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  • Reonarudo 00:23 on 04/04/2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , altlab, , , pavilhão do conhecimento, reprap   

    Fabricamp Lx 1 

    Hello,

    Today I was at Fabricamp Lisbon 1 demoing my reprap mendel next to some maker bots and showing how cool the 3D printing technology is to the average person…

    It was an event about digital fabrication at Pavilhão do Conhecimento in Lisbon, where we had the makerbots, my mendel, some v90 CNC’s, some work in progress like a mini mendel that it is being modified to have a lower part count, a mendel to repair and an old makerbot needing maintenance.

    One of the makerbots was equipped with a frostruder and was printing nuttela into bread, an interesting concept for your early morning breakfast pleasure.

    You can check some more photos  and a video of the event at:

    http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2105613&id=1110988167&l=874248f227

    http://vimeo.com/22036807

     

  • Reonarudo 02:19 on 18/03/2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , reprap   

    2nd Print 

    Hello,

    This is my second print. I changed from repsnapper to skeinforge to generate de G-Code. It’s nightmarish but the results are obvious:

    Now I’ll have to play a bit with skeinforge setting to get the best of my mendel. And wait for another 2 weeks for new thermistors because the hot end wasn’t very stable and when I was trying to fix it I broke the second thermistor in 3 days… And now I’m out of money for the next 2 weeks so… My 3D printer is jinxed for sure… See ya later…

     

  • Reonarudo 20:46 on 16/03/2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , reprap   

    New hot-end, new x-Axis :) 

    Hello,

    It has been a while since I posted something because I was waiting for my new parts o replace the broken hot-end.

    So I finnaly got my hot end parts and started doing some test prints. The first “traditional” issue I found out is the wrapping due to the lack of heated bed (Note to self: fix heated print bed).

    Hopefully I’ll have a new X axis soon, I also bought a new set of bearings to guarantee everything will go as smooth as possible :) . and I’ll probably redesign it to be able to have the extruder and the laser mounted at the same time.

    So it doesn’t look bad at all, even the holes look really good so maybe the next prints will be even better. :)

     

  • Reonarudo 01:17 on 12/02/2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , reprap   

    Trying to fix precision… 

    Hello,

    This time I’m just trying to fix the machine so it can output properly the models.

    If you have read the previous post you know that I’m having problems with circles. From what I have read on the net the problem is called backlash. Other people had the same problem in the past. One of the solutions is to tight the belts but if you have read the previous posts you know I already did this and when I rotate the gear manually the carriage responds accordingly.

    So to start I got someway to debug the thing several concentrical circles:

    And it came out like this:

    Ok this definitely shows the problem with circles…

    I lubricated the bearings and the X axis smooth rods to diminish the friction as suggested by nophead in the reprap forum.

    The result didn’t change at all. This can be because the problem in on the Y axis or it is something else on the X axis like the gears not fitting properly with the belt. I haven’t replaced the old gears that are glued with hot glue yet  so if the problem is from this I have a good solution now that I have replacements.

    This was the result of the lubricated X axis on a red tape.

    In this picture is clearly visible that circles are broken in the top  suggesting that there is at least one problem in the X axis and that I will probably have to change the gear that I’m using or increase the motor current.

    I tried everything and printed several tests none of them produced any diferences in the result.

    And now after a day of tests I present all my tests results and an acceptable end result (nº 15). :)

    Conclusion: The X axis is pretty sensible and the Y axis belt has its teeth against bearings and that causes variations in tension while printing it should be revised. For the X axis I basically remount it having attention to every little detail and check if the Z axis is correct and not interfering with the X axis. So after all this testing it is time to re etch the circuit…

    So it was a good improvement and the circuit was almost usable, but I guess my mendel X axis isn’t good enough. Maybe someone out there in the community can shed some ideas how to improve this because I’m out of them. :(

    I’d probably only get better results with a completely new X axis and for that to happen I have to receive my hot-ends first…

     

    • Ken Jenkins 20:46 on 08/06/2012 Permalink | Reply

      I read a write up on what you are doing over on hack-a-day. I’m interested in the process. I have a commercial laser system so that part of it and the “motion control issues” are not a problem. I’m not exactly clear about the process you are using. ie. are you “getting rid of the non-trace copper by oblating it with the laser” or are you “getting rid of the black paint in the non-trace area so that the etchant can eat the copper in a second step.” Thanks. Very interesting approach.

