CAD assembling and review

Got some work done on my printer, most of that time was spent putting all the revised parts into an assembly. I also started to add every nuts and bolts into the assembly so I can get an accurate part count and give me an easier time to build a BOM. I also plan to do a quick study on the ratio of printed parts vs. non-printed parts once I finalized everything. 

X Motor ver2

X Pulley Idler ver2

Frame Brace

Y Pulley

Y Motor

Z Mount

Y Carriage

Partial assembly of the revised bot

Well, hit another problem with the Y Carriage. The 2nd version I designed turned out to be way too high and I won't be able to mount the pulleys unless I add something long to clamp which I'm reluctant to do. After much brainstorming and doodling in my notebook, I came up with a different design but would require me to print vertically but it shouldn't be a problem. Back to the drawing board.

Printed out the Torture Test part to see how it would turn out. To be honest, it looks like shit and was hoping it would turn out better. I really think Slic3r goes full retard sometimes, adding unnecessary travels and goofy perimeter paths. I need to play with my retraction settings due to get rid of those pimples. Bridging came out alright but could work on it some more. Tolerance range from .05 to .2 which isn't bad at all. Brim + hairspray + glue stick really makes it stick to the HBP so no need to worry about curling at the base. 

Short clip of printing

Haven't been able to update lately. Still working out the kinks on my next design. Most of the time I'm sitting on the idea about how to make an adjustable Z endstop into my printer and looking over the Y carriage. I've been asked to print a couple things for my girlfriend so I figured I run both my printers to get things done. 

Holy crap they are freaking noisy as hell.

I've been playing around the idea of combining hairspray/glue stick combo to prevent my prints from curling. It's been working pretty nicely although some prints are a pain in the ass to remove. I'm debating to remove the kapton tape and see how it goes since it's getting torn up to pieces. I think this weekend I can get back to work with my printer.

The evolution continues

Z Mount front side

Not much was done to the Z mount. Slotted the mount holes and added fillets for additional support. Also changed the thickness of the base from 8mm to 12mm since there was a slight flex when I applied a perpendicular force at the top of the Z rods. 

Z Mount back side

Increased the Z rod housing further down so the Z rod would have more contact with the base. This would also reduce the torque enacted at the top of the part and spread it out more evenly.

Y Carriage redesign

The Y carriage was original design to be printed out, ideally, on a 152mm x 152mm heat-bed. However, that's never the case depending how your heat-bed is setup. Since I'm using boriscillate glass, I need to use binder clips to hold it down which decreases the print area slightly but enough to make this print a tough one where it might not even fit to begin with. Looking at the possibility of making it even more miniscule, using 6mm bolts to hold it together. This is still in the works but I'm reluctant in using a piece of wood as my printbed. 

Rapid Evolution

The mutant bot has been chugging out prints without any problems and I'm surprised how well the QU-BD turned out to be. After putting 12+ hours into it, I haven't experienced any jams or filament shredding. The prints are coming out so nice that its on par with my highly tuned Printrbot+ if not better. The machine doesn't wobble as crazy as I thought it would be but it's turning out to be a solid machine right from the get go.

Motor couplings

Motor couplings....at a different angle!

The motor couplings came out nice. They should be able to fit acme rods perfectly but I want to try using M6 rods as my lead drive. 

Had a guest over who wanted to see my 3d printer in action. Instead of firing up my Printrbot+, I figured it was a good opportunity for the mutant to print and demo. Never printed a bracelet before but it came out nice!
Twistlet by barney

Already started redesigning the mutant, starting with the first two parts I designed for the original; the Y Idler and Y Motor. The big change was slotting the threaded rod mounts. It was a pain in the ass sliding the parts through 4 threaded rods and I always end up cutting my finger during the process. 

Y Idler

I changed the pulley idler mount to a simpler top mount. Even with a thicker base from 6mm to 8mm, I was able to reduce the volume by 19.25%

Y Motor

The motor mount remained the same as before but with the slotted threaded rod mounts and thicker base. That alone reduced the volume by 14.7%

The next part to redesign will be the Z motor mounts. I also been thinking about adding a duct fan to deal with the overhangs. With the QU-BD extruder, I have very little clearance to work with so I'm going to experiment with this fan duct idea I have in mind.