... in my old CNC-mill-repstrap i have ball-screws with zero backlash, so it's good for milling with higher speeds and forces and massively overdesigned for 'only' driving the extruder- and laser-heads (but i use it as mill too, so it' no problem ). The only pain is the main-screw, which seems to were driven without proper lubricating and with a much to high compressed ball-screw, so it have novon VDX - Mechanics
... for induction-driving without magnets: - the common toothed rods can be found as "rack and pinion"-setups. When using the rack-teeth instead of magnet-poles, it's the same as with non-magnetic stepper-motors - the active coils 'snap-on' at the nearest tooth, so with more slightly displaced racks and fitting coil-arrays you can build the same fine-moving linear motors as with the magnetic setvon VDX - General
... for my Tripod-linear-drives i made blocks from PTFE (Teflon) with M5-threading, what seems to work very good without lubricating - it's a bit tricky to adjust the grip/play of the threading, as the PTFE is a bit elastic when tapping ... Viktorvon VDX - Mechanics
Hi Andy, ... i recently made some experiments with a micro-WIG-plasma-system (WIG = TIG) for welding small steel-parts with 0,1 mm accuracies and lower ... The particular system ( ) is capable of plasma-cutting too, but it's much more injected energy and spot-size, as i imagined by 'micro-plasma-welding'! So we stay at laser-welding for our parts ... Viktor *** Edit: for micro-gas-cuttingvon VDX - RepLab Working Group
Hi Russ, ... look for ready made beaded wires as used in window-rollos. The connecting to a loop can be made with cast-molding the two ends with a molded bead ... Viktorvon VDX - Mechanics
... here an update: The guys at Supermagnete.de didn't sell powder, VAC didn't want to give their parts away, so i actually didn't find usable NdFeB-powder, but will try further ... For a selfmade approach there could be made some hard-magnetic powder by chrunching down big magnets with a ball-mill or try to find ready NdFeB-resin-strips (should be silvery-coloured instead of brown-black as witvon VDX - General
... with some evolution in compilers and hardware-capability the developing of software should change to a self-optimizing path with self-evolving algorhytmics ... Maybe some of you remeber the 'Meme-volution', where a japanese professor tried to use an open-source-approach and the time/interest-span of users to evolve sniplets of code like genetic information to evolve software over time and elvon VDX - General
Hi Demented, ... my '3D-points' are the representation of the smallest units of the object - with a 1mm thick tray it schould be something like a 1x1x0,7mm cubicle (length x width x height) ... So it's obviously, that with a 0,5mm thick tray you have 0,3 to 0,4mm thick slices with 0,5 mm distance between the trays, so you can calculate the amount of '3D-points' per slice. If i want to reduce tvon VDX - Reprappers
Hi Demented, ... it's your decision: - (very!) fast'n'easy or slower with a complexer toolhead. The main problem in 3D-printing is the fabbing-time. If it's no problem for you, wait many hours to days antil your part is finished, it's OK ... I think around how i can reduce the fabbing-time drastically but enhance the accuracy too! Most of the 3D-printers have to process every 3D-point of thvon VDX - Reprappers
... i would use a head with more vacuum-dispensers (like a star with 4, 6 or more dispenser-needles) Gripping a ball: - the actual dispenser activate vacuum an dive into the ball-support, until a pressure-sensor measure that the dispenser is blocked. With small balls the vacuum can be switched off, as the balls stick with adhesion to the dispenser-tip. For the heating: - either heat the dispensvon VDX - Reprappers
... i'm a real fan of 'organic designs' - imagine a halfsphere from resin, which consists of several separated inner sectors, that can be pressurized and evacuated through valves. When you set a tool on top of this, you can very precise move and point the tip in different directions ... With other designs you can perform more travel-range, higher forces and accuracies and build objects, that cavon VDX - General
Hi Joe, ... i think, ready manufactured copper-wire should should be alowed to use for a reprap Here i discussed a linear stepper motor, that could be self-made from iron-bolts and copper-wire for the coils. Some other sophisticated parts (screws, nuts, ...) are also easier to make in a different process, so it's a fuzzy definition, what's a core-reprap and what's a repstrap ... When pointivon VDX - General
... as long, as you can't fab the bed, the struts, all feedings, belts and especially the electronic and motors, ist's mainly a repstrap - Darwin and Mendel are assembled of metal-parts with many components as screws, connectors, cables and other stuff, you buy ready from shelve elsewere ... I think the first 'real' RepRap would be something pneumatic or hydraulic with heat- or pressure-morphedvon VDX - General
... please give me feedback for the accurate dimesion, so i can calibrate my dimensioning befor output STL-objects (as i mostly measure and construct in microns ) ... Viktorvon VDX - Let's design something! (I've got an idea ...)