      • Reonarudo 21:43 on 08/06/2012 Permalink | Reply

        Exactly. The laser oblates the paint where I want the etchant to reach, it is faster if you only oblate the outline of the traces.

  • Reonarudo 03:43 on 09/02/2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , reprap   

    Round 3 

    Hi,

    I’m still waiting for my hot end parts to arrive. But at least I got new pulleys for free at AltLab :) I’m sure my mendel will appreciate them.

    Today I regenerated the GCode with CAD.PY with new settings:

    After that I had to edit the GCode manually in a text editor so that the mendel can use it to make the etching.

    After all the editing I load it up in Repsnapper that gave me a nice preview of what it would be done.

    I added 3 cooling fans to the mendel (it can almost fly now :D ) to keep the circuit and the laser cool and it seems it worked. Ate least this time it didn’t auto destruct from the laser heating and helps keeping the smoke away from the lens.

    Here is a clip of the machine working

    Circuit etching with laser on reprap mendel

    The results where quite promising but it seems the mendel still needs calibration.

    As you can see in the bottom there are some tracks that are suposed to be round connected to a via but they came out all distorted and still have no idea how to correct this. If you know anything or think of anything that can help please drop a line in the comments. Also I obviously made the tracks to thick but that is easily correctable in cad.py.

    bill2or3 from the RepRap IRC Channel sugest that I use a heated bed it seemed a good idea and I implemented it but I don’t know why it suddenly stopped heating and I gave up on it for now.

    I don’t think I’ll drop this iteration on the acid yet but probably the next one who knows. ;)

     

  • Reonarudo 00:18 on 02/02/2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , reprap   

    Round 2 

    Hello every one who has been following my short adventure to build a self replicating robot able to kil humans with lasers, hmm, oh forget that last bit…

    Ok, I have a very limited number of PCBs available for tests so I had to wash the paint of the previous PCB with acetone. It came out very easily.

    This time the paint coat came out a little bit more uniform than the first time. Maybe I should try some graffiti art next time :D .

    I modified the cad.py setting to completely fill the outer part of the tracks. This would be a lot slower but it would increase the number of things tested to guarantee that I cover all the bases.

    So I sent the board under the laser one more time and this time it was much slower. As a consequence the laser and the driver heated a lot more, that is definitely not good and I had to interrupt the print.

    I tried to improvise a fan with a CD and a motor but it just came to be an epic fail and I ended with a cut in the tip of my finger from the improvised blade.

    So I packed the LM317 from the driver circuit with a bunch of dissipators and hoped for the best…

    Ok I crossed my fingers and tried to print again.

    I t was working… for about 15min (I wasn’t counting) then the hot glue that was holding the laser melted from the heat.

    Even so in that short time I got improvements! The laser etched the paint and reached the copper :D .

    It is not very perceptible in the photo maybe check the flickr if you can’t see the copper.

    I HAZ COPPER!

    I definitely have to get a PC fan to cool things down or else I will not be able to continue development. But today’s results are very promising.

    It’s good that I can’t go much further right now because I have to study for a final exam that I have thursday.

    Stay tunned.

     

  • Reonarudo 01:01 on 01/02/2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , reprap   

    PCB laser etching round 1 

    Hello and welcome,

    This time for something more interesting. Yesterday I started my PCB laser etching tests as Casainho requested.

    First I started by spraying the PCB with a random Black Spray Paint I got from the local Supermarket. It could have been red since red doesn’t reflect blue but the black one was cheaper. Attention this is a matte black! We don’t want our laser beams shining everywhere.

    I painted the PCB and it didn’t look great, it had some cotton in one of the corners and some bubbles, but it looked awesome for the first time I ever used a spray paint :D .

    For the laser etching I had been using comercial software and that wasn’t very Reprap like so I found CAD.PY this software that is used by some other people in the 3D Printing community to etch PCBs and it was perfect for this application. After some tries I managed to generate a usable. First I had to change the units to mm and cad.py is in inches so I asked my friend Google what value should I use. The rest of the parameters I used the same logic and some experimentation then after generating the GCode I still had to change it manually to have in account that we are using a laser and since the laser is connected to the hotend heat I just had to change Z changes for M104 commands to turn on and off the laser.

