It has been a while since I’ve posted, so I thought I would post an update listing the things I have printed so far on my RepRap.
The first few things I printed were Opto Endstop mounts, which I’ve been using ever since. There are three of them on my machine.
After that I printed 20 diagonal tie brackets. I had made a few of them out of MDF, but they didn’t work well and I wanted to replace them. The Darwin designs call for 20 of them, so I had to print these out to complete the build and make the frame rigid. There are two of them in the image below, one white and one black. I printed several of these parts during the Ann Arbor maker faire.
After that I printed three y-axis brackets. In the above image, it is the part on the top. All three of them are in use on my machine.
I printed two parts that are connected to create a fan mount. Unfortunately, I don’t have a convenient spot on my carriage to mount a fan, so I’m not using these parts right now.
I attempted to print a Y motor coupling several times, but this part was unable to handle the stress of the job and every part eventually cracked. I’ve given up on this part and have instead made a coupling out of a steel spacer.
The Darwin design was updated between the time I started on my MDF version and the time I finished it. One of the more interesting changes was the Z flag mount, which is now easier to adjust. I decided to print it out. I haven’t put it on my machine yet. I’m still trying to figure out how to add it without taking the whole machine apart.
I began to print extruder drive blocks for members of the RepRap-Michigan group. The first two I gave away. The third one I still have. Each one has slight changes and improvements. This is a part I designed. It is loosely based on the NEMA-17 extruder drive blocks used by the Mendel design. I modified it to use a NEMA-23 motor and a larger idler bearing.
In hopes of improving my print quality, I started using Skeinforge instead of the RepRap Host software to generate the tool paths. I printed many bed clamps while I calibrated the new software and I ended up with four nice pieces that I put on my machine.
I still had problems printing fine details, so I picked a part from the Mendel design that was a big challenge and tried to print it. I had to change to the 5D firmware to get this to print out well. I now have 9 of the 10 y bar clamps required for to build a Mendel. I will likely give these parts to someone in the RepRap-Michigan group.
After that was settled, It was time to start printing some useful parts. I want to rebuild my X-axis since it has a lot of play and loose parts. Yesterday, I printed the first part toward that goal. This is the x-carriage and is the largest object I have printed so far.
That record didn’t last long. This morning, I printed the x-motor-mount, which is a little larger.
I’ve printed a couple smaller X-axis parts today. It has been a very productive weekend. I expect to have all the parts for the X-axis printed today. Most of the remaining parts are small.
