The "Simpleton" RepRap design continues apace. Now I have the snap-on X carriage figured out and enough pieces in place to wire up the electronics. A few things to sort out still: Some access to nuts is too tricky, the bed corners bump into the endstops a bit early as does the Z axis, the Y captive nut is wrong, and the access to the X drive rod bearings is going to need to be redone.
Still, as it sits on the bench it does a 210mmx190mmx170mm build envelope and weighs 3.6kg, so I haven't lost too much space or gained much weight. Time to start the finer details like built-in cable management and proper endstop holders.
Quite proud of the little CNC-mill-like handles to manually adjust X & Y :)
So, what's the objective for this design?
ReplyDeleteI think he's following the idea of simplicity and using very little in the way of fasteners. Things like nuts/bolts/washers are a fair part of the cost of many machines, so being able to avoid them where possible really reduces the price.
ReplyDeleteVik: So if you're looking to drive the motors at more than 1/8th of a step, isn't it going to be noisy?
The theory is that the fewer types of bits are needed, the easier it is to build. Obviously, the fewer bits, the easier too.
ReplyDeleteYes it will be noisy, but there will be a belt drive later.