    First try to laser etch pcb #1

    It looked great working, unfortunatly as usual I had some problems that messed up the etching completly.

    The axis belts where to loose and lhe lines ended very fine but they where all wrong and wobbly.

    I did something wrong in the GCode because the laser was moving to fast and it wasn’t getting deep enough to reach the PCB in most of the circuit.

    I hope to have better news in the next post. Stay tunned ;)

     

  • Reonarudo 05:45 on 31/01/2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , reprap   

    The rise and fall of an Extruder and its replacement… 

    So after doing some experiments with the laser and the Reprap mendel I posted the video to YouTube to share with some friends that are into 3D Printing and such. Eventually Casainho found the video and asked for some explanations of what was happening. I promptly explained to him my setup and he told me about his project of etching PCBs with a laser and Reprap. So I agreed to make some experiments for him since he didn’t have access to the equipment necessary to replicate my setup.

    One of the goals was to get 0.25mm tracks for some solder mounted chips so I tried several laser focus distances until I got one that looked really precise and made this:

    It wasn’t perfect but it was a good start.

    I tried a lasing some permanent pen ink on a PCB but didn’t get any results.

    After that I tried paper again this time I changed the speed os the laser passes and got really nice results:

    After theses tests I got the parts for my extruder and halted immediately the laser tests to build it.

    I had to drill 2 extra holes on it so I could fit the PEEK block on it since it was smaller.

    Yet one thing was missing the aluminium block, the power resistor that would heat the hot end and the thermistor. I was so nervous and wanted to print so badly that I used some nicrome wire that I had and a rather large 100k thermistor that I had around and started the machine to maque some prints. The first thing to do was to choose what to print. But that one was easy, it would be some gears since mine where slipping and where hot glued to gain some friction to the motor. After that I just had to wait for the thing to heat up and start printing.

    That was when something strange started to happen and the demise that was upon me started to reveal it self. First I was using PLA and was sure that the temperature reading was between 180ºC and 200ºC (don’t EVER trust big thermistor readings) but the plastic came out full of bubbles and it was making smoke rings (yea WTF…) some one on the IRC channel told me I had my Temperature to high, but for me that was preposterous my readings at the time where at 170ºC. I checked if it was jammed or something like that but it didn’t seem so.

    Hot end eminent failure…

    At that time the harm was done and I only found out the full extent of the damages after I disassembled the extruder and inspected the hot end. The PEEK partially melted. the plastic was flowing between the PTFE and the metal and they where really tight everything when bananas… I tried to fix it somehow with PTFE tape but it didn’t work, even after I gor the block the resistor and the thermistor it didn’t work. It starteed extruding correctly for 3 seconds then stopped, I pulled the filament out tried again and it was the same thing over an hour… My first big Reprap failure…

    So after my demised I rendered myself to laser engraving…

    At least until my replacements arrive.

     

  • Reonarudo 02:00 on 31/01/2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , reprap   

    Hello and welcome 

    Welcome to my blog.

    I created this blog to keep track of all the developments I have been doing.

    Lately  I’ve been making some developments with the reprap mendel that I bought some time ago, something that took a long time to finish due to my restricted finances.

    I first bought the plastic parts in eBay. And the hardware from GRRF.

    I was really exited when I received the parts. I started assembling with the visual idea that I had from previous mendel pictures.

    I had some problems with the material that the plastic parts where made because it was to easy to break under stress and resulted in some minor defects in the structure, but nothing that would create a big problem in printing… I think…

    People at altlab helped assembling the initial frame triangles and drilling the plastic parts that needed, because they where made from a cast and had lots of leaks.

    After mounting the main structure I had to wait a long time for the mendel-parts.com parts that I ordered, print bed, electronics and motors. But it was worth it!

    And this is how my mendel looked before the electronics arrived and before the mounting of the Y axis for the print bed:

    It looked great fully assembled except for the extruder because I was stupid and ordered the plastic parts that came with Adrian’s Extruder and the hardware from the Wade’s Extruder so I was stuck for a while trying to build a Adriade’s or Wadian’s Extruder without much success.

    My mendel

    So since I’m into lasers I decided to attach one to the  X carriage and see the result against a cardboard.

    Reprap with laser2

    It was not bad not bad at all.

    The rest of the story so far will be on the next post ;)

     

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