Thanks for all that info. I decided to go with the kickstarter. I currently have the GEN3 electronics on a hybrid machine and there are some much nicer features on the GEN4. I agree that $49 is the best pricing there is going to be for that, I quoted the full set at some of those you mentioned and several others and they all came back much higher. Thanks.by goinreverse - Controllers
I have been looking to get PCBs for the makerbot GEN4 electronics made or for purchase and didn't have any luck finding anything until this week. Looks like the guy behind cubely has a kickstarter up for a batch order: . $49 seems a little steep but it is a lot of separate boards. Is anyone aware of any other sources for the PCBs only? The pricing on having them made was worse than $49 from seedby goinreverse - Controllers
Being that these patents are hardware they would effect all US, Canadian, Mexican and EU countries and whether it is for personal use or non-profit motive is usually irrelevant. As to whether distributing "kits" would infringe is a matter best left to specifics of the case and a judge.by goinreverse - General
Seems like a couple of the fundamental FDM patents have/are expiring: Still quite a few remaining but the most direct and problematic are already expired or are expiring this year.by goinreverse - General
@Forrest, Rereading your posts now I mis-understood originally that you meant skip the whole bootstrap to begin with and just build a mendel directly from laser cut parts. I am completely in favor of that if possible. I think that would change the equation in terms of laser cutting costs and the hassle being worthwhile. Is there any good tool that exists to slice stls into DXF either commercial oby goinreverse - General
@Forest, in the same paragraph I also identified the problems with local laser cutting services. When I tried to get the existing mcwire parts laser cut my options were all over $150.00 and with 4-20 days lead time. I also had little confidence in the result as almost all of the shops assumed thousandths even thought the DXF was clearly in metric, or were not able to read the DXF, it was a nightmby goinreverse - General
I think it is a complete fallacy to compute things as only time or money, time and money are equal. Certainly in different ratios for different people. I think a rough budget needs to be set which include hard costs as well as time-money. The most efficient solution that is proposed taking into account both those values should win out. To me assuming a value of $10 US or $7EU per hour makes reasby goinreverse - General
It would be great if tonok could indicate how he overcame the makerbot extruder extrudes too fast for the threaded rod problem, if the mcwire actually works that's great but this seems a little second or third hand on details. Not sure on actual statistics but 1 or 2 people who have succeeded means there is about a 98 or 99% failure rate...by goinreverse - Administration, Announcements, Policy
I guess what seems to happen a lot is that interesting threads get moved out of general and then die almost immediately... Maybe that will work better when people can just merge their mailing list boxes.by goinreverse - General
I really don't think local is important, I think if they are available from mcmaster (or other major distributors) in the US (no idea for europe) that should be fine. Mcmaster has next day UPS ground shipping to at least 30% of the US (place by 7pm you will have it next day by 4pm for cost of regular ground, mcmaster has its own fleet of trucks I think). That would also open up about 300,000 moreby goinreverse - General
Did they document how they solved some of the blocking issues? I have a mcwire right here and as documented I can't possibly see how to print some of the mendel parts? Which extruder did they use? Let along that it would take at least 200 hours printing...by goinreverse - Administration, Announcements, Policy
To me these forums are so split apart and things get moved so often it drives me crazy already. Why is it so important for a project that seems driven not to have official leadership to be so obsessed with staying on topic? My preference would just be a single list with all the post going back and forth in a singular forum, to me there isn't enough volume as is to warrant the dozens of subforumsby goinreverse - General
Though I facetiously advocated for that in the forums, I swear it wasn't me. I do think that the mcwire page needs some sort of disclaimer that it probably cannot be used to build a mendel, at least as is, or at least noting that to date no one has successfully done so without without extensive work and cost beyond what is reflected in the posted instructions. Perhaps: "There is substantial debby goinreverse - Administration, Announcements, Policy
I should clarify I meant under $1000 including electornics, frame and linear motion. Good luck, I look forward to seeing what you come up with.by goinreverse - General
I was comparing the linear motion to the existing linear motion sub-package substituting 8020 parts where applicable. If you can get ponoko to ship you something in less than 30-40 days godspeed to you, also their tolerances seem to be pretty wild sometimes. The quote was 1010, I show it as about 50ft so consistent with you. The economy t-nuts are pretty cheap at $0.14 in 1 count? There is alsoby goinreverse - General
The nylon rack doesn't come with mounting holes and it has an inherent bend because of the molding process. It just doesn't really want to stay where you put it very well. I thought the steel was expensive until I realized it was coming in 4 or 6 ft lenghts. 6ft for $50 in steel with predrilled mounting holes I think or $6 for 1 in nylon... I think sdp-si has cheaper steel rack I think but I canby goinreverse - General
