Almost done with the mechanics

Today I've continued working on the mechanics. Everything is ready now. I only have to make everything level and tighten the bolts. As you can see, the extruder isn't attached, due to the problem I mentioned yesterday.

Just like yesterday, I encountered some minor problems. During the assembly of the x-axis, I noticed that there were no m3x10 screws for attaching the motor. So I used m3x20 with a lot of washers instead. It doesn't look as good, but it holds everything in place.

I also had to cut the bars holding the x-axis. They were made for the "default" Mendel and not the adjusted part I am using. So I had to adjust them from 495mm to the 463mm that I needed. Now I have 2 bars with ugly endings compared to the ones that were cut in the shop and have a nice and smooth edge. I also burned my finger during the process. I wanted to take the first bar after I cut it, but it was still too hot. Stupid me.

The bearings in the z-axis were really hard to get in place. There was not enough room for my wrench, so I had to use some small pliers instead. I think one of the bearings is slightly sideways because the left axis only turns if the lead-screw is slightly tilted to the right. I hope that won't be a big problem.

That's about everything I did today. I hope I can fix the extruder next weekend and attach the electronics and belts so I can start calibrating everything.

Starting to build

I started building the mechanical part of my Mendel this morning. I've encountered some small problems, but apart from those it went rather smooth. I started with the extruder. I couldn't find much documentation about it, so if I encountered problems I could ask for help while building the other parts. All the other parts have a nice 3D assembly that I can look at from every angle, but the extruder just has a few pictures.

Once I started building it, I noticed that the bolts didn't fit in the holes in the Idler-holder. I don't know why this is. Maybe Nophead printed the part with too small holes, or maybe Mendel-parts is using bigger bolts than the default ones, or it could also be a combination of both. The result stays the same, it doesn't fit. I don't really know how to make them bigger, as all my files are too big for that and my drill would make them round instead of hexagonal. Maybe I just have to buy a smaller file to do the job.
I also noticed an other problem. Because Mendel-parts assumes I use the older version of the driven-holder and I have the new version with the extra strengthening beam, the screw is too short. I'll have to buy a longer one for that. I should have checked it before ordering my parts.

After those small problems with the extruder, everything went rather smooth. I started building the x-axis. The wiki suggested to use m4x16 bolts for the x-idler-bracked. Those were too short, so I used m4x25 instead and added a second big washer so the belt is between two washers, which should be better for holding it in place. I didn't add the bars yet, as I'll do those at the end.

Once the x-axis was done, I started with the y-axis. The only problem I encountered here was that one of the bearings doesn't turn, even when the bolts are loose. I suppose its broken, so I put it aside. I think there are some extra bearings in the package, so hopefully I won't have to use the broken one. Again I didn't add the bars and went on to the z-axis. That one was easy, so I had a little time left to assemble the frame sides.

Below is a picture of my messy desk after a whole day of building. I hope the building will be done by tomorrow evening, so I can start adding the motors and electronics next weekend.

The last parts finally arrive

So on Monday the 11th my order from mendel-parts.com finally got shipped. It arrived on Wednesday, but as I only have time during the weekends I'm only posting about it now. The box was a little too small and the steel bars were sticking out of it. Luckily they were wrapped in bubble plastic. I hope they haven't been bend during transport. You can see the weird packaging on the image on the right.

Inside the components were packed in separate bags to make it easyer to find them. The only thing they could have done better is binding something around the kapton film, because it has some small dents and holes from other items pressing against it. (I removed it in the picture so you can see everything inside the box and not just the film) Everything else doesn't seem to have been damaged during transport on the first sight.

To have a better view on everything inside the box, I laid them out on my desk. The steel plates had a funny note on them that they could be sharp. It's like those sunshields for in the cars that say "remove before driving". Kinda obvious those things.

