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People building or using RepRaps.
Re: X Y axis accuracy doubled. - 14 years ago
Thanks Spenc. brnrd. The benefit's are not just in accuracy but also in the reduction of torque required by the motor. Having tested the accuracy quite thoroughly. The extruder system available are very accurate. The thread consistency is almost perfect and so if you have all the settings correct you can easily reproduce the accuracy to the limits of the X Y axis. The tricky part is on internaby Madkite - Developers
Re: How RepRap has improved my life - 14 years ago
As I have a lot of tooling it is not quite the massive leap in my capability to manufacture that it might be so some people. But it is still fascinating to set it going and with a little luck and skill get the object you designed to come out nearly finished. I have fixed stuff I would normally throw away with it too. As well as it making bits for some jobs! I fixed my headphones. I always breakby Madkite - General
Re: Does RepRap Assemble Its Clone? - 14 years ago
johnyradio, chill out. Its a fun project people do in there garage. None is that strict or serious here. And we can all go wherever we want with it. That's whats fun about it.by Madkite - Developers
Re: Constant high-speed printing - 14 years ago
I found it becomes much more difficult to get nice results from the extruder as you try to make it work faster. 60mm/s is the max reliable speed I can do. That's the actual speed reached. Faster than the and it starts to become increasingly difficult to keep quality. When I discussed this in a thread I started that it seems to need a lot more pressure to extrude double as fast. Someone did expby Madkite - General
Re: [Slightly off-topic:] Wealth without money? - 14 years ago
Other issues are about law. Taken for granted, many of the social habits do work against society. For example, the rights to heritage of parents ownership. Most of ppls take it for granted and think that is correct. Mostly because our stone age families were close enough to the parents stone tools to be able to claim them. There is nothing right about that, never was. Around 150 years ago we saidby Madkite - General
Re: X Y axis accuracy doubled. - 14 years ago
The Kevlar replaces the steel and it is stronger and more flexible so does not crack and snap like the steel banding does. It is more expensive however. But not by any considerable about regarding the length required for a reprap.by Madkite - Developers
Re: X Y axis accuracy doubled. - 14 years ago
You can buy it here. I'm sure other belting shops carry it too. I would run the belt like that if I built a printer from scratch but it was an impractical solution when modifying Mendel. I rather like the way the belt runs on that printer though.by Madkite - Developers
Re: X Y axis accuracy doubled. - 14 years ago
I ended up putting the Kevlar belt on the Y axis. But the X axis is still running the same old steel cored belt and bending it both ways with no problem! The Kevlar is better though being more flexible so going round smaller pulleys is possible. But I don't know why it is fine on the X but not on the Y. While that configuration would stop it bending both ways it would require extensive modificby Madkite - Developers
Re: Self-replicating machine - 14 years ago
Basically evrything is adjustable. So as long as the parts go together you can mate it work accurately. So the accuracy depends more on you than the parts. Of course good parts make fitting it together less time consuming and easier.by Madkite - General
Re: Toothed belt VS ball chain - 14 years ago
As you mention chain. What would be wrong with a small drive chain. It would be super strong and last for ages but it would also have a lot of weight to be thrown about. wonder if I can print small sprockets?by Madkite - General
Re: Interested in RepRap, but have some questions! - 14 years ago
If your thinking airfix kit type detail then this is way off that. This particular process of 3D printing is not the most detailed. It is great at making strong plastic parts and can do some models. Terrain maybe. But nothing really spectacular. It really depends on the scale but from the sound of it you may be wanting more detail than this process will ever probably do. Some of the otherby Madkite - General
Re: Complex part, G-code memory limit? - 14 years ago
As the Gcode is sent to the reprap as it prints its the sending devices limit. Processing might take a long time though. I doubt if you would be able to use up the memory of a PC with anything practical to print. Or even the memory of an SD card. But if you can I would be interested to see a picture of it.by Madkite - General
Re: How to remove ABS stuck on Kapton covered Aluminum Bed - 14 years ago
I print on Kapton at about 115c and after letting the bed cool I remove it and give the parts a tap with a piece of wood and a small hammer. Probably not a good idea if you don't have a removable bed. But it does work really well and tends not to damage the parts unless they are really delicate. Obviously this is not a good idea for things like gears where you would be hitting a tooth. Unless tby Madkite - General
Re: Skills gained from building a RepRap - Your thoughts please. - 14 years ago
Skills! Patients. But I already had that. Frustration. Obsesion. Staring. Fume Tolerance. Experimenting. Problem solving by systematic elimination. But I have always done that. Dedication. Tea and biscuits.by Madkite - General
Re: Why are filament spools so expensive compared to pellets? - 14 years ago
I have been trying to find how commercial machine get rid of the air and so far I'm not sure. Does anyone know or is the air removed by the screw pump process itself?by Madkite - General
Re: X Y axis accuracy doubled. - 14 years ago
I replaced and reconfigured the belt on the Y axis this weekend. Turns out you can run the belt under the studying without modification. I just had to take out one of the motor screws or the belt hits it. So now the angle around the Y cog is reduced I will see how long it lasts. Got some Kevlar belt to try next time too.by Madkite - Developers
