Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Far too long


Well, this post is irresponsibly late (six months so)!
It's to be expected perhaps, when working and taking classes, and largely ignoring my printer, but it feels wrong. So, here's a recap of things that have been changing.
I've removed the heated plate while working with PLA, because blue tape works by itself so well... and because I damaged the temp reading board it was using.
The Makergear Brutstruder is working gracefully, with no issues whatsoever after the initial hiccups of breaking it in.
The linear bearings are holding out very surprisingly well, given how cheap they were to build. I temporarily swapped them with a Mendel inspired x and y carriage lowrider, but found that the rod stainless steel rod that was bearing the weight was stripping, and became ruined. I expect that this was a result of bad tolerances on the part of the printed components, and will try again with some slightly redesigned parts.
On a whim, I moved the Z-belt under the 'roof' of the printer's body, as wires (and fingers) were catching in the pulley. It works just as well, and has not yet constricted a build's height.

CupCakeStrap was able to produce parts for two Prusa Mendels before needing repair (about 30 hours printing, total). One of these Prusa Mendels has been constructed and supplied with sixth-generation electronics, and now software issues are being ironed out. Getting the Teacup firmware to play nicely with Replicator G has been a chore, but it's nearly functional as a printer.