As you can see, the Gen 6 electronics are also in the box. There was even a certificate with them saying it was #14 ever made. They are really a lot smaller than the other types of electronics. I hope that doesn't mean that they can overheat faster. But I still have lots of unused ram-heatsinks if that would be the case. I made a closeup picture of them for you, so you can see how they look. I haven't taken the out of the plastic yet, as it could only damage them. I have enough experience with computer electronics to know that. 

Now that everything has finally arrived, I can start building mu Mendel. I know that I will get stuck at some point, but I hope someone will be there to help me. And now I'm going to start building. Wish me luck.

Arrival of the first parts

While I was programming the extension for mediawiki, some parts for my Mendel arrived in the mail. First one to arrive was the nichrome wire for my heated bed. It's just 10m of nichrome wire for my heated bed, so I don't tink a picture is required.

My broken soldering iron

Next package to arrive was a new soldering iron. I bought a very cheap one on ebay. One would think its just a heating element, so even a cheap one is good right? Wrong. After like 5 minutes of usage, I saw sparks coming out of the metal part. I send a message to tk-stores-494 but still haven't got a reply. They really sell junk, never buy anything there. As I wasn't getting a reply and shipping it back to them would probably just be more expensive then buying a new one, I decided to open it to see what was broken. It was all burned inside. That should really not happen after just 5 minutes.

As it was broken beyond repair, I ordered a new and more expensive one from an other store. The new one hasn't arrived yet.

The next day two packages arrived. The smaller package contained the extruder parts I ordered from reifsnyderb with a .5mm and .35mm nozzle. The nozzles are easy to exchange and everything looks sturdy. The bigger package contained the filament I ordered from reprapsource. It was nicely packaged and they even added a small sample of their black filament. I tried inserting the filament in the extruder, and it fitted nicely.

Today the plastic parts from nophead arrived. The box was smaller then I expected, but it was full of plastic. The parts are nicely made and have almost no errors. I hope I can make stuff with the same quality when my Mendel is finally working. To have a better look at them and see if nothing was missing, I laid the parts out on my desk. After comparing them to a requirement-list, it seems I am missing two x-bar-clamp-m3 and two x-motor-bracket-space. It is an old list, so its possible that these parts aren't needed anymore. I'll only know the answer for sure once I start building my Mendel. If anyone knows the answer, feel free to let me know in a reply. It seems its complete, I should learn to watch more carefully before posting.

That's all that has arrived for now. I'll post updates when more stuff arrives or when I did something else worth mentioning.

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to my new blog. First of all I'd like to say that English isn't my first language, but I decided to make this blog in English, so it would be accessible to more people. So don't expect a literary masterpiece.

A little more about myself: I am 22 year old student and live in Belgium. I'm currently studying computer science at the K.U.Leuven. I do some web-developing in my free time. The biggest site I help working on is unicreatures. I also like to assemble and modify computers for myself and for friends.

A few weeks ago I found this site reprap.org. It is a community project about making a self-replicating 3D printer. I really liked the concept and started reading more about it. I have a few drawers full of old pc-parts at home, and I like assembling and upgrading my computer. This RepRap however would be a lot bigger and harder to make, and has much more potential for upgrading. Sounds like fun.

I quickly realized however that it would be expensive to buy all the parts, so I started searching for the cheapest parts. I also wanted them to be of acceptable quality. To give an example: some of the plastic parts sell for under 100€, but it looks like they will fall apart within a month. That would just ruin all the fun, so I decided to buy the items somewhere in the middle of the price range. I ordered the plastic parts from nophead and the other hardware from mendel-parts. I asked both of them to wait a little with the shipping, so the items should arrive here around 13 September. I haven't ordered the electronics and motors yet, because it looks like mendel-parts will have some cheaper and less complicated electronics coming soon. 

Today then I decided to make a blog about my progression with the project. I plan to modify my RepRap in the future, hopefully improving it that way. Maybe my experiences could be useful to others, and this blog looked like the best form of communication to the rest of the world. I'll try to post updates with pictures whenever I do things on the project. For now though, my recreation time is over and I'm going to study a little more for my re-examinations. See you soon.