I think printing really large items tends to be very slow as well as using a good amount of filament up. I think nophead had an extruder that printed larger diameter filament which could speed up the printing of larger objects. You would have to modify the 3D structure of the panels to be able to print them without a support material.by rodzite - Let's design something! (I've got an idea ...)
What I would like to see is a Huxley type machine that uses a small conveyor belt as one of the axes. They make a belt for the makerbot but it doesn't actually travel back and forth during the build phase - only at completion to dump the part. I want to see the belt actually serve as an axis of motion during the print phase, then travel all the way to drop the part in a basket when finished. Thisby rodzite - Huxley
While you guys are discussing future scenarios these might be used in I see them playing a vital role in providing security in insecure areas. Imagine having 4-6 microcopters attached to the back of your shoulders as you walk through the ghetto/Kabul/Ciudad Juarez at night. Also nearly everyone else walking around also is carrying their own fleet of miniature copters. The copters are all networkeby rodzite - Let's design something! (I've got an idea ...)
These guys might have something like what you're looking for and I think they'll sell just 1 or 2 as samples: However I think you should just go get a LED headlamp from a sporting goods store and use that. If you're trying to run by lights on your ankles it will probably drive you nuts.by rodzite - Hello. I need a something designed. For money.
Wade Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > However, in reality, I > think Nophead has the record for build time, and > it took him at least two weeks, extruding at > around 16 mm/s and moving a bit faster when not > extruding. That would mean that printing a Darwin requires 19 kilometers of extruder head travel and presumably close to that much filamentby rodzite - General
The ZPrinter 450 uses powder as a support material. This solves a lot of problems and allows the support material to be reused. Obviously it does require some kind of enclosure to prevent air movement.by rodzite - General
Any of these 80% requirements is going to be problematic. 80% of weight can be overcome by simply printing a massive base or something that is completely unnecessary. 80% of value runs into the problem Adrian raises. What about specifying that the winner simply has to have a vitamin requirement <$X where the prizes increase for decreasing values of X. Deciding what is a substrate and what is aby rodzite - Kartik M. Gada Humanitarian Innovation Prize
Lignin, the natural compound that lends strength to trees is a waste product from paper production which is simply burned as fuel. A German company, Tecnaro, says it found the magic formula. Its "liquid wood" can be molded like plastic, yet biodegrades over time.by rodzite - General
I figured this forum would give me the stiffest competition of any I frequent. Johnson Controls made this flash game where you have to design and race a cart through a series of obstacles. I've spent a couple hours on it and the best I could do was 94% in 21 seconds. I'm attaching an image of my best cart to get you started. Now I'm going to feel guilty for wasting the time of Reprappersby rodzite - General
Remind me again where the granule extruder fits on this road map? Is it Darwin 1.1 or a proposed feature for the multiple tool head part of the Mendel? Is it likely that Mendel will support a subtractive tool set as well? I kind of wonder how wise it is planning these road maps so far in advance. How many steps should there be from Darwin to von Neumann anyway?by rodzite - General
SCphotog Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Don't have a box full of spare parts > or junk? Do like I do every now and then. Buy one > of the $5 surprise boxes from > > ?number=G9321 > Sounds like it would be less trouble for everyone who's interested to just buy their own mystery box. This seems like something that would work better minus the iby rodzite - General
These guys rapid prototype their positives to be invested and cast. It's a couple extra steps but shouldn't the RepRap work for this without any modifications? I'm not sure how well the different plastics would burn out of the investment though. It would be nice to be able to print wax for this purpose but wax expands and contracts tremendously with changes in temperature so it may not be practicby rodzite - General
Forrest Higgs Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Plastics welding machines are a very > limited market device and cost several thousand > dollars, typically, in spite of the fact they for > practical purposes they consist of a hot air paint > stripper mated with a tube that acts as a guide > for the filament and a feed mechanism, an > assemblageby rodzite - General
Kitep Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Maybe I'm too much of an optimist, but I think > yes, they would. Much like people are spending > their own time & money to develop a better reprap. > Progress would definately slow down, but it would > go on. Why should progress slow down? Have you seen Clay Shirky's presentation "Here comes everybody?"by rodzite - General
