Thanks for running the comp Bryan. I was going to get back to my PCB Mill idea, but I was snowed under with work and then went skiing! I now have a motor, I'll get around to updating it and trying it out (once I've printed out one of the vertical X axis mounts) hopefully in the new year. Congratulations to the victors, it's a win for all of us!by droftarts - Developers
Hi Robert You missed latest meeting which was on Tuesday, unfortunately, though it was really to give out parts to the first 20 people who are building Prusa's in the group. Have a look at www.tvrrug.org for details of the next one. There are a couple of people in the group nearby - Guildford, Farnham, Aldershot. I'm about the furthest from Reading, in Alton. We have a number of people, includinby droftarts - United Kingdom RepRap User Group
I use these ones, which don't need a cable tie like Greg Frost's, but do need a good fit:by droftarts - Reprappers
Adrian Bowyer has already thought of this for us! Here's his cover for 12V power supplies: There's also a bracket for a 3-pin XLR plug power connector.by droftarts - General
Bramboterham Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > - Put small 'guides' on my washers so that the > belt run's in the center of the bearings, so its > not rubbing towards the borders. Are your guides fixed or free to rotate? If they are fixed I would suggest the belt is dragging/rubbing enough to introduce lash. I couldn't print bearing guides like and you pby droftarts - General Mendel Topics
The most time-consuming part of building a reprap yourself is researching and setting up your supply chain, assuming you don't buy a kit. As you intend to build repraps for other people, you will need to do this as you will want to self-source parts to get the best deal and reduce the build cost for the group, rather than have everyone buy a complete kit. Buying a makerbot will only fulfill one sby droftarts - General
Finally got around to doing this mod. It's very fiddly to mount one SMD resistor on top of another, but the result is rock solid temperatures. The reported temperature fluctuating a lot, even at room temperature, and seemed unable to get up to temperatures that I set. Now it is much more reliable and consistent. Many thanks to Nophead for the resistors, sent promptly all those months ago!by droftarts - Next Wave Electronics Working Group
Hi Pikelo, I think the silicon adhesive you have will be okay. If you can put silver foil around the heating resistor, even one layer, so it is in contact with the heater block, it would be an advantage. Use a small amount of the silicon adhesive in each end to hold the resistor in place if the silver foil can't, and/or use kapton tape to hold the resistor and thermistor in place and insulate theby droftarts - Plastic Extruder Working Group
nophead Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Anybody tried simply using two bearings side by side? The belt can only wander so far, so it should give a frictionless solution. I did this on my repstrap, works fine. However, if the belt wanders further out on a bearing that isn't supported on both sides, like on the x-idler-end, there's more force trying to pull theby droftarts - General
Like Sublime says, your pictures make it look like the belt is rubbing on the fender washers on each side of all the idler bearings, probably on both axes. I had this problem; it's easy to diagnose. With the power off, centre the belts on each bearing and move the axis back and forth by hand. It should move easily, until the belts start dragging on the fender washer - it's like applying the brakeby droftarts - General
I've ordered a few times from Zapp over the past year, and service has always been exemplary - knowledgeable, courteous and flexible. I ordered a large number of stepper motors (100 - I'm ordering for 20 people who are building Prusas!) 3 weeks ago on a Friday, and phoned Gary at Zapp before ordering. He made it clear that he was not going to be able to complete the order immediately, said it wouby droftarts - General
Ha ha, sorry nophead and brnrd! It's sort of just for testing purposes, as I did't have any spare springs, so chucked in the piece of tubing to test the extruder and hot end were wired correctly. It extruded fine with the nozzle high above the bed. However, that said, it is quite thick-walled PVC tubing, and seems to have a strong compression on the filament; it was tough to feed in the filamentby droftarts - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Here are some pictures to show how it's mounted.by droftarts - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Hi Miguel, no it won't fit without some alteration. The v9 expects to bolt into an aluminium plate. The standard Wade's expects a 16mm (I think) round part, with two bolts. When I get home I'll take a photo of mine so you can see what I did. It's good to use the aluminium plate as it acts as a heat sink.by droftarts - Plastic Extruder Working Group
I gave up mounting the extruder as shown in the picture above. Too much weight on only one of the x-axis rods, it was bending a visible amount. I printed out a slightly modified Wade's Accessible Extruder with space for the v9 hot end, cut the aluminium plate and drilled three holes for mounting the extruder and hot end. Then I mounted this on the x-carriage I had already printed. To wire up theby droftarts - Plastic Extruder Working Group
