This brings to mind the fantasy of having a 3D scanner next to the Mendel, and having a large button marked "copy" between them! Someday...by Tornadoboy - 3D Scanners, Book Scanners, and Optics
How about making a photo-exposure head with a small fiberoptic to photo-etch sensitized boards? With some more modification you could even have it do both sides simutaniously with two fixed heads to get perfectly aligned two-sided foil patterns.by Tornadoboy - General
I picked up a sheet of 1/4" MFD from Home Depot yesterday and going to try it with that, they have acrylic sheets of that thickness for $18 that were only big enough for two of the platforms, but the MFD was only $5 and was more than enough. If it doesn't work out I'll bite the bullet and do it over with the acrylic, and I think I'm going to make the bearing arms out of a 8' strip of 1/4" aluminuby Tornadoboy - Mechanics
Hi, I just thought I'd throw this suggestion out there: I noticed that the sticker templates for the Mcwire Repstrap don't have any center markings for the holes, it might make things a lot easier and accurate if there were little crosses marking the exact centers, especially with the larger holes where it is easy to misjudge where that is. Thanks, keep up the great work! Whoops, just lookingby Tornadoboy - Administration, Announcements, Policy
Hi everybody, here's a dumb question: What's the thickness of the material for the repstrap stage platforms and bearing arms supposed to be? I can't seem to find it in the instructions anywhere, although I get the impression it's not critical but I thought I had better ask anyway, especially for the bearing arms where bolts might stick out too much.by Tornadoboy - Mechanics
Has anyone thought of the idea of using lasers to automatically try to correct inaccuracies in the Cartesian mechanics? What I mean by that is to have lasers tell the computer exactly where the nozzle is aiming regardless of where the step count has placed it, then if it is off a little to try to shift it back into the right position through a lot of trial and error. You could give it a set numbeby Tornadoboy - General
What you're describing sounds like a normal CNC machine and there's already a ton of plans/sites for making your own. Only thing that maybe could improve on that idea is to design a Dremel holding that can tilt to carve at odd angles, personally I haven't seen that for the home built machines.by Tornadoboy - CNC Routers, Mills, and Hybrid RepRapping
Yeah and no doubt the printer will reject filaments from any other manufacturer and half the filaments you do buy from HP will go bad before being used up. Now that you've reminded me about all that and the financial carnage I've seen inkjets bring upon the public school system, maybe I'll just spend my $1000 to build a Reprap and have its first printed item be a middle finger which I'll send tby Tornadoboy - General
This idea is no doubt riddled with expenses and overall problems, but how about super-cooling the plastic with something like liquid nitrogen? The plastic would be so brittle you would literally be able to powderize it.by Tornadoboy - General
I scanned through an article in Popular Mechanics about replicators and saw a quick blurb about HP having made a proto-type 3-D printer for home use which they plan to sell for about $1000, anybody heard any further details about this?by Tornadoboy - General
I'll be damned if I go through the trouble of making a free instructional only to have somebody else make money off of it, to hell with Instructables.by Tornadoboy - General
Ok here's an idea that just popped into my head that's probably already been thought of 1000-times over, but how about a reprap with both a extruder and a mill head? The extruder could of course lay down the raw materal, and the mill could in turn do touchup work in details with precision that the other couldn't handle, such as perfectly (well... relatively) smooth or sharp surfaces. The comboby Tornadoboy - CNC Routers, Mills, and Hybrid RepRapping
I have no first hand experience with Harbor Freight but I've heard from people who have that the quality of their machine tools is very hit and miss. I guess it's a quality control issue with the manufacturer in China, some machines will be perfect and do a great job for a long time while another of the same model will be sloppy with poor tolerances and overall be a piece of junk. That's pretty mby Tornadoboy - CNC Routers, Mills, and Hybrid RepRapping
A lot of you are probably already aware of this website but I thought I'd mention it, they have a lot of great books on castings metal parts and one on how to make your own plastic injection molding machine. And no, I don't have any connection to them other than I like their books!by Tornadoboy - General
Might make a good plastic surgery machine too!by Tornadoboy - General
If it can be made to print while remaining easy to dissolve afterwards it sounds like it would be an ideal material for doing "lost wax" casting molds.by Tornadoboy - General
Between having a REPRAP and a 3-D scanner, in a primative way it would be the ultimate interface with the virtual world, the ability to send something real into cyberspace and alternatively something that is only fantasy out into reality. The possibilities just make one's head spin!by Tornadoboy - General
Hi there, I'm a newbie so be kind! I was just wondering if anyone here has considered trying to make use of the online virtual community known as "Second Life" for the REPRAP project? For those whom aren't familiar with SL it's akin to what author Neal Stephenson had envisioned in his book "Snowcrash", which is about a futuristic Internet virtual world where people interact and explore 3-D realby Tornadoboy - General