I have the exact same machine, I use glue to get my z axis to work properly. Oh and just a comment, on your extruder, make sure that you have set up those 4 screws with springs to be as tight as possible, the little square pieces of plastic with small holes make sure you've got at least 2 pieces(or 3 if you can) between the springs and the big bolt, I think you get 4 of them.The effect will be tby letsburn00 - Mechanics
Great forum post, it's been great help in getting my machine to work much faster. One question though. Any ideas on having two sets of settings, one for producing objects which don't need to be especially strong, and another for the strongest prints we can. The main reason for this is my observation that my settings need to be changed when I'm printing reprap replacement/child parts(which needby letsburn00 - Skeinforge
From what I understand, the problem with all the granual extruders is that they work perfectly the first time you start them up, but the second time they can't be started because the melted plastic mixes with the granuals and you can't start the drive again.by letsburn00 - General
I think that actually the key would be to have the machine like the hexapod built with a small infa-red camera built into it. Then you build 3 or 4 infa-red LED's. In front of each you place a piece of card with a 1mm hole built into it(to increase the fine tuning vs just an LED which is a much bigger target). To make it easier, connect each LED to a different out port on an arduino. Code each onby letsburn00 - Mechanics
I'm using replicatorg V 7 (also tried with V 6, still didn't work) and V 1.3 of the gen 3 firmware (I also tried with the original firmware) and skeinforge that I downloaded today (and the one that came with repg 5). They have lead to this problem. Basically, it heats up, does the test extrude and it's all fine. Then it prints fine, motor turns on and filament comes out. It moves about 2-4 linesby letsburn00 - RepRap Host
It wouldn't be especially hard to do, especially if all that you're doing is allowing parallel printing(ie set two extruders up with their nozzles about 10 cm from each other).It would reduce the maximum size of the printing parts (cos the axis controls would run as normal, just the extruder would be printing two sets at once). Though you wouldn't be able to make one part faster, just make duplicby letsburn00 - General
I think basically that once the makerbot becomes available as a foam shipped object the desktop factory was going to have to halve their prices to compete, and they simply couldn't do that in the forseeable future.by letsburn00 - General
The resolution as it gets smaller you start to run into problems of speed, so really it's not an issue of size, more one of the time it takes to make things goes up along with your resolution. At least until multiple print heads start to be developed that work in parallel. Coarse larger items would be relatively easily created and in fact things like paste extruders have been developed (I'm workby letsburn00 - General
Like I said, this isn't the most effective method, more a development of the reprap being able to make circuit boards from raw parts (ie plastic and solder) as part of the exercise of being able to print things without external additions (like a drill would be). Copper coated epoxy boards are sometimes hard to get at times or are annoying to procure if you live far out, plus if you damage them yoby letsburn00 - Controllers
Special note: A printable circuit will probably not be more efficient, or smaller or easier to make or use. Making printed curcuits is more an exercise given the ojectives of self replication. Using the SM electronics from makerbot or others will probably always be an easier method. Designing circuits for printing is alot of work for not too much advantage apart from getting closer to the theoretby letsburn00 - Controllers
I just wrapped the top of the frying pan with a single layer of al-foil and put the heat on low-medium. Worked like a charm. One of those flat metal plates that are made for chips wrapped in alfoil also works great. Just be careful with the heat level.by letsburn00 - Controllers
I agree on the nonsensicalness of the rating, but the are sold as 5 watt resistors, and I figured I'd note that given if people are buying them then thats the basic way it'll go. Lower rating resistors giving more heat out doesn't really make sense to me. Given I figured that the resistance that the resistor is creating has to go somewhere. And that is given off as heat. So more resistance for aby letsburn00 - Controllers
I've been messing around with resistors alot and made some discoveries that are probably obvious, but just thought I'd throw them up for people to know who have absolutely no training in electronics. -The big ceramic resistors tend to just get longer and longer for an increase in their wattage. Given it's generally found that longer melt regions are worse, it's generally a good idea to try to arby letsburn00 - Controllers
I have been running the gen 3 extruder board with a standard dc motor. When I run the extruder motor it runs fine, but then when I turn the extruder off then the motor just runs backwards constantly. I've found that when I don't have the motor (but plug LED's into the extruder controller to test the signal polarity) the signal goes like this. so basically, it reverses for a second, then stby letsburn00 - Controllers
