So I’m without the RepStrap until Thursday or Friday, and have time to post to the blog while waiting for pizza. 🙂 This blog post will mainly be pics and video.
First, Saturday was successful in that I printed several parts for my Mendel RepRap. Some pictures of success:
z-leadscrew-base-bar-clamp_2off
z-axis-opto-spring_1off. I need to try printing this on its side. 🙂
z-opto-bracket_1off
z-bar-top-clamp_4off
There were also less-than-successful prints. Here was one I was particularly sad about, because it was looking so good before it died (and broke the entire RepStrap, yet again). I’d rotated it in Blender first to try printing it on its back:
pinch-wheel-bracket-NEMA17_604-bearing_1off, rotated to print on its back
Here’s a pic of all of the parts I currently have printed for Mendel (printed Friday/Saturday):
Mendel Parts So Far
And another view of that “spring” piece, which didn’t print too well but will probably work:
Video of those pieces, and of some of the recent failures:
Now, a suggestion about unattended printing.. Don’t rely on a Rovio that’s on the floor to see if your 3D printer is merely still moving. Once it’s done, you might see something like this:
And finally, you know you’ve been thinking about RepRap too much when you go to a football game, see this, and think about a RepRap extruder:
Not a RepRap extruder
excellent !! you seem
to be very much into it
and of course as we discussed on
way to the Pats game, the three D printer
and replicator has very romantic
implications for the world
of nanotechnology. Even your pics of the repraps
going awry, make us tremble at what might happen
in the molecular & micro world !
Dad
Very cool stuff. I recall once seeing where somebody had used some kind of 3D printer to make parts for an atomic-force microscope. Ah, found it: http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=2304.php. The 3D printing process is laser sintering, where the laser melts powdered metal to form solid metal parts.
Great work Jeff!
B.t.w. Amazing, this 3D printed AFM! I’ve just asked the author to put it on thingiverse. This is so cool 🙂
Glory Ragland
I found a great…