Back to R&D, phew!

Finally got to spend some more time working on my new RepRap design, so I guess I owe people a picture. We've been busy reorganising our business, looking for new premises, increasing our production volumes of PLA at Diamond Age Solutions and developing new stock. Anyhow, thanks to Her Majesty giving me an extra day off, The Simpleton design is now back on track.

As you can see, I'm opting for bevel gears to drive a cantilevered Z axis that in turn supports a cantilevered Y bed. The smooth tubing is all extruded aluminium, and both Z and Y axes have 608 bearings. Nothing is yet in its final place, and I still haven't designed the actual Y bed, but this baby is going to turn heads when she's done.

Yes I am using rather a lot of threaded rod still - it's the material for the job and because of the cantilevering I actually want a bit of weight in places. But there are a lot of places where the lighter aluminium tube can be used, and a few where it can be replaced with lengths of bamboo or whatever you have handy!

New Filament Shelving

I built some shelves from my most despised construction material: MDF. The plan was designed to produce the shelving unit from a single 2440x1220mm sheet and seems to hold together OK with panel pins and PVA. I'll need at least another two shelving units to hold the rest of the PLA and ABS stock though.

The plan is to put webcams on the shelving and then people can see exactly what Diamond Age Solutions Ltd. has in stock at any time. So can I, which makes re-ordering easy.

If anyone wants a copy of the plans, pipe up.

RepRap design

I've made a few parts and tried them for fit. The frame seems to basically hold together, so I'm moving on to designing some of the Y/Z axis. I really ought to do something about those simple little brackets on the end of the bracers, 'cos that won't fly in the final version...



Also been working on the new Diamond Age website upgrade, assisted by Ania.

How To Make RepRap Nozzles

The above is the crib sheet I use for making an extruder. The ingredients are: 18mm PTFE rod (can be whatever), 18mm SS hose clamp, 45mm M6 brass bolt, M6 brass dome nut (can be plated), 4 Ohms of nichrome wire, 100k thermistor, slightly diluted fire cement or fireproof rope cement from the solid fuel supplies house and PTFE "thread seal" tape.

Basically, you make it look like this:



I'll add pertinent details as people ask awkward questions. Or I sell them for NZ$55 and ship worldwide :)

The main issue people have with PLA extruders is that they leak where the brass barrel screws in to the PLA. There are many complex machining options, but the easiest is to wrap the barrel with PTFE tape, screw it in, and then add a heavy stainless steel hose clamp over the join. That holds it!

New RepRap Under Construction

The new design moved from virtual to real world over the weekend. I found longer sockets are going to be needed, and you really need to avoid having the layers print along the length of the sockets. Still, a mock-up is starting to take shape in the workshop.

The Z axis is looking like being even more unusual than I'd originally anticipated. But simple. Very simple. The drive mechanism isn't on the plans yet...

The X carriage sits on the top 2 rails. It's my one-piece design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:9385

The Vik Has Cleared The Tower

Due to pressures of work and family, I've had to make a tough decision in a real hurry. Consequently I'm now my own boss, Diamond Age is now a full-time RepRap company, and I get to finish off my exciting new RepRap design. Not all details are ready for public release as I don't want to have an embarrassing climbdown. However, I can give you a picture of the tubular frame layout as a teaser :) Build area (red) is [180,220,180]mm

Bronze Age Arrives

With help from Ben, I've fired up my forge again and smelted some bronze. The Winter is coming in these parts, and the surrounding bush is now sufficiently damp for me to not worry about setting it all on fire. Just to make sure we're now sporting a spark arrestor. This year the forge has a 110mm centrifugal 12V blower that I printed myself on the RepRap:



The blower is in turn powered by a car battery with a dead cell, charged from a 5W solar panel strapped to the awning. I just drilled 4mm holes into the battery terminals and use 4mm banana plugs for everything. As a bonus, I can plug in a LED spotlight which lights up my nocturnal smithing activities.

The flowerpot used as the forge's firebowl has fragmented, but it was far too deep anyway. Time to spend another few bucks at the garden centre and get a more bowl-like flowerpot. But we're back working metal again, and this makes Winters bearable for me!

I hope to cast bronze in plaster moulds made from RepRap'd cores, but for this test we just cast it into a crude charcoal mould.