This is very similar to what the Thames Valley RepRap User Group is doing. We are currently sourcing parts for 15 machines, and using members who already have a reprap (such as myself) to print parts for others. More info here: Wiki page: Google groups forum: We plan to pass on the lessons learned to other user groups, if they want it. Experienced members may be available for 'consulting' workby droftarts - United Kingdom RepRap User Group
Hi moosehead The Thames Valley RepRap User Group is exactly where you want to be! There are a few members in Guildford, too. You just missed this month's meeting, unfortunately. The TVRRUG is currently enabling 15 or so people to build Prusa Repraps, and our monthly meetings usually have a reprap or two for you to have a look at. Wiki page: Google groups forum:by droftarts - United Kingdom RepRap User Group
I put bolts for hobbing in my drill press, and use hacksaws and files to make an indentation to speed up hobbing with a M3.5 tap. I find it's good to lubricate cutting surfaces when doing this, especially hobbing; it cuts much faster and cleaner. I use good old 3-in-1 oil, not sure if it's available world-wide or just here in the UK, but it's basically a fairly light penetrating oil, like you'd uby droftarts - General
Also, if you want to drill/lathe PEEK/PTFE, a standard chuck will only hold material up to a diameter of around 10mm. Larger hand drills and bench press drills usually go up to 13mm - check before buying PEEK/PTFE rod.by droftarts - General
It's perfectly possible. There is a limit on length (the length of your drill bit), but the whole point of a lathe is that it spins the work not the drill bit, so the drill bit self-centres; you can get away with quite poor quality electric hand drills/chucks. It usually depends on the quality of your drill bits how easily it cuts. I made my own hot end using the same technique, but with a benchby droftarts - General
I posted a dxf for you to try in your other thread on this matter.by droftarts - General New Machines Topics
Hi, I have opened it in Adobe Illustrator and resaved for you as a dxf file, version R13. File was set up in millimeters, in case this is an issue when importing into your CAD program. Haven't tested to see if it works, but try it and report back. Download here:by droftarts - 3D Design tools
I use two sizes of vinyl/PVC tubing to create a very functional Z-axis coupling on my repstrap, a MrKim robotics 1X2, see wiki here: : Uses 1/4" OD x 0.170" vinyl tubing and 3/8" OD x 1/4" ID vinyl tubing. Soften 3/8" tube end in hot water and screw on to M8 leadscrew, and cut spare to the length of the motor shaft. Soften 1/4" tube, push over motor shaft and cut to length. Then push the 3/8" tby droftarts - Mechanics
Sang - win - o - lo - lu is how I say it. Kevin looks like he's answered most of your other Qs.by droftarts - General
I tried mounting the mendel-parts V9 extruder on a Greg's linear bearing x-carriage. I had to cut some of the aluminium plate and drill four mounting holes. However, the weight with the motor on was all on one bar, which I felt wasn't going to work without distorting. I have since printed a Greg's hinged extruder, adapted to fit the V9 hot end. There will still be a piece of aluminium for the V9by droftarts - Plastic Extruder Working Group
I did what nophead was suggesting; I iteratively improved my pulleys on my 1X2 repstrap build; from printing using a smooth belt (which needed to be homed each layer), to a rough pulley with gcode from repsnapper, and on through two more iterations using skeinforge, until I managed to produce a really neat pulley. And this when I was on the steep part of the reprap learning curve. It was a fun exby droftarts - General
It could be because you have an M109 then a pause then M104. While M109 is supposed to make the gcode wait, perhaps it only stops movements. So it moves on to the pause command, then M104, which is set temperature without waiting. See here: I always set temperature and let it heat up in the host software (repsnapper in my case), then set the gcode going.by droftarts - Skeinforge
devijvers Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > How about a vertical X-axis though? Ooooh, don't get nophead on that subject! I don't think he's keen, or rather, doesn't see any particular advantage in it. I think it's a fair comment, but only a bit of experimentation will show whether there are advantages in FDM, or rather making sure there are no disadvantages. Foby droftarts - Developers
You're right about the prices. Zapp Automation sell SFC8/10/12/13/16 Precision round rail are all £1.20 per 100mm, LM8UU and LM10UU bearings are £3.20 each, LM12UU are £2.50 and LM16UU are £2.60. So if you buy from them, 12mm is actually cheaper! Perhaps the best way forward is to allow people the choice of which size to use, by building parametric axis-ends and carriages. It's what I'm aimingby droftarts - Developers
devijvers Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Those upgrades could possibly include: > - vertical X axis, That's what this is designed for! > - bowden cable extruder Errr... what? For a mill?! Don't understand this! There are vertical X axis designs that include the extruder, no need to mess around with Bowden cables and their problems (I have a repstrap wby droftarts - Developers