I can't burn the extruder chip at all. The bootloader isn't toast, but it does stop working when I plug it into the board. Basically, The Power light on the bootloader comes on when I plug the loader into my computer. Then when I plug the bootloader into the actual board, the power light on my bootloader goes out, but the extruders power light comes on. I'm thinking I wired something up wrong andby letsburn00 - Controllers
Ok. I've got myself into a pickle with my gen 3 electronics. I've build them, but I think that I've made a mistake in my soldering or something, everything looks fine to me. Now comes the wierd thing... I plug in my electronics bootloader into my motherboard, it works fine and uploads itself nice and properly. When I press reset now it does that nice double flash then flash that arduinos do (whiby letsburn00 - Controllers
To be honest, the milling was an afterthought, the real design basis was for no overhang and less than 10x10. When I built it, I found that I could only put in bolts in a way that was uneven and would cause rocking with something heavy. But I'll work on making that change tomorrow when I work on the parts again.by letsburn00 - General
I've designed a basic turntable which we can use for a turntable based object scanner. The reason is that a turntable is a major part in the method described in . But it can probaly be used for plenty of other stuff. the only parts it also needs are a basic dc motor, bearing and a few m8 nuts and bolts. Note: All parts have zero overhang and are at their largest 10cm by 10cm. Thus they are bothby letsburn00 - General
I'm working on this at this moment. But I'm basing my 3d scanner design on My design is basically, a dc motor runs a gear, which runs to a large gear (stepping down the speed of it's rotation). which runs onto a large platform with geared sides. The platform floats on a rotating bearing. It will also include a small cradle for a lase pointer and wine glass. All parts are reprappable apart fromby letsburn00 - 3D Scanners, Book Scanners, and Optics
For changing the structure of particles, the problem of sharp edged particles can be relatively easily solved with a little more processing. These rules work for sub millimeter rock processing in my experiance (from mining) and are probably applicable here. The basic rule with shaping particles is: Impacting the particles (crushing them)=sharp elongated shapes. Milling the particles (ie runningby letsburn00 - Plastic Extruder Working Group
I agree on momentum. That I always figured was really what made OS projects work so well. Because there is always the threat that someone else will do a better job of it than you if the momentum lets up. If you start to slack off then someone will start working on it more than you and become the main person running the project. I find it very unlikely of course, but if Dr Bowyer and the main deveby letsburn00 - General
I think the reprap's slightly ugly/scary look and feel(as described by a former partner of mine who was definately not a pro-tech geek like most of us) but capacity to improve is better to have over something that looks good, but is something that might become a dead end in development terms. The reprap is pretty much based on the idea of biology, both in terms of it's reproduction ability and itby letsburn00 - General
Looks really great. I've seen modular cubes a while ago and was really wanting to get some that were open source or printable.by letsburn00 - Let's design something! (I've got an idea ...)
I just looked through the list, I'm using version 1.1 of the arduino based stepper drivers. Yeah I could solder through that way, thanks, I saw the Rj connectors and the ribbon and got a bit confused. my brain doesn't seem to be working at full tilt tonightby letsburn00 - Controllers
my gen 2 use basic wire to wire for everything. There are no ribbon wire or RJ45 for anything.by letsburn00 - Controllers
I accidentally placed the pcb on something metal. I think I blew my big chip (the one that needs a heatsink) because it's giving off some nasty smell. Plus I somehow managed to break a few of the wires on the backside of the pcb and it didn't work even after I gave it a solder. The only light that comes on is the one that says power is attached, everything else is dead. basically, I screwed itby letsburn00 - Controllers
I've just blown one of my generator 2 stepper boards. Does anyone know how I can get a replacement board? Now the rrrf has stopped making new boards, makerbot only sells gen 3. since the gen 3 connections are completely different, I don't know how I'm going to get a replacement board other than buying a whole new set of electronics (it also take upwards of a month for anything to arrive here in Aby letsburn00 - Controllers
I did go through to the original story, the link was mostly just general info. I got the proper data from the site you linked tp.by letsburn00 - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Someone has deliberately designed a ceramic material made for 3d printers. It's supposed to replace the one they use in a normal expensive printer, but I'm sure we could figure out a way to use this stuff. Thanks to Boing Boing for this one. The recipes are: Xtra-White, Redart TerraCotta or Stoneware Buff Slip . . . .62.50 % Sugar (extra fine) . . . . . . . . 31.25 PVA (PolyVinyl Alcohol)by letsburn00 - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Thanks, this site is great. i'm more familiar with using solidworks and was having some real difficulty in designing the actual gears for the gear array I designed. This should make my design much easier to create now. Printable 3d scanner setup is now on it's way!by letsburn00 - RepLab Working Group