PLA Parts

I got a hold of part, printed from a mendel. that got parts printed from a mcwire.

so my parts 3ed gen reprap. that s the good news. the bad news is now i get to trash my mcwire. i dont get to see it print :(

the only parts i plan on taking off of it are the electronics and steppers. so if anyone want a boost in to repstrap send me a email or post a message, i am allso on the reprap chat room a lot now. i allso have left over parts, like 1/4 thredded rod, and two spar set of the screws i used, a bunch of screws, bolts nuts, etc

my first part of building my mendel was wades extruder.

Its amazing how fast it works with parts made for what your doing. in the photo the hot end is not attached just a press fit. All so the thermocoupler is not attached. So there's a little more work on the hot end. If you look careful you can see a drill bit in the background. Thats the shaft that the press bearing sits on. I will replace it with scrap 5/16 rod

This is one side of the frame. I need to buy 2 more 6 foot bars to cut down for the cross beams. And then all i need is the smoth rod. All of my rods are 5/16. In the usa its all most half the cost and about the same size.

This is my profile of the hot end.

On Electronics i have mounted them to a board of mdf. I tried using the a Nokia Ca-42 cable, but i could not install the driver to talk to the computer. So i order a 5v sparkfun tll board. I have alot of mini b usb cables. This setup worked for me.

On software, i plan on FiveD. And hoping on getting Reprap host working. I get an error from what i think is 64bit compatibility. Or Repsnapper which is running.

My First "Printed Part"

Theres this program out h called Pepakura. I have designer 2 of this program from an old life.

This program can take an STL model and Skin it. Turning it in to a 2d image that can but cut out and then folded back in to a 3d model. Download the pdo for this object

This is how i printed a part with out a 3d printer.

This is what i did in 15 mins of cutting and 5 mins of glueing

Screen shot of the program. On the left you have the object in this case is the Frame Vertex for a mendal. On the right is the 2d of the object. Pepakura let's you move around any face on the object in the 2d area. Joining edge's for folding or glueing. There's all so an auto unfold that works well, but all most all ways need so help on getting the object on one piece of paper or making it easyer to build it item.

printed page from pepakura

Cut page from pepakura

Cut out from the page

after the first folding of the paper

Just after Glue. white glue works well. dont use to much or it will take ages to cure

So far just following the build for the McWire.

i have not mounted the steppers yet. but i did add the threaded rod.

this is a 285MM LEAD-SCREW AND FOLLOWER from http://allelectronics.com/ (it looks to be sold out. And i would not know wear to get more).

mounting this was harder then i thought it would be. What i endded up doing on the X and Y axis was cutting C Blocks out of MDF. tapping them for a 4 40 screw to lock the Follower in place. you can see the bolt at an angle in the photo.

Then tapping a 4 40 screw to hold the bock in place from the top of the board.

It works well, i can adjust the lead screw up and down, and change the angle left and right. we will see how it holds. I cant change the angle the lead screw up and down. that angle is based on the face of the inside of the C block.

i tryed doing this with out the c blocks, just cutting out the shape of the follower, and tapping the mdf, what happen was me splitting the mdf.

This is how i messd up on mounting it. i endded up cuting out the bad part.

The new lead screw should give me a faster travel speed on the X and Y axis. As i hear the slow pitch of the 1/4 threaded rod is one of the biggest down sides of the mcwire. This may be a fix for me, but not for the masses. As the rod's can not be rebought

Some time on the build

After getting 95% of the mcwire built.

Stay away from acrylic. It cracks, it shatters, its just bad. For the bed use mdf, its cheaper, easyer to cut, and there less waist because of cracking. if you use anything thicker then 1/4in then you will need longer bolts.I ended up just drilling down and ressesing the bolts's

For the swing arms once they brake i will be making them out of aluminum sheet's.

The most importation holes to drill are the aluminum channel. They need to be centered. If there not then its hard to get them centered. And then you cant get the nut in to the channel.

i will be posting photos once i get my camera back

Spending money

Not much has happen besides spending alot(for me) of money.

From makerbot

• Bearings, 2 sets $10
• Arduino MEGA $65
• 5LB of ABS $50
• 3 opto end stops $9
• shipping $22

total $151

From METALS DEPOT

• aluminum channel $20
• aluminum angle $11
• shipping $14

total $46

From POLOLU

• A4983 Stepper Motor Driver Carrier x 4 $55
• shipping $5

total $60

From Alltronics

• Bipolar stepper motor x4 $32
• shipping $13

total $44

From mcmaster.com

all of the fittings total $61

Homedepot

• pipe fittings $20
• acrylic $20

total $40

So far i have spent 402. Which is more then i though it would be. It could be lower, but i wanted to just order the stuff. before i was shopping around for items getting the best deals. Now i just want to make some more progress on it.
But thinking about it i might have only save 30 bucks on the McMaster order.

What is left. Parts for the extruder, putting all the electronic together. So wire's connectors, stripboards, cap, and resisters . Its funny how you think i am almost there untell you make the list of things you don't have.

I hope this gives people an idea of how much you will spend on making a mcwire

20 Dollars and 5 mins

After a quick run to the hardware store droping 20 bucks on fittings and pipe i got this

Its the start to a McWire Cartesian Bot v1.2 Its bigger then i thought it would be.

Had a hard time finding the right 3/4 3/4 u channel . So going to search for that in the morrning. I did find 1.5 angle 1/8 thick which i didn't think i could.

Now i need to cut out the decks. anyone know how thick each one should be, i check the bom, and the build. all i can find is the printouts, but nothing on how thick it should be

A long road starts with the first step

I hope to document my progress in making a 3d desktop printer. There is an open source project going on called Reprap. this device will let you print a 3d printer. But theres one problem. You need one to make one.

Or another way to say it is did the chick come before the egg?