The curious case of an arrested reprap

Ii´s very strange how a project that really fascinates me and I would very much like to finish can suddenly lose all momentum and seize to catch my interest enough to do anything work on it. As you probably guessed thats exactly where my mendel is right now. It´s parked in a corner of mye desk, bathed in yellow light, NOT producing fantastic objects from my imagination ...

An update! Oh my!

So it´s been forever since my last post. Not done too much on the mendel (Huxley), but I´ve got most of the parts now. iPrint3D sent me electronics, motors and wires, so I should be good to go. I have spent a lot of time staring at the electronics and trying to figure how it should be wired up, I´m not doing very well (with the understanding, I´ve gotten pretty good at the staring).

I bought a ATX-power supply, cause I was under the impression that the mendel got it´s power from that, but I can´t find any such info so I guess thats how the makerbot does it. The mendel needs 12V for the stepper boards but the main board gets power from the USB-TTL wire, as far as I can understand. I think the Extruder controller draws power from the main board. There´s also a USB-connector I can´t seem to find much info about. However I guess i can always hack the ATX-P-supply to power the stepper boards.

Tried to assemble the x-axis onto the frame and discovered that one of my leadscrews were anything but straight. The ones I got now are plain studding, I guess I´ll cut new ones from stainless steel since that is supposed to be a bit straighter and better.

Frame after putting the x-axis on, getting annoyed at how hard the right leadscrew was to turn, partly disassembling the x-axis and realizing the leadscrew was horribly bent.

Here´s the bugger, If it looks like its real crooked it´s cause it is.

Thou name shall be Huxley

After listening to "A short history of nearly everything" by Bill Bryson yet again, I got inspired to name my mendel. Thomas Henry Huxley was a fellow biologist of Darwin and became an advocat for evolution, and will be given the honour of giving name to my reprap (or was it the other way around). So I hereby name my mendel "Huxley". *cheeering* Now all i need is a name-plate.

The frog is on the move

Finished up the parts for the y-axis and assembled them on the frog-plate and threw it in the frame. Always a good feeling seeing things work in their intended position. Fascinating to see how compact everything is. Every cutout on the frog-plate is needed and gives it a little more travel. I reckon there is quite a bit of thinking and refining that has gone into the designs.

Finally dawned on me why the build-platform has that little cutout as well, haven´t seen the purge plate beeing used around the web though. Seems like a thing most people skip.

I think iprint3D is getting around to assembling my electronics as well. According to their schedule my order is being worked on this week. Lets hope they do and that I´ll soon have all the stuff needed to complete my mendel.

Assemblies

Got some of the assemblies that make up the x-axis finished. I don't have the stepper motors or the extruder finished so there is only so much i can finish up. I also think my mudguard washers are too small. Can´t find any that are larger either, so I'll have to come up with a clever solution to that one.

Carriage without the extruder on top

Idler bracket

Vert bearing 180

Vert bearing 360

RP-parts! Halleluja!

The real news today is that DHL delivered my set of RP-parts! They only used 4 days from the U.S. door to door, while another package I'm waiting for was shipped 4 days before this one and still havent crossed the Atlantic.

Just like us neatfreaks like it, sorted in bags and with a checklist :) I bought the set from reprap forums user beverageexpert, he comes highly recommended. Fast delivery, good quality parts and a very nice guy.

I could finally assemble something after a few months of careful preparation, getting hold of all the different parts. I still need to get most of the electronics, but with these parts I'm a huge step closer to something that looks like a mendel.

A few hours of work later I got most of the basic frame done.

M3-capscrews

Finally got hold of the M3 capscrews today, ended up buying them from the RC-shop. Got some 23mm and some 25mm as they didn't have 20mm. Let's hope they will fit.