Willow's First Complete Mendel Offspring!

Willow has recently completed it's first complete set of Mendel parts!  It looks to have taken about 30 hrs to print (plus my load/unload time) and consumed just under 2 lb of UltiMachine Natural PLA.

They are on eBay starting with a $49.99 opening bid.  I have cleaned them up some but have not reamed the holes.  They come with a certificate of lineage (for anyone tracking that) suitable for framing.  Check out the eBay listing for more information.

A Failed Experiment with Kraft Paper

After seeing the new Makerbot ABP I was curious about build surfaces.  One that I thought might work was Kraft paper.  It has a similar surface to painters tape is very cheap and could possible allow for a ABP type conveyor.  So I taped some down to my build board and tried printing.

The results with a small part were very good, although the paper seemed to lift up where it was not taped down.

I then tried larger parts where the results were probably usable, however they were VERY warped (although the pictures do not show it very well)...

Still Running Strong

I am still running strong and have started printing Mendel parts again.  I have been using RepSnapper from the beginning and have been very happy with it.  Although there are a few cases where it will crash while slicing (usually because of strange geometry, but I have not determined exactly why.)

I have not decided what I will do with my set of Mendel parts once they are printed but I am about 75% complete on a full set of parts.

Printing with PLA again!!!

Clear PLA illuminated with a red laser

More progress was made today when I managed to find settings to print again in PLA.  I had to turn the temperature up to 220°C (which I thought I tried before to no avail...).

 After getting the temperature tuned in I adjusted the feed speed, material width, & layer thickness.

And I am back to results close to what I had before the heater failure...

Printing Again!!!

Now that my brothers wedding is over and I have caught up on things that fell to the side, I have had some time to start printing again.  Since I was having some trouble with PLA before and some luck with ABS I thought I would work with the ABS for a while and see how things were working before trying to figure the PLA out.  The part I tested on was something I have been thinking about since I got my new Droid X.  The speaker is on the back and it does not carry the sound to the front very well, also I thought it would be nice to have a stand for it.  So I designed a dual purpose stand/sound director. (my first useful, non-reprap related, design.)

Here you can see the inlet hole for the sound (lower left)

A test print to check the fit on the phone (you can see the sound path)

24min 40sec to print

My first test print (slot for phone was too small and I had a de-lamination toward the bottom)

As you can see I am currently printing very well with ABS.  I could tune it in a little better but I am pleased with the results (especially with no heated bed...)

I think I may print a few more parts with ABS then go back to PLA and see if I can work out the bugs.

Some Old School Fabrication and a Parts Delivery

As I have mentioned before, my brothers wedding is coming up next Saturday and I am making the dress, kilts, and belt buckles.  Here are some pictures of the progress so far. (and more over here)

(The design was drawn by me and embroidered by my mom)

(Preparing the skirt to be hemmed)

(Serging the hem before sewing on the horse-hair braid and turning up the final hem)

The dress is almost done and I am going to start my kilt tomorrow (My brother and his friend are making thier own).  It will be a busy week...

On RepRap related news I recently received an order from MacMaster-Carr and once the wedding is over I hope to get back to debugging and building some new heater designs using my new drill press.

(1/4" brass threaded rod, acorn nuts, tee nuts, 5/8" PTFE, and ceramic insulation)

(6' each of 1/4" PTFE and 5/8" aluminum)

My New Pocket Computer... (Another Birthday Present)

My wife gave me an amazing new phone for my birthday (which is tomorrow)... a Droid X.

This phone is very impressive and is faster than an old tablet PC I have, which brings up a great question "Will someone please port OpenSCAD to Android?"  That would be cool... and right along the lines of a recent Open3DP post.