The gears on the extruder that we're using were actually printed on Wade's reprap. So far they're holding up quite nicely, and I think that they'll last for a reasonably long time. Real plastic gears should work too.by jbayless - Mechanics
I saw that pushing it from the other way will lower it... I was more wondering how to push it the other way. I don't see a very good way to do that. I don't see any particular manufacturing difficulty; it looks like all of that could even be done with printed partsby jbayless - General New Machines Topics
What kind of CAD format do you need?by jbayless - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Hey... That's a really neat mechanism! It might be quite slow... How would you turn it backward, by the way?by jbayless - General New Machines Topics
1.) Is your project on schedule? No. The new extruder design has the mechanical capability to drive filament properly. However, due to software issues with the firmware, the extruder stepper motor is not able to follow G-code instructions and drive filament at the desired speed. 2.) What did your group members accomplish during the past week? - Mounted the extruder stepper motor on a new rack deby jbayless - Wire and Thread Embedded Extrusion
Quotemaitri982 a solar cell is a rather simple device Is it? I don't know too much about them, but aren't they made in clean rooms from silicon wafers at hundreds of degrees Celsius? I'd think the way to go for printable solar power is printing concentrators, for focusing light either onto purchased solar cells, or else onto Stirling engines. A concentrator could even just be some kind of lightby jbayless - General
QuoteVDX With my CNC-mill and a 500Watts-millhead and a 6mm-cutter i can mill a flatnes with maybe 3 microns local (20x20mm) and 10 microns global accuracy over a 300x300mm area. In my mind, it's less important that the bed is perfectly flat, and more important that its warping matches the error in the XY frame. So khiraly's solution seems to me to be quite a good one, assuming the dremel doesnby jbayless - General
Professional machines will probably get cheaper, but I'd be surprised if their stock materials came down in price. Today, inket printers are super cheap, but the price of ink is thousands of dollars per litre. I hope that cheap professional machines will help to spread the Reprap, as more people with printers (of any sort) means that printable parts will be more easily available, so more peopleby jbayless - General
Quotemaitri982 It seems that each of the above issues should be taken up by teams of people with proper expertise in materials science, mechanical and electrical engineering as well as software engineering I wouldn't doubt the skills of the people here. Some of the community members are indeed expert/professional engineers, although many others may just be hobbyists. But everyone is running onby jbayless - General
Oh well, it's all good. I've received so much help for free from you guys, and especially from Wade, that nobody owes me an apology; and besides, the problem is fixed now (at least for me). I'm just concerned that future updates, for example to Mendel, might take place in a similarly somewhat-haphazard way.by jbayless - Administration, Announcements, Policy
Not sure, since Wade printed the parts for us. But I assume he was working from the official version release. The pictures don't all need to be updated, just some mention somewhere or a link to your blog post or something.by jbayless - Administration, Announcements, Policy
Hey, Glad to see that other people are thinking about this idea too! It means we're on the right track. One of the questions I'm often asked is "why would you want a wire extruder?" The SpoolHead design is still very much in its early evolution - please share your ideas if you can! There's this forum And also the wiki discussion page Jacobby jbayless - Plastic Extruder Working Group
I think .dxf is typically the best format for cutting sheet parts. Do you think you could provide a zero-offset .dxf for parts cut on an OMAX waterjet cutter? Thanks! Jacobby jbayless - Delta Machines
Yes, it's easy to google "RepRap Metal casting" and get back the result you're looking for - as long as you know you're looking for Vik's results reprapping with metal. I, for one, have found that not having an up-to-date centralized source of documentation, such as the wiki, makes it excruciatingly difficult for newcomers like me to enter the project from a cold start. That's because I don't knoby jbayless - Administration, Announcements, Policy
1.) Is your project on schedule? No The extruder and Z-bed are able to follow G-code instructions; heater can reach controlled temperature and melt filament. However, extruder cannot currently drive filament properly. 2.) What did your group members accomplish during the past week? - Began documentation of project on Reprap wiki under the name "SpoolHead" - Drove a fan and CD motor using the MOSby jbayless - Wire and Thread Embedded Extrusion
Hey Erik, That sounds extremely similar to what we're trying to achieve right now! Jacobby jbayless - Mechanics
Good topic! Yes, it's hard to find fault in Cory Doctorow's arguments. I'm a big fanby jbayless - Administration, Announcements, Policy
Hey BeagleFury, (I replied on the discussion page). You're right about both methods, and we should really test this, as it could simplify things immensely if it works. I especially like the zig-zagging! However, I expect that for narrow wires, this would take more precision than we currently can manage... but we'll try it out. If the heater doesn't work, this is a good fall-back plan.by jbayless - Wire and Thread Embedded Extrusion
Yes. Light bulbs are very inefficient. Solder and silver paste are not the only ways to obtain conductivity. My team is currently developing a printhead to lay wires into a part. However, solder/silver paste (might) be needed to join the wires to each other.by jbayless - Kartik M. Gada Humanitarian Innovation Prize
That sounds... like a great idea! But you'll need printable embedded nichrome. Luckily, we're working on it!by jbayless - General
I wonder if a Curta would be printable. I'd love to have oneby jbayless - Let's design something! (I've got an idea ...)
Agreed with Sebastien. As for providing the CAD files, Reprap does provide them, but the lack of any really good open-source parametric CAD programs is an accessibility issue. I think the development of programs like FreeCAD should be a massive boost to open-source hardware engineering in the future, the way that, for example, Eclipse has been a massive boost to the open-source software engineerby jbayless - Administration, Announcements, Policy
So far I've been getting by OK with oil. But graphite seems like a better long-term solution because it won't attract dust the way oil and other 'wet' lubricants do.by jbayless - Reprappers
It's awesome to see Nophead posting these test results, and having them independently verified by casainho.by jbayless - General
1.) Is your project on schedule? No Reprap is complete. Software issues are delaying extruder testing; these should be resolved shortly. Perhaps it's time to revise the schedule? 2.) What did your group members accomplish during the past week? - Completed assembly of electrical and mechanical parts, as well as mounting PCBs and opto-endstops. - Created new opto flags of the correct size - Beganby jbayless - Wire and Thread Embedded Extrusion
Interesting... This is what local guru Dan Gelbart suggested to me as well. So I have no doubt that it would work. However, to keep the system low-budget, we'll start by exploring thermal methods in our project.by jbayless - Wire and Thread Embedded Extrusion
Oh, so that just the surface of the bed heats up? That's an interesting idea.by jbayless - General
Is your X-axis stepper mounted correctly? It looks a little bit farther back than the place where (I think) it's meant to go.by jbayless - Reprappers
We might want a special mark for PLA to indicate that it should be composted..?by jbayless - Reprappers
Yes, I've personally built a Darwin, but it was using 3D-printed parts provided by Wade.by jbayless - Reprappers