thomas larkworthy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > the stepper steps individually for about 20-30 > steps until.... bang, it starts stepping like > crazy, at about 5 Hz. Sending further step > commands while its having a fit makes the noises > more intense. The stepper motor does settle down > again after a while, but is then prone to start up >by rodzite - Reprappers
I can't help much being fairly new myself but you might enjoy this link about the granule extruder idea:by rodzite - General
Forrest Higgs Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > A situation like this existed for a few decades in > the late 19th century when the bicycle became a > common mode of transportation. Little shops > dedicated to making bicycles sprang up in back > sheds of numberless houses. People with a little > bit of money equipped them with the crude, and >by rodzite - General
What about a Gumstix computer? They're even smaller.by rodzite - General
VDX Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The best try in the actual stage would be > lost-cast-moulding with fields metall or > lowtemp-wax (which didn't stick to epoxy) and > mould with epoxy ... > > Viktor If you're going to make something out of metal it would be really cool to print your own monopoly pieces.by rodzite - General
That's a cool idea. Something I'd thought of along similar lines would be to design a marking that could be placed on each machine showing what generation of replicant it was. It wouldn't be too hard to embed a serial number that could be used to trace the history and pedigree of the machine via a website like you're suggesting.by rodzite - General
Thanks for the link BDolge. It's good to see that once again, Adrian's thought of everythingby rodzite - Mechanics
This idea is partially inspired by memories of an old pen plotter at an engineering firm where I worked while in school. Has there been consideration of designing a fairly uniform standard set of toolheads with docking stations at the sides of the work area. Even now they could consist of several extruders for the different plastics. Eventually there could be welding heads, CNC cutters and routeby rodzite - Mechanics
I don't find the idea of buying rod prohibitive to the project although it would be nice to use chromed steel or stainless to avoid having to paint it. It just seems that if stiffness is important that you get a lot more rigidity for an equal amount of weight if it is in the form of a hollow tube than a single solid rod. I suspect someone could assemble a super-rigid repstrap by welding tubing tby rodzite - Mechanics
JohnWasser Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The Darwin needs about 8.5 meters of rod so close > to $60 worth of 8mm rod vs. about $12 worth of > EMT... Seems like a reasonable cost savings to > me. Short pieces of conduit are readily available as construction site waste. i haven't seen much 1/2" being thrown out but 3/4" is readily available. I have aby rodzite - Mechanics
Thanks for the explanation Cris. The main thing I would add is that your dimensions for wall thickness are about 3x as thick as applies for steel conduit of the smaller diameters. This page lists the wall thickness for 1" as 0.126" or 3.20 mm. All the steel conduit I have ever seen has been galvanized so it wouldn't work for sliding rails. I was mainly putting the idea forward for the structuby rodzite - Mechanics
SebastienBailard Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Another negative: > Having to support an imperial and a metric > variant. If this thing is made in the US there will be SAE versions no matter what. It might not be the "offical" version but it will happen. The only way I see metric gaining the upper hand here is if the entire populace were compelled to taby rodzite - Mechanics
Using steel conduit instead of the solid rods used currently would change the Darwin in several ways: Neutral The outside dimensions of the unit would be larger to still have the same work area Positive Weight savings (or is this actually a negative?) Conduit/pipe is easier to cut than solid rod Material is more readily available Negative Might "cheapen" the appearance? The brackets woulby rodzite - Mechanics
Have you guys seen this video? You could make a lot more oil a lot cheaper if you just grew plants to make sugar on a wide area and fed the sugar to the algae to get a 1000x greater yield than with sunlight alone. Your bioreactors could be incredibly small for the output they would produce.by rodzite - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Forrest Higgs Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I know of no transparent > polymer that can stand direct sunlight for more > than a few months. It doesn't sound anywhere near > practical. Wish it was, mind. There is at least one. It's called Tefzel and it isn't cheap. Now if you could produce it yourself that might be a different matter.by rodzite - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Are you guys considering using wax as a supporting material? It would be extremely easy to reuse. The downsides would be it's tremendous modulus of expansion/contraction with changing temperature and the fact that it might melt away when hot plastic was laid down on it. Edit: on thinking about it a few more minutes, thermoplastics would be far superior to waxes unless you were extruding chocolatby rodzite - Plastic Extruder Working Group