open houses as well (Liav is working on a Darwin RepRap at inter access).

Here's the Canada-London RepRap User Group:
[forums.reprap.org]
[objects.reprap.org]

Is that what you meant?

---

-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

---

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!

I don't understand, who meets up every other Tuesday and where? I'm interested in a RepRap user group for Toronto but what your wiki page describes doesn't exist to my knowledge.