I run my heated bed on a separate power supply. There is no problem with this except you cant see the temperature on the computer and have to measure it separately. I just set up the supply so it reaches the temperature I want but if you wanted to be fancy then you could probably add some monitoring and control electronics.by Madkite - General
Thank you Traumflug. I did think of all that when I was designing it but its all getting a bit blurry this late at night. I have spent the week revising some bits as they collided with things. So the physics have not been on my mind. The next step would be to design it all directly in to the Mendel parts. I designed this to be added with minimal disassembly but if you were building from scraby Madkite - Developers
Here is my long touted mod to double the X Y accuracy of Mendel. I have found this eliminates a lot of lash I had on the X axis and evrything seems t move more sharply. Though the movement thing might be me having a placebo effect. Anyway it allows your Mendel to run at exactly the same speed as before with twice the positioning accuracy. The motors have to turn twice as fast though but thiby Madkite - Developers
I decided to build a Mendel from a complete kit just for not wanting the hassle of sourcing all the parts. I chose Mendel as its the most open to being modified and has a good sized build aria. Though it is probably not the easiest to build or get running accurately it is inexpensive compared to some alternatives. Really depends on your budget and if you want to modify it like I do, or just haby Madkite - General
Thanks. I thought it up before I even started to build my Mendel. I got my belts from here. Only costs about £15 to £20 for 5 meters of open belting. With all the other parts probably about £30 in total. The belts are only about half as long again than they were. I did wonder if this would be a problem but with half the load on them, spring does not seem to be any trouble. Lead screws areby Madkite - General
This is the alpha test of mu accuracy's doubling mod. As you can see I have made the belt system in to a double pulley system so the stepper motors have to turn twice as much to move at the same speed. This does not seem to be a problem however. Especially as the only parts moving at twice the speed are the motor armature and the belt. These way very little and so have a small mass to start and sby Madkite - General
More progress. I will make a video soon as I'm about to install my upgrades. The polycarbonate bed works really well though getting parts off can be a bit of a struggle. I need to glue it to something rigid as when printing large parts it pulled up the 3mm polycarbonate sheet! So that's part of the upgrade too. Been playing with skinforge and got some reasonable results. I found I had to setby Madkite - General
Update Have been experimenting with printing in ABS. And had a few initial disasters. I think the x carriage really needs to be made of ABS as mind got warm after a while when I first used it for a few hours. This made the lower half catastrophically warp and all the bolts that held the barrings come loose. The warming also made the belt clamps come loose and the tall bit they clamp on too breakby Madkite - General
Pdf file Word file Ok I finished my not to serious guide so you too can print it out and have it in your shed. I added the original word document so you can edit it and fix or add stuff as you think necessary. So everyone is free to add advice or guides to doing other stuff it and stick it back up. Let me know the links are working and you can download it. And before you criticisby Madkite - General
Cheers. I'm going for the video blog if anything. Mainly because I'm rubbish at typing. Like your blog though. Blogs are the only places I have found very useful and simple guides to changing the steps per mm. My slightly tongue in cheek guide is hopefully going to be finished by the end of the weekend. Should get it all put together tomorrow and then its just checking. Mainly checking my typiby Madkite - General
Well I can tell you how mine is done. In the top part of the carriage which is the one without the sticking out bit for clamping the belt, there is two hexagons that you can fit two 4mm knuts in too. I had to warm my knuts up with a lighter and pull them in, as the hexagons were too small. It also stuck them nice so they didn't slip. You can do this with some of the knuts and the hexagons that wby Madkite - General
Hello again. My photo compilation is coming along nicely and as I have nothing better to do like print things as I have no plastic, I decided to test the X Y accuracy. I crudely rigged up my long travel clock gauge on Bertha and you can watch the results in this video which like all videos I make I find very embarrassing. I have not tested the Z as the would seem to be very accurate in comparisby Madkite - General
That's nice work Flackster. I have all my photos taken now. And an almost complete Mendel. I have to say I have been enjoying the build. From the moment I finish work till I realise I havent eaten I have been building almost obsessively. Would have updated here earlier but it has grabbed my attention like nothing else. And I had a date tonight So I have been a little preoccupied. I'm going tby Madkite - General
I'm an evil genius who intends to use Reprap to take over the world. (Incert evil laugh.) I am also an electromechanical engineer. And open source is a pretty good system. Now back to the plotting.by Madkite - General
Thanks. Don't worry I know how to not mess them up. I am am a electromechanical engineer and have been messing about with tools since I was four. I'm just pretending to be a bit more unfamiliar with it all than I really am. They are not parts I printed but they are quite good. What I was expecting really. I'm taking the photos as I go so it will be a little while. I'm cleaning the bits in bby Madkite - General
Hello I just received my Mendel Kit which is excellent, and I'm very happy and excited about it. Now I have done quite a bit of research before it arrived so I had a general idea of how it all goes. But as someone who is entirely new to doing this I thought I would make this thread to log my experience and see where newcomers to building them might have issues. I might be a little mean and mayby Madkite - General
Thanks for the reassurance. Well when I get there I will look all that up. I have to get the kit (And I'm expecting to have to wait two months.) and get it all working to print the parts first. Really simple mod if evrything goes correctly. (Fatal words.) Will post it all in the relevant place once I start. May make some videos too. I'm sure people here will be happy to give advice.by Madkite - General
Well for the far flung future when I get to this mod, does anyone know how hard it would be to do that. Programing is something I know nothing about. Would it just be a case of simply changing a few relevant parameters in the existing program? I would basically want to exactly double the steps on the X and Y.by Madkite - General
Repsnapper looks the most user friendly but I can't find any nice options for gear ratio mod like in the reprap host program. In that I can just change the steps per mm. Don't know how or if it can be easily done in repsnapper. This is for a mod idea I have to do in the future where I have greater X Y accuracy at the expense of speed. It might not work but I like the idea of the program accommby Madkite - General
As someone who has just ordered his first Mendel kit, I will add I'm my thoughts here as to my motivations on the decision to spend the money. 1. I am an engineer, but the practical kind. So the mechanical build really looks tedious rather then difficult. Aligning it is the same from my point of view as I am experienced on setting up old fashioned machines very accurately and have all the toolsby Madkite - General
Interesting video. They are using the electron beam like a TIG ark. We could just use a TIG ark. A lot of the time bad welds are because of human error and contamination of the metal. The control of the machine eliminates the human errors of inaccurate arc lengths and erratic feed speeds. Plus if the layer you did before was good then the next layer will be. I really cant see it being any moreby Madkite - Plastic Extruder Working Group
I had this idea. I have done a lot of TIG welding and it is not as difficult as many people make out. I learnt with a book on it and practice. I also know of engineering firms that use mig welders to build up damaged stainless prop shafts with a lath and the welder rigged to it. A part from protecting from splatter I really don't see the need to make enclosed chambers. MIG welding steel usuallby Madkite - Plastic Extruder Working Group
I have come across this material. It is a machinable ceramic that can withstand a continuous temperature of 800C! It is expensive of course but you would get more than one out of a rod. I could easily machine thin on my lath to make a super high temperature barrier. Have not machined this before but I have made things out of all sorts of materials and have a lot of experience in machining soby Madkite - Mechanics