Re: Why are filament spools so expensive compared to pellets? - 14 years ago
You are also not considering that the ONLY other application for this is plastic welding. The volume is very little so there are probably only a handful of companies in the world that have bothered to get the tooling for there injection machines to make this stuff. And if you have very little competition then why not make the money. You took the risk of getting the equipment. Unless your undercby Madkite - General
Re: Why are filament spools so expensive compared to pellets? - 14 years ago
If you looked in to it I get the feeling the volume of plastic we use is minuscule compared to any other industry. I'm doubting this will come down anytime soon as 3D printing itself is only really useful if you do 3D drawing as well. Not to mention the complication of running and building the machine. That leaves a small number of people able to do it in general. And then you have to be intereby Madkite - General
Re: Buying mini lathe in UK cheaply? - 14 years ago
The Sherline is a good mini lathe too. But it depends what you can find second hand for that money. You normally get what you pay for with machine tools.by Madkite - General
Re: printer speed average test - 14 years ago
I'm getting the distinct feeling that there is a practical limit to pushing plastic through a .5mm nozzle. The only way I can see going faster now with my hot end is to have thinner layers so I'm depositing less. Which makes the build time the same though you might get a nicer finish. The other way round it would be to have a bigger size nozzle so it pushes easier and keep the layer height tby Madkite - General
Re: X Y axis accuracy doubled. - 14 years ago
KSevcik Thanks for the comment. I hadn't worked out the torque calculations but the acceleration and to speed way exceed what I can make the extruder do anyway. That's why I was thinking about the accuracy more. The reduced torque is just a side benefit really. The X belt lasts just the same it appears. The Y is my problem right now as it only got through one reel of plastic and failed. A cby Madkite - Developers
Re: X Y axis accuracy doubled. - 14 years ago
Greg Frost The reduced backlash is because of the reduced strain on the components that pulls the carriages back and forth. I had a big problem with X axis backlash which this completely solved.by Madkite - Developers
Re: X Y axis accuracy doubled. - 14 years ago
Well I can report on belt breaking problem now. So far I have had the Y axis not break but the steel banding inside snapped and so it stretched out causing massive inaccuracy. I'm thinking of getting some belting with Kevlar banding instead for it. Curiously though the X axis shows no sign of deterioration. And the breaks happen to the sections that pass over the drive gear most frequently. A sby Madkite - Developers
Re: printer speed average test - 14 years ago
Your test needs to test for short lines that often occurs with infill. Not just to test if they infill properly but to see if the sudden change in direction causes missed steppes. I have been trying to increases the speed of my printer and the mechanics of the moving parts has not been the biggest problem. The problem is getting the plastic to come out fast enough. If you have ever tried pushby Madkite - General
Re: Where do I start???ARRRRRGGGGHHH!! - 14 years ago
If you build a Mendel then get ABS parts. 50% of my problems came from key parts being PLA. If you want to print straight out of the box then you will need to get something like an UP. These printers come with there own fancy software making it much simpler I would imagine, but they have a large price tag too. If you read a lot of the troubleshooting threads in the forum then you will be ableby Madkite - General
Re: Where do I start???ARRRRRGGGGHHH!! - 14 years ago
I got the Mendel parts kit so I can tell you a bit about it. The kit is really quite good. You get everything. The biggest downside id its all in PLA. PLA is fine for most of the parts but the x carriage, extruder and the Y carriage mounts for the heated bed really need to be in ABS or you can warp them with the heat easily. Use sprinter firmware or teacup withe gen6 board. Gen6 is easy to useby Madkite - General
Re: Wavy vertical walls - 14 years ago
Sounds a bit slow. I have settled for 55mm/s as my gen6 tends to get errors sometimes where it moves at the maximum speed without aceliratnon and if I go faster it can skip. Is the problem the extruder will not work any faster or it keeps missing steps on the X/Y? Why no firmware acceleration? I have found this to be extremely useful. It was hard to make short lines infill properly on small pby Madkite - General Mendel Topics
Re: Experiments in high speed printing. - 14 years ago
I found the problem. I didn't need a delay nor should I have had to add extra advance like you said nophead. It was all because of the pinch wheel. My old one was straight and brass. The sharp edge had worn off the teeth and it had never been really good. So I made a new one which I turned a curve in that was the tapping size for 3mm by .5 tap and hobbed it with the tap. I made it of silver sby Madkite - General
Re: Upside down Mendel? - 14 years ago
I very much doubt weather it would fix any hot end pressure or oozing issues. The weight of the components is negligible compared to the forces being exerted on them. Gravity would have little influence. Running the extruder before printing upside down would make a messy problem though. The z axis could be actuated by a ratchet system on a solenoid (Or mechanical system hit my an axis.) now iby Madkite - Developers
Re: Experiments in high speed printing. - 14 years ago
I'm not sure about that. It might work with your hot end but I'm curtain it wouldn't with mine. And I have spent much time observing and testing things out. Mine would just put a thin thread down until it started again. It has a delay so that it doesn't extrude until it has pushed a bit through so you need a little extra push or the tread is not the correct diameter. Maybe delaying it would workby Madkite - General