... when in 1986 i got my first CNC-mill, the first try was to go away from etching PCB's - so i hacked a program on my Atari-ST, which could scan for lines in Bitmaps, make contour-outlines and export them as HPGL. Then i made a driver for the mill, which milled the HPGL-files - this were fine outline-insulated PCB's with big copper-areas between the tracks. For double-sided PCB's i manually dvon VDX - Mechanics
Hi Ian, ... AFAIK this +-5%-inaccuracy is the 'springy' area, the magnetic fixed rotor can be moved with changing load or tangential forces on the shaft. So it's on the design and the right torque-selection to compress the error-range ... When you do microsteps, then you have this 'springy' area around your microstep-positions too, so when you have a setup with constant load, then you can measvon VDX - Mechanics
Sean, ... should be possible - print a paste with a very high amount of solvent, print with a second dispenser a paste on top (and/or vice-versa for multilayers) which didn't shrink, then separate from the bed and let it dry or heat it up to evaporate the solvent. I had shortly a similar problem with soldering glass-powder ad waterglass+water as solvent - when dispensed it was good, when firingvon VDX - General
... i have first to bring my repstrap to full functionality - it's a big CNC-system designed for professional milling (costs new something about 4 - 6000Euros or so and was used as glue-dispenser), so i'll order a better mill-head first. With the freedom to make all my parts at home i can do anything i want, as the system is capable to handle wood, plastic, aluminium, brass and can do PCB-engravvon VDX - General
... printing unfolds from imported STL-objects with pepakura is possible without registration, but you need it for exporting in other formats and saving your changes in the PDO-file ... When i'm working with milling, then i didn't want the glueing supports, so i'm searching an alternative, which should outputs vector-paths (HPGL would do for example) too. AFAIK some CAD-programs (for sure Amapivon VDX - Mechanics
Hi Demented, ... the 'normal' mouse-driver isn't so accurate and loose steps over the travelling range, so you have often to recalibrate your position. The idea was to use the mouse-sensor as 18x18-pixel-camera and extract the outlines and moving of the lines on the ribbon wit ImageRecognition-software as error-resistant position-info ... Viktorvon VDX - Controllers
Hi aka47, ... you need two synchrone scissors for good accuracy, they aren't linear and the load-stability is different in height, so the screw-drive-elevator is actually the better alternative. --- By the way: look at the appended image - i constructed a simple L-shaped test-object with holes, exported it as STL and imported and unfolded in pepakura-designer. Actually the designer can only pvon VDX - Mechanics
... i have to wait until January with the next massive orders, as my actual private limit is reached ... But some infilled sheet-work is possible, so why not experiment with this idea? As printing a complete 3D-object with high accuracy is heavy time-consumpting, so why not print only 3-layered surfaces (1 layer for the hinges, 2 additive layers for stiffness of the side-parts) or mill from thvon VDX - Mechanics
Hi Adam, ... with 'dot-printing', 'polymer' and 'heating' i think on a print-head, which didn't extrude drops from a continuous stream, but place little polymer-balls, which are hard when picked up, then heated up and placed as melted droplets ... Think on a support of small polymer-balls, from which a pick'n'place vacuum-dispenser takes ball after ball, heat and insert them in the next point-pvon VDX - Reprappers
Hi aka47, ... i knew some german metall-etching companies, which make similar 3D-objects from flat metal-sheets. Look here: - with the papercraft-designer you can convert a 3D-STL-object in a paper-modell for cutting and folding. When you mill the outlines with a CNC, then you can make the same from thin aluminium-sheets, so you can fold them to 3D and infill with polyfilla, plaster or similavon VDX - Mechanics
... for good optical measures you can salvage old printers, as they mostly have a plastic-ribbon with printed lines. I remember a thread with optical encoders and measure-ribbons as topic with some vendors for ordering the single components, so this kind of measuring should do ... Viktorvon VDX - Controllers
... as with my actual plans (and the tripods) i'm more on a repstrap-path, it's irrelevant, which of the two concepts i realize. With the CNC-mill-repstrap and an already working driver from the vendor the f@h-hostsoftware is more easy to convert, but the reprap-community is much more active, so it was my interest, that leads me here. I posted two or three times in the f@h-groups (as VDX, my covon VDX - General
Hi aka47, ... a common method for DYI-PCB-making is to print with laser-toner (=latex and graphite) on film or paper and transfer the printed lines by ironing the film or ironing and water-removing/solving of the paper ... For best synchronizing two-layered PCB's you can draw 4 fitting-pads and drill them before making the second side, so you can place the PCB exactly with inserting pins in thevon VDX - Mechanics
Hi Sean, ... remember nopheads curling-thread - with highly shrinking pastes you would receive a bended pyramidal structure, when you extrude a cubicle. So you have to fab filigrane bendable supports first, which would remove the stress between the bed and the object (this would be a solution for the curling of normal extruding too) Viktorvon VDX - General
Hi lordcat, > ... higher than 900c ... That seems not practicable with an extruder! Aluminum melts at over 600von VDX - Mechanics
Hi Sean, ... with overhangs you have the same limitations as with the FDM-extruder, what resulted in the 'teardrop-shape' of fabbed cavities ... With powder-melting you have a 'sandy' surface with the accuracy of the powder-granuity plus random coagulation-/adhesion-effects on the border between melted and untouched powder. For finer surface-finishing and much faster fabbing i try to realize avon VDX - Reprappers