2011-05-20

3D party

Well, I am planning to have a bash at making the 3D printer tomorrow. May turn in to a party if I can persuade a few of my geek friends to help out. I'll take along a bottle of whiskey just in case. Ask in irc if you want to join in :-)

I still have no idea what we will "print" on it when made though...

9 comments:

  1. Can it print more 3d printers reprap style?

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  2. Its a sort of up-market rep-rap, in that it has some nice water jet cut metal sides, but is basically the same thing. So it can make anything a reprap can - i.e. all the plastic parts of a reprap.

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  3. On my own here, no suprise.

    No pictures as a particular son, who shall remain nameless, has STILL not returned my memory card.

    And now off to homebase as I seem to have a near complete set of 27 out of 28 Allen keys, and guess which one I need right now.

    Good start to the day.

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  4. Oh, and now I find a distinct lack of soldering iron. And I know who has borrowed that.

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  5. Now have soldering iron!

    Missing M8x40 bolt.
    Holds for motors are M4 not M5.

    Off to get a drill bit.

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  6. Well, short of half a dozen M4 hex nuts, off to homebase as the really usful shop we went to before closed a minutine after we got there...

    The mechanical bits are almost all done now.

    And James has turned up (he had to bring the soldering iron, shame about the solder).

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  7. Well, not exactly a party.

    James turned up because him mum insisted he damn well find the soldering iron. The solder took another few hours, and whilst he did hang around he did not work. Sorry, scratch that, he did pass me a screw at one point, reluctantly.

    It is getting late and on my own again - I have finally managed the mechanical construction completely. Looks pretty good.

    The missing M8x40 was my fault, I mis-used one as a different bolt and ended up with that left over at the end, and the penny dropped.

    The lack of M4 hex nuts was a real pain, especially as a pack of 5 from homebase was £2.14 FFS...

    I am still short one M4 hex nut so, but somewhat non critical.

    Next is making up the stepper motor controller board from components and sorting the connectors. Then firmware loading, testing and playing...

    This better damn well be a fun toy when it is finished - it has certainly made me work for it...

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  8. "The lack of M4 hex nuts was a real pain, especially as a pack of 5 from homebase was £2.14 FFS..."

    screwfix.com product code 17307, £3.97 for pack of 1000. Ok, overkill as you probably only needed one, but you'll find a use for some of the rest.. (or your kids will 'borrow' the rest!)
    It's an excellent example of why you don't go to homebase, b&q or similar rip-off merchants for this sort of stuff...
    There's a store in Reading and they're normally open quite late, so you have no excuse :)

    Does become rather dangerous if you're local one is only five mins away like mine :(

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  9. I know! I know! but none of the alternatives have the advantage that I can put down my screw driver, walk to homebase, get bolts, walk back, and carry on with only a few minutes wasted. You pay for convenience.

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