Operation: Stick Figure Army » 3D printer

Printing Bug

Sara — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:50:51 +0000

Prior to our successful (and very exciting) print the other night, we ran into a curious problem during print attempts. Namely, during the actual printing all the stages would suddenly stop but the Plastruder would continue emitting plastic. Here is an example of a failed attempt:

We even tried loading the model onto an SD card and building from the card. The same problem occurred. The interesting thing about this is that the print would stop in a random location each time. Finally, after digging around some forums for awhile, I found a post by someone suggesting a specific combination of versions for the software and firmware to use. With a lack of anything else to try, we decided to give it a shot. This involved downgrading the current versions of the software and firmware we were using. We then, with anticipation, attempted another print and, seemingly like magic, it worked!

Here is the list of software/firmware versions that we were using when our print was successful:

ReplicatorG 009
Skeinforge 005
Motherboard firmware 1.4
Extruder firmware 1.6

TCNJ Printer Update: We're getting there…

Peter DePasquale — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:10:28 +0000

Rather than continuing to post here on my building progress, I’ve created a number of video blogs of my adventure. These 10 minute entries are available on YouTube, but sadly are very visual in nature. Do check them out to hear/see my progress. I’m catching up to the girls – who I think at last report were building the dinos (part of the plastic extruder). Been there, done that. By the time next week is done and spring break starts (and I head to SIGCSE).

TCNJ Printer Update: Spray Paint

Peter DePasquale — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:19:23 +0000

From MakerBot Cupcake 3D Printer Assembly

So the body of the printer was spray painted over the last few days. I tried this first indoors in the basement with very bad results – angry wife, smelly house, etc. Over the weekend I moved the operation outside and hit he body with at least two coats of gold paint. It’s not perfect, but good enough. I don’t have that much time to make it so utterly perfect that it is a work of art. I hope to start putting the body together soon (tonight…)

TCNJ Printer Update: opto endstops and pulleys

Peter DePasquale — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 02:13:44 +0000

The opto endstops are soldered and just need some trimming with a pair of nippers that I don’t have. I’ve moved onto the insertion of the bearings into the pulley wheels (see http://wiki.makerbot.com/cupcake-cnc-0:cupcake-pulley-assembly). While most of this went smoothly, I am concerned that one of the bearings literally falls out of the wheel when the wheel is inverted and lightly shaken. I’m concerned that it needs to be glued. Did you folks encounter anything like this?

Building the TCNJ Printer

Peter DePasquale — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:45:02 +0000

A completed look at the OptoEndstops. I'm not quite there yet...

Given all of the snow, I finally took home the electronics kit for the 3D printer to work on while waiting out the blizzard(s). I did remember to get a soldering gun, as I know the first few steps involve soldering the OptoEndstop. Sadly, I went cheap with my soldering gun and bought a battery-powered gun which really only helped for the first board. It can’t really keep up with the soldering / heat demands needed to solder all of the resistors, plugs and the like, so I need to go spend some additional monies and get something based on real power.

The actually soldering took longer than I expected, but I didn’t have a vice or anything to hold the board in place. So, there’s something else to obtain. I think once I get a better gun and a vice, I’ll be able to get through all of the soldering in a few evenings. If I can dig out from the snow, I may try to run down to Home Depot and get each item so that I can continue to make progress ASAP.

Based on the Alleghany student’s photos, I’m looking forward to putting the body of the printer together. That looks like fun and something that seems to be a little easier than the soldering.

Photos from the OptoEndstops coming soon…

Heater Barrel Assembly (aka The Kapton Tape Experience)

Sara — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:47:34 +0000

The next part of building the printer was putting together the heater barrel part of the Plastruder. The first step was to solder together the nichrome wire and the wire that will eventually connect the nichrome to the extruder controller. When we send electricity through the nichrome it will heat up, then heat up the heater barrel which it will be wrapped around and then heating the plastic that will run through the barrel. We also needed to older together the thermistor to the thermistor wires.

Next, we needed to wrap the nichrome wire around the threaded heater barrel, which is between the nozzle and the thermal barrier. We then attached the thermistor from the nozzle down the heater barrel. This step was all done with the help of our trusty friend Kapton tape. To insulate the heater barrel, we wrapped it with ceramic tape and then added a few more layers of Kapton tape, mostly to hold it all in place, but also because we just love it so much.

The next step was to add on the retainer washer. However, this involved unscrewing the barrier from the heater barrel. Somewhere in the process of unscrewing and rescrewing the barrier from the barrel, the nozzle came loose. This meant that we needed to unwrap all of our lovely Kapton tape, reset the nozzle and do it again. It slowed up progress for us and we recommend putting the retainer washer on in the beginning to avoid the possibility of having to redo it all.

Despite the little bump, we finished our heater barrel assembly. Here are some final pictures:

X, Y, and Z: Putting it all together

Sara — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:30:07 +0000

Once all the stages were assembled, it was time to put them all together.

To install the X/Y stage, we first had to attach the X-stage belt to the pulley and stepper motor, and make sure that it was at a good tension. Once that was done, the rods needed to be threaded through the side of the printer body, then through the bottom of the X-stage, and finally stopping on the other side of the body. Then, finally all the stages were together and we had a fun time playing with the stepper drivers to move each stage and see how all three of them would work together.

Here are some pictures with them all together:

Building the Printer Frame…

Sara — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:41:59 +0000

The first step in building our printer frame was to decide whether or not we wanted to paint, stain, or keep our printer as is. After some indecision and a trip to Home Depot, we decided to paint our printer blue. Professor Jadud allowed us the use of his basement to spray paint the wooden parts of the frame and the X, Y, and Z stages. (He even threw in an ice cream!)

After the paint had dried we began piecing together the frame of our printer. The first step was to screw the brackets onto the middle piece:

The next step was to bolt on the bottom and all the sides. The top needed to be left off in order to install the Z-stage later. Here is what the frame looks like all together:

And again: