Hello everybody,
A couple of months ago someone wrote an article on 3d printers on a website that I frequently visit and in the replies to that article a link was mentioned to a website called www.reprap.org. I visited it, and what can I say other than that it was love at first sight. Within seconds I knew I wanted one as well.
After reading more or less everything on the website for a couple of weeks I went to the reprap store where I bought the following: The circuit boards (comm, 5x UCB, 6x optostop), Heater barrel, 5 different nozzles, Nichrome wire, Teflon barrel and 5 PIC's. I then went to the hardware store and got myself all the rods, studding, fasteners and such and got the electronic components to fill the PCB's.
At that time there was still a little optimistic note from Zach on the store's website saying that the RP parts for the Cartesian robot would become available on the first of july. Unfortunately, the first on July came and the little note went away without the parts becoming available. After my tears had dried enough to see again, I started looking into the way that Joost van der Wiel was doing things with his printer called "Richard" and decided to follow him.
First task: the bed
Having the A4 templates thats not too hard.
Second task: Corner brackets.
Took the measurements from the PDF's that Joost uploaded and made it from 'vuren' wood (no idea what to tranlate that into), which I hapened to have. Thats not hardwood like Joost, but the rather cheap soft kind. Since I do not have a drill press, I had to visit someone to make these. They came out not too bad, but they splinter. If you cannot saw straight (like me) and/or do not have a drill press (as I do) these are quite hard to get right.
Third task: Diagonal tie brackets.
Went to the hardware store again to get myself some of that square aluminum rod that Joost is using for (among other things) the diagonal tie brackets. When I was there I noticed that they also had these square rods made from PVC, which drills and saws a lot easier (and was somewhat cheaper). So I bought some 1 meter lengths of it, measuring 19,5mm x 19,5mm and a thinner one of 11,5mm x 11,5mm.
So far I've made the following parts with it and they are all fairly easy to make. Even without a drillpress and without the ability to saw straight. I think the whole lot can be made is less than a day.
Corner Bracket (8) (can be made easier from PVC than wood. It won't splinter and its much easier to keep the angles right)
Bed Clamp (4)
Bed Corner (2)
Bed Corner / Constraint Bracket (2)
Diagonal Tie Bracket (20)
Optoswitch Bracket (3)
PCB Clamp (8)
X Belt Clamp (1)
Y Bearing Housing (3)
Y Belt Clamp (1)
Z Opto Flag Base (1)
Z Opto Flag (1)
Z Studding Tie (4)
That adds up to about 2500mm of the thick rod and 620mm of the thinner one. (I paid in euros 2,71 per meter for the 19,5mm one and 1,69 for the 11,5mm one. Total cost: slightly less then e10,-).
For the Y and X axis that would carry the sliding parts I cheated a little. I found that sliding the PVC over the hollow aluminum rod that I have was not as smooth as I had hoped. So I bought three printers from one of these recycling firms. 2 HP's and a Lexmark, total cost 18 euro. From these printers I took the rods (HP diameter=9mm, Lexmark 7mm), the cartridge holders with brass bearings some springs and the belts with accompanying pulleys. There are some nice steppers in there as well, but I have no idea how to get these working, so for now I'll stick to the 'official' ones. The rods are not long enough to pass through the corner blocks, but they are long enough to just screw to the side or on top of it. This glides so smoothly that if I'd put a little sail on it I would probably be able to blow it to the other side. It was in these printers that I also noticed that the belt(s) are kept under tension by a spring. Since my belts were a bit shorter than the required 950mm, I made a somewhat simple construction that does that as well. (using one spring and a shoelace :-) Dont know if it will work but I can always change it again.
At the time of writing the motors are in the mail (ordered from Farnell), so their mounting brackets and couplings are more or less the only remaining items on my RP glossary list.
If anyone is interested in the sizes that I've used for these parts I'll gladly write them up.
Ron.
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