MakerBot
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| Hive13 Project |
|---|
| MakerBot |
| [[<flickr>4027591597</flickr>|200px]] |
| Status: Active |
| Start Date: 07/01/2009 |
Contents
New Page Layout
This page needs a little bit of an overhaul. Work in Progress...
Notes/todo:
- MakerBot Status
- Do you want to print something?
- Gallery of printed objects
- Log of fixes, tweaks, skeinforge settings
- http://groups.google.com/group/southwest-ohio-reprap/
MakerBot Status
As of 11/14/2009: Working!
Roadmap
Make More 3D Printers
- Print a spare extruder for MakerBot
- Print Mendel parts
Buying the Kit
Pledgie.com fundraiser
- We're gonna buy the kit as a club.
- Dave purchased it and the club will re-imburse him via this pledge drive: http://pledgie.com/campaigns/5391
When is it coming?
- The kit has arrived (to Dave's house). DaveMenninger 20:49, 13 August 2009 (UTC)
Building It
Tools and Parts we still need
This is what comes in the deluxe kit but not in the basic kit that we ordered:
- a USB2TTL cable to talk to it
- cat5e cables to wire things up
- a standard ATX power supply
- a tools kit with all the hex keys, wrenches, and other bits you need to construct it.
- a full 5lbs of ABS plastic so you can print your heart out (in addition to the 1lb of ABS)
- laser cut build foamcore build surfaces, and a spare build platform
We really need:
- the USB2TTL cable
- http://store.makerbot.com/cables-and-wires/usb-to-ttl-cable.html
- http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=70
- http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=TTL232R
- http://www.trossenrobotics.com/store/p/5890-USB-Serial-Interface-Conn-V2-0.aspx?feed=Froogle
- http://www.acroname.com/robotics/parts/S23-USB-INT-ASSM.html
- some cat5e cables - we should have on hand at the Hive or we can make some
Painting / Sealing Before Assembly
- varnish or paint first? or just build it naked?
- nope, i couldn't wait. maybe we can paint or stain it later. DaveMenninger 05:39, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
Assembly
Even more photos can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_menninger/sets/72157622034653288/
Day 1
Here is how far I got on Day 1. DaveMenninger 06:02, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
This is what you see when opening the box of laser-cut parts.
This is the so called "kit of kits".
This is the middle with the front and back attached.
These threaded rods raise and lower the z-stage.
This is the platform that raises and lowers, known as the z-stage.
This image shows the z-stage assembled and the top attached.
The bottom of the MakerBot attached.
The pulleys (and z-stepper) have been added to the top.
Day 2
Here is how far I got on Day 2. DaveMenninger 05:01, 19 August 2009 (UTC)
This is the X stage with the Y stage mounted on top.
This is one of the endstop opto-encoders that detect when the MakerBot reaches it's limit in the Y direction.
Day 3
Here's how far I got on Day 3. DaveMenninger 05:06, 19 August 2009 (UTC)
The small dino holds one side of the extruder.
The big dino holds the other side of the extruder.
Closeup showing the captive nuts in the acrylic.
The motherboard and the three stepper motor drivers all mounted to the side of the MakerBot and plugged in.
Testing / Calibration
Minor Issues
- z-stage stepper was wired backwards. (In all likelihood the other steppers are backwards too, but they are currently left as-is).
- fixed this by just plugging the z-stage stepper motor into the driver board backwards.
- z-stage was getting caught on the screws holding on the electronics on the side. was unable to descend.
- fixed by screwing the screws out a bit. we should find shorter screws, bigger stand-offs, or put the screws in the opposite direction.
- slight asymmetry of circular objects.
- y-stage belt was very loose, x-stage belt was slightly loose. tightened them up.
- build platform not perfectly level
- still working on this. it is a combination of leveling the top of the y-stage and keeping the z-stage perfectly parallel to the bottom of the bot
Extruder not extruding consistently
We had problems with extruder not extruding for quite a while. We could get it to print consistently by applying downward pressure on the ABS filament during printing, to prevent it from halting. Eventually we started to play with the settings in Skeinforge and were able to get much more consistent results if we increased the nozzle temperature and slowed down the filament feedrate. Since making these adjustments we have had barely any halting of the filament.
Object solidity
We're still working on this, but we found we could increase the solidity / watertightness of objects by tweaking several settings in Skeinforge. I don't have access to what settings we changed, but I will try to remember to look them up. Objects are not perfectly watertight yet, but we are closer.
Design Projects
What to Print First
- When it is done I think the first thing to print should be a shot glass to toast its own birth:
New objects to design
- I'd like to try to build and open source version of some of these biped robot kits: http://www.lynxmotion.com/Category.aspx?CategoryID=85 DaveMenninger 14:48, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
- http://www.amazon.com/Sprouting-Strainer-Lid-Wide-mouth-Sprouter/dp/B000N8MRW8
- parts for the Eggbot
Other objects to print when we have time
- (we take requests)
- http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:638
- http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:958
- http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:968
Hive13 Coin
- make a coin similar to http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:648 with a Hive13 logo on it instead
- maybe the coin can be hexagonal?
Misc Links
- these may need to be turned into other pages for CNC, RepRap, etc
- http://bitsfrombytes.com/
- http://wiki.muc.ccc.de/reprap:start
- http://www.villageplastics.com/
- http://objects.reprap.org/wiki/Software_Tools