I'm not trying to convince anyone, agreed that results speak for themselves... and makerbot is showing everyone else how it is done. I think their problem is just they can't (or barely can) keep up with demand at this point, As I understand it Adrian is a major investor in makerbot... not hard to see why. I hope they do reach 10,000 3D printers in peoples hands. Seems like all your points are theby goinreverse - General
Most of the CNC threads I have followed on cnczone.com (I think?) seem to end up with ball screw arrangements. I have not delved very deeply but they superficially anyway seem to have the best characteristics for heavier loads. Ball screws offer the accuracy of threaded drive with the speed of belts, tradeoff is that generally ball screws are costlier. On what I am working with I am employing raby goinreverse - General
@Sebastian: "I'm working on the inaccessibility on a number of fronts - email me for details, but trust me, you don't want them." Of all the crucial things to publicly discuss in the forums that sure seems like the #1 priority to me. "So - given that I am the leader - I regard one of my jobs as being to prevent leadership..." - Adrian Bower Perfectly fine for him to take that position, 100% conby goinreverse - General
@Sebastian As I already posted in previous threads I just think the reprap project is waning, it is turning away new contributors with inaccessibility and attitude at a profound rate. Further I fundamentally disagree on just about everything with the founders and current core team members. Certainly it has been forked before but I don't really think it has been credibly forked except by makerbot.by goinreverse - General
X and Y I have been right on the cusp and definitely under .1mm, I am side tracked playing with extruder tech right now so I have something printing wise that can use high accuracy motion. Two primary problems on that, nozzles and driver motor. I am waiting on a higher torque motor to see what the highest pressure that can be achieved with the feed through is. Turning by hand crank I can get theby goinreverse - General
There is a big difference between practical accuracy and theoretical accuracy of the underlying frame and traversal movements. I think the real target needs to be .01" (0.04mm) with components selected on that basis. Extruders are seeing dramatic improvements right now with the work that everyone is poking at (through feed, paxtruder, bowden, pressure management, makerbot MK5, etc) going downby goinreverse - General
The thing with makerbot I see happening is that it makes absolutely no sense for them to sell parts and kits for just electronics or subsystems from a business standpoint. As long as they can continue to sell out of complete kits each batch it is pointless to sell part kits. To do so is just taking away from the higher margin complete kits and fostering 'competition' from other projects. Given thby goinreverse - Next Wave Electronics Working Group
Stephen, Seems like very nice work. Could you blog or post somewhere the more specific details about what you did, how you did it. I.e. the specific parts and so forth. Also have you actually succeeded in printing some of the trickier mendel parts like the extruder carriage and other motor carriages?by goinreverse - General
You can easily make the mcwire plastic parts with a drill press and circular/table saw. No laser cutting necessary, also per the other recent threads if you want to use a mcwire to build a mendel it is practically infeasible right now (200-400 hours of printing time, no one appear to have ever actually done it).by goinreverse - General
I have in fact printed parts of the mendel, specifically the frame vertex and the extruder carriage, plus unsuccessful attempts at several others. As for the fellow with the higher speed threaded drive, that is a fine idea but he using completely different motors and drivers than are recommend in the mcwire instructions and in a mendel frame setup (rather than mcwire which has a lot more mass inby goinreverse - General
I've got to disagree on the danger, there is inherent risk on this whole project. Running around pushing voltages through nichrome wire to 400+ degrees with homebuilt electonics while inhaling ABS fumes and dust is itself rife with dangers. My concern about lasers is just that people are less aware of the possible risks of blindness even when you can't necessarily see the beam. To me the generalby goinreverse - General
The mcwire is all "mushy" to me, tolerances are huge and the bearing arms are not really rock solid. I looked at trying to do a belt driven but it ended up being possibly another $70 in belts, pulleys, plates, thrust bearings, additional mountings and it just didn't seem like there was a good clean way to mount it. There are some of those problems with the rack and pinion but they just seemed morby goinreverse - General
I am currently using the 1010 (1" solid) but have some of the 20-2020 (20mm solid) on order, it is potentially a cheaper option. The 1" works fine and is rock solid but probably overkill. I am shooting for a 2'x2'x2' unit with a build area around 1'x1'x1' . An optimal design to me is one with X/Y movement of both the tool head and the base if you want to support a variety of operations and the aby goinreverse - General
I am currently experimenting with this rack and pinion from mcmaster (nylon, cheap): 57655K63 57655K53 There are a couple minor issues to work out. I mounted the rack using small holes and set screws through the face. This is not as secure as I would like, the rack has a natural tendency to pull away from its mounts and bend into a U because of the way the nylon is molded. I will be using epoxyby goinreverse - General