FoldaRap Buyers Guide
This project was for myself, as I need/want a RepRap that's easy to carry around and for the challenge of making a folding 3d-printer. But I believe in open-source and sharing and all the revolution behind that. Thus I try to well document it, in case others want to make one; to acknowledge all the things we own to those who went before, and to encourage those who come after to do the same.
On a more long-term view, I don't plan to create a company out of it, I'd better hope to see it grow on itself in the wild, just by indicating how to source it. I have more fun in designing stuff than marketing it, nonetheless I may try to sell few beta-test kits (bulk ordering is good for prices), eventually via a crowdsourcing campaign or by request, maybe with the help of my hackerspace. Just for the experience of it and to say I can push a project to that point :D
(almost all the projects I did during my design studies could have done something, but I never found the time for that and they ended sleeping in their drawing books which is sad; while now I have taken the habit to publish everything, even an old one sometimes).
"Ideas are like living things and breed happily in an open-source context" as I like to think ^^
Bill Of Material (BOM)
Total end cost : 400-500€ (without shipping costs)
A draft BOM is available on Kitbom
My spreadsheet is a little more detailed, but beware that it's still highly experimental and not fully tested yet :)
Hardware 1 handle 5 20x20mm beam 6mm slot 200mm - Aluminium_profile_Suppliers 6 20x20mm beam 6mm slot 300mm 44 M4 T-nut for 6mm slot 44 M4x8 round head bolt 2-4 S6x16 T25 Core Screw - (optional) M3 bolt - (need to recount) M3 bolt - (need to recount) M3 bolt - (need to recount) M3 bolt - (need to recount) 10 M3 nut 10 M3 washer 6 LM6UU 4 300mm smooth rod 6mm - (can be salvaged from usual scanners and printers) 2 230-235mm threaded rod M6 2 5mm to 6mm machined coupling (can be replaced by printed ones) 4 M6 nuts 4 623 bearings (= 3mm inner diam.) 2 626 bearings (= 6mm inner diam. - optional for z upper constraint don't recommended yet) 2 570mm T2.5 belt 5-6mm wide 2 T2.5 machined pulley (or printed ones) 1 PTFE Tubing for bowden extruder (2mm inner diam. and 3mm outer), 300mm long - See Bowden 2 Pneumatic fittings for 3mm tubing, with M5 thread - See also Bowden 1 mini-hyena or other direct drive gear 1 extruder spring and 1 M3 or M4 long bolt +1 according auto-locking nut
Electronic 4 nema14 stepper motors - [1] 1 extruder motor - nema14 or geared stepper like the PGL35-048 [2] 1 mainboard - (Azteeg X1) 4 stepper drivers and 4 little heatsink if not already supplied with them 1 usb to mini-usb cable 3 40x40mm heatsink (optional, for the motors) 3 microswitch endstop 1 power supply - RS 7066316 Txh 240-112 (100*150*35mm) 1 standard male plug IEC C13 C14 1 standard female cable EU/C13 x wires (for the endstop or lengthen up other wires) 1 big blue switch (optional but much cooler with it) 1 eMaker/RepRappro Hotend 2 100k thermistors 1 140x140mm heatbed alu plate 3-5mm thick 1 peltier element 12708 3 bed springs
Printed parts (total : 21) foot front left foot front right foot rear left foot rear right hinge-inner left hinge-inner right hinge-outer left hinge-outer right z-motor-bracket left z-motor-bracket right z-top left z-top right y-motor y-idler y-carriage y-belt clamp x-end-motor x-end-idler x-carriage extruder-idler 2 board mount
optional : 2 printed couplings +8 M3 nuts +8 M3x15-20 bolts +8 M3 washers + eventually some 4mm inner diam. 6mm outer diam. silicon tubing (aka aquarium tubing) 2 printed pulleys 1 rubber roller -1 623 bearing -2 M3 washers lasercut reprap.org plate(s) +2-4 T-nut +2-4 M4x8 round head bolt
Partial or complete kit
When the first prototype will be operational, I'll list all the parts on Kitify for those who prefer to order a kit rather than source all the parts.
Fully assembled machines
After extensive tests, the FoldaRap will be probably also available via a known French supplier of robotics :)
These time they will be sold as plug-n-play machine (assembled, tested, and ready to run).
