New Circuit Bed

Small update, laser cut the new circuit holder thing. now mounted on the side. looks a bit cluttered but should work out all fine.

Still waiting on the last few pieces before I can test to see if it works.

Laser cutting

Back at university again so I have access to all these wonderful high powered tools. Namely the one I've been waiting for is the laser cutter.

Had to do a design on the existing circuit board bed to fit all the electronics on. I may do another redesign as well. So I can attach a PC cooling fan to flow through the electronics efficiently and won't be in the way of the bed so much.

I also laser cut out some of the gears, because frankly they were terrible. Just look.

Things left for me to do.

• Extruder working.
• Installing on the Mendel.
• Redesigning Electronic board.

Things i want to do.

• Laser cut a case for the Mendel, as I am prone to dropping things on top of other things.
• Heated bed.
• Multiple extruders.
• Design detachable extruder heads and other equipment, Laser cutter, Milling.

Electronics have arrived!

8th Sept,

That was more of an ordeal than I was expecting. also taught me a lesson about ordering things from the USA it may seem cheaper but the import tax pretty much nulls that point. My own fault really should of researched it a bit more all learning experiences at the end of the day.

Not sure how much progress I will be able to do today, I will just solder everything up make sure the wires are all in place then order any other bits and bobs that I need to finish the project.

16th Sept,

I think everything is pretty much done, all I need now is a power adaptor, m4 studding and a thermistor then ironing out all the kinks I have been warned about. Sorry for long delay in posting but the electronics arrived the day before a festival I went too, then i needed a couple days to recover.

Messing around with Solid works.

I was messing around with solid works and thinking of how to turn my future Mendel into a 3D laser cutter as well as a rapidprototyper.

Now I don't really have much of an idea how powerful a laser I need but this laser claims it can cut through plastic (look at it tearing appart that very small peice of black polystyrene), well more research is needed about how powerful a laser is needed to cut through ABS in a reasonable amount of time.

I figured a way to get a semi circle of angular direction with just one motor controlling the pitch and yaw.

Problems that with the design and practicality.

• It is larger than the current bed can carry at the moment so it needs to be smaller and more compact and the bed larger to accommodate it.
• Shielding, a way to make sure the laser doesn't end up blinding somebody
• Damaging the Mendel, i have no idea what a laser would do to a Kapton covered Aluminium sheet heated bed. It may shrug it off or it may damage it beyond use.

Here is a video of it in action.

I have altered the 'Screw Mate' to be 10mm per rotation to demonstrate it working where as a normal i believe its closer to 1mm per rotation.

Now I have done some programming with Visual basic (o yea!) in the past but I believe coding something like this to be way out of my depth. so if anyone thinks this idea is viable and and knows what they are doing with please feel free to contact me.

Some progress and electronics ordered

The electronics have been ordered from http://www.techzonecom.com/ in America it worked out a bit cheaper and no wait than ordering from European websites as it included the USB to TTL module too. I like the fact that my Mendel will have travelled half way round the world to get here.

I have just read that a fellow UK Mendel owner had his parcel in customs for a couple of weeks. so maybe a delay before I can get it working.

Tackling the Y-Axis, I groaned when I realised that this part was not properly moulded. I had to drill a rectangual hole at 60 Degrees off from the plane in the right place, if I fail that I've pretty much messed that peice up completely and green stuff may have to come and save the day.

Two cups of tea, one sandwhich, a bit of facebookin' and three hours later I managed to get it working very nicely.

But as you can see i still have the other two to do as well. That can be a job for tomorrow.

Here is it fitted, runs all smooth like.

Been working on the Extruder, still a while to go, waiting on some Kapton take I've ordered so i can fit the Ni-crom wire to the nozzle and still need to find M4 studding or a long bolt to attach the large cog. No store in Oxford seems to stock them at all.

Z-Axis, Frame Complete!

Starting to finally take shape now, I didn't end up going into town, apathy and Mendel work that could of been done that instant seemed more appealing. Had a couple more brakes today 1 with a gear which is worrying but patched it up with green stuff and hopefully can be shaped and made working properly and a split in very top right had corner I also patched with green stuff.

But oh wells...

X-Axis Complete!

Wow that took a while to get it perfect (or so i hope). Due to the parts not being from a RepRap machine using FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication) but instead resin moulding with a rubber die. giving inaccuracies in size and some parts are slightly warped. 

This is not to say i didn't enjoy doing all this but if anyone else is thinking of starting a mendel project i highly recomend buying the FFF part set instead of resin to save your self so much time and trouble.


Here is a video of my progress!

There was too much filling, but watching TV at the same time made it seem not so much. 

Here is a high res picture of it completed.

I still need to procure some parts before i can finish making the extruder, which I will be purchasing tomorrow. Just a wing-nut and some threaded rod and then i can get back to filing away like a busy beaver.



Oh! forgot to update about how I fixed my broken parts.

Well there is this rather amazing material called 'Green Stuff' it is an adhesive putty similar to blue tak but will harden after 24hours. So you can mould it into anyshape you want. it is normally used for model making for Gamesworkshop fans.

Once blue and yellow sides are mixed to form green it'll start to harden!

Fixed pieces in all their crippled glory!