Monday, September 30, 2013

Build Log #38 - New BOM and X Ends

Just uploaded version 4 of the Bill of Materials. Some of the prices have changed but added a few more options as well. I replaced the Wade Extruder in favor of my Direct Drive Vert-Xtruder. It requires lesser parts and was designed to be compact. It is also compatible with multiple hotends and mounts on Wade Extruder mounting holes making it a versatile extruder. 

Get the new BOM here!

The X Ends have been redesigned from a press fit to a zip tie fastened operation. The design was actually inspired from the Printrbot Simple. I was able to run into Brook Drumm, the creator of Printrbot, at the Open Source Hardware Summit and had a nice long chat with him. We started talking about the Printrbot Simple and asked about his design decision in using zip ties to fasten the linear rods. Brook stated that even though he cut a lot of corners with Simple, zip ties works surprisingly well in fastening the linear rods. I figured I could do the same with the 3DPrintMi's X Ends since it takes a bit of muscle to press fitting the linear rods. The new X Ends is a big improvement, cutting 25% of it's original volume and knocks 30 minutes out of the print time. It requires 8 zip ties to fasten the rods but it's definitely a lot easier to assemble. Thanks for the advice Brook! 
X End Motor ver2

Last week, I exhibited the 3DPrintMi at Makerfaire NYC and got a lot of positive feedback.  I had a lot of fun besides being covered in dust by the end of the weekend. 

Nicholas Seward with his RepRap Simpson & Reprap Wally

I finally got to meet Nicholas Seward and his two repraps, the Simpson and Wally. He's a great guy and I really got to give him props for developing two completely different repraps in matter of months. The Simpson is really fun to watch and it's something out of a sci fi movie, sorta reminds me of the tripod monsters from Half Life. Wally looks very elegant yet sturdy. It's not as crazy as the Simpson but it's still unique in it's own rights. It was great to witness it come alive and print it's first piece. Nicholas was having a bit of trouble getting it to work at first since he told me the TSA handled it like a ragdoll during check in. Watching both run at the same time was definitely mind boggling. The reprap Morgan did make an appearance but not the creator, Quentin Harley. A few fellows from Minnasota? came all the way down to NYC to exhibit the RepRap Morgan. Another great machine and well deserved first place Gada Prize winner. Before I left, I was able to get a picture of all three Gada Prize winners together. 
Gada Prize winners!

More pictures here

Also want to say thank you to the people that sent me photos of their 3DPrintMis to showcase. People were really impressed that it can be repeatable. 




If you guys made it this far, if you can be so kind of to fill out a quick survey for me, that would be awesome. 

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Build Log #37

Time for a quick build log. Logged about 10 hours of print using the 3DPrintMi Plus with the E3D Hotend and it prints great! I made a few changes to the new Direct Drive by adding a filament guide since the filament buckled as predicted. The only thing I dislike about the E3D is the fan mount. It doesn't have a tight grip on the heatsinks so it just vibrates, creating a god awful noise. I'm going to have to ziptie down because I can't have that type of noise during Makerfaire NYC.

Speaking of Makerfaire, I will be exhibiting the 3DPrintMi this year in NYC. I'm pretty excited and I hope 3DPrintMi gets at least some publicity. I really don't think the RepRap community knows about the 3DPrintMi, even after it placed third in the Gada Prize. When Josef Prusa did his presentation, "State of the RepRap," at the Open Hardware Summit 2013,  I was pretty disappointed that he only displayed the first and second place Gada prize winners, the RepRap Morgan and RepRap Simpson. For whatever reason, I just hope 3DPrintMi will make an impression at Makerfaire NYC. Please come see me at the 3D Printer Village!
Exhibit #11402

Also, I revived my first 3DPrintMi and gave it a new home. It now resides at the Hackerspace, Ideas to Things. 
3DPrintMi Mini

For those wondering about the Direct Drive extruder, it's now up on Thingiverse. So far, it only has the E3D mount but working on a Ubis and JHead. The Ubis is currently being tested and been hearing good things so far.
Vert Extruder



Little sneak peak on the re-designed X Ends I'm working on. 
Re-designed X Ends