Hello, new here

Good day. Please allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Michael Kellner. I've been amazed by the progress of the RepRap community and decided to jump in last March. I bought and built a ThingOMatic because I'm impatient and not sure of my skills. I've since done a number of modifications to the machine and have enjoyed it thoroughly.

I am now building a Prusa Mendel. I hobbed my first bolt yesterday and am nearly ready to install my extruder with an arcol.hu hot end.

While I hate blog-whoring, I feel that introducing my blog would be the best way for people to get to know me. [robotranch.org]

I am working on a long-term goal of introducing the local community to the maker ethos and ultimately would like to start a makerspace in the agricultural area of central California (near Modesto).

Hello and welcome to the fun, Nice blog, that's a very big shed! - It'll be filled with 3D printers a year from now!

Are you building an original Prusa or one of the many variants (LM8uu etc.)

I may have to try the Pomegranate Jelly, looks nice.

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

Hi Rich, thanks for the welcome.

I'm making a LM8UU variant. I have visited your blog during my research - thanks for the tips!
I had to print a different X-carriage as I have the arcol hot end which doesn't fit into the 3 bearing carriage.

The smooth rods that I got for the X axis were too large for the press-fit Z ends so I popped some holes in one of the ends. The fit is still tight, and hopefully, the rods wont walk their way loose. I didn't have any springs to fit around the threaded Z-rod. I'll try it as is, and try to find some springs later.

I like the lighted ring idea, I might make one for here too,

Have you got room in your shed for me? It's raining hard here again in NZ meant to be spring and I just noticed water running across the floor of my small workshop, we are built on the side of a hill

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Experimenting in 3D in New Zealand

There's room for now. I expect to have a number of projects going, big and small. I'm looking to put solar on the roof and convert a small pickup to electric so I can have a runabout without having to expend precious resources.

Also looking to find a mill and lathe and learn some of the older methods of manufacture since I believe that knowledge is becoming lost to the newer generations here.

As farm boy, I had endless hours of fun in the shop experimenting and learning. My initial field of study was mechanical engineering. But the math got hard (dynamics) and I was having too much fun with computers so I changed it up to computer science. This was nearly 30 years ago. Now I want to get my hands a bit dirtier and get my kids off of the couch. Initial indications are positive.