Sunday, December 27, 2009

Belts and a Build Surface





Yesterday I fitted the drive belts that transmit the drive from the stepper motors to the X and Y axes.

Also fitted is the build table (clear plastic plate in the middle) which is moved by the Z axis. When the machine is running, parts are printed onto the build table layer by layer.

The Z axis lowers the build table by about 0.1mm after each layer of the part is completed.

Tomorrow: Starting on the wiring and the construction of the plastic extruder. Smoke testing is rapidly approaching :-D

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Slidey Stuff



The RapMan kit is now fitted with both X and Y axes.

Other items of interest:
The Y axis motor and drive shaft.
The Carrier for the extruder, mounted on the X axis.

Signs of Movement


Yesterday (Yes WORK on Christmas day) I got the X and Y axis slides installed.
Installation of the bars that the linear bearings run on took much use of the eyechrometer. This is due to the bars needing to be perfectly parallel.

The beast is starting to get quite heavy... I may not be photographing it on the deck soon.

Due to the design of the clamping parts things keep slipping around from time to time. If the fastenings are tightened any more the magic CLICK comes out of the acrylic and I'm delayed by another 12 hours waiting for glue to dry. Hopefully it will stay square enough while building parts.

Friday, December 25, 2009

RapMan Squared :-D




Well I have all the cross braces installed and I "think" all the sides are now square as they will ever be...

Several hours spent on the Bits From Bytes forums revealed that the supplied assembly jig is 2mm longer or shorter than it's supposed to be...
Needless to say short of creating a temporary black hole in order to adjust the laws of physics. Pythagoras' theorem is always going to apply...

Applying TLAR (That Looks About Right) my eyechrometer and mostly ignoring the jigs seems to have worked.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Another New Toy to Build!


Firstly a little history:

A while ago the rapid prototyper at work let some of it's magical blue smoke out. While discussing the options around the round table, I suggested we look at the RepRap project.

About two weeks later I was emailed a shipping confirmation telling me that our shiny new RapMan kit from Bits from Bytes was on it's way.

Now that exams, pyrotechnics, a music video and visiting family are all over I've been able to get started on the build.

First Impressions:

My camera barfed while writing to it's memory card so I lost the unpacking pics :(

A lot of the laser cut acrylic parts have stress fractures in them :( I've only seen this happen after cleaning laser cut acrylic with xylene before.

After three days I now have a cubical structure assembled that is proving very difficult to get square.

Adding to the fun I managed to break a couple of the acrylic parts... Solvent welding the breaks with trichloroethelene works but it takes aaaaaaagggges to dry. Where did I hide that tube of super glue?

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Walk Through Fire

I was approached through a friend of mine about doing some special effects for an upcoming music video. My first thought was count me in!

Final product is here Making of shots etc are to follow as they're sorted through.

Hello World

I know I know, it's a geeky way to kick of a blog...

Here over the coming months I am going to start documenting what keeps me busy in life. This is the start of my big scary portfolio.

Hope you all enjoy my musings and creations.

Patrick.... Is joining Web 2.0