Chickenz in the dirt.

And now an alien!

Awe-tome!

And it WORKS!!!!

I printed a lego!

Re: My world

So who's that you're standing on top of? He looks like crazyman - I'd
be careful if I were you...

On 16 May 2010, at 20:24, smonkey wrote:

<2010-05-16 14.21.56.jpg>

Mark Pilkington
mark@strangeattractor.co.uk

===============================

http://www.strangeattractor.co.uk/further/

Further: Beyond Strange Attractor

My world

Twins! And I eat them.

Fixed?

So it was oozing by the threads on the barrel.  I think because the ptfe (white tube thing) got too soft at temp over time.  I put a hose clamp on it and have been slowly tightening it over the past half hour.
Hopefully by now the abs has been sqquished out and its tight.
We shall see.
These extruders are the weak point. I think next cahs influx its time to get one machined out of aluminium.  Same parts, just not plexi.
Since I can get the cad files it should be affordable.
Now to try a test build.

Uh oh.

This large chunk of abs slowly extruded out of the back of the extruder where I couldn't see it.  I hate to think how long its been leaking. 

I think the ptfe piece got too hot and distorted and let goo leak out around its threads.

This means the last few tests are flawed since the abs was at least partially going that way.

Tho this does explain why the past few tests were janky.

Sigh...now to fix it....feh...perhaps find some ptfe and drill the right sized hole.  Doesn't really need to be a tube.  Just as long as it fits in the space.

So smooth and nice it broke removing it from the build surface.

Breakthrough! Eureka!

A breakthrough today.  I realized that one doesn't tell the slicer/gcode generator what you want the bot to do, rather you tell it what it can do.

So rather than the setting "extrude speed" be saying how fast it should extrude, it says how fast my machine extrudes.  So if not enough stuff is being deposited, I have to lower the value rather than raise it!

This is a huge deal.  Now I can make prints very tight!

My robot gets all calder like.

Nice box and little half shot glass

Box!

It Worked! I made a ...um.....box!

It worked.  I made a thing.  I printed a fucking THING!
Its a little box for calibrating. 

Whew...there were some rough times this afternoon before I figured out the proper way to turn stuff on in the correct order to work...but..it does!

First extrusion!!!

Goo...we have goo!!!!

Tip done.

Note to makerbot staff: every time you change the kit you should have a stranger come in and assemble a kit following the directions.

The nozzle assembly directions mention a nut, then show it in pics, then it dissapeaars, then they mention it again, but still no pic.

Need better pics there.

But that aside I think I did it.

and one last thing before I sleep

I'm gonna answer this now, because someone will soon ask it.
"Nat, you love customizing things, why didn't you paint or stain or somehow otherwise make your makerbot cool like I've seen on the interwebs?"
And my answer is,
"If someone can put off putting the thing together long enough to let paint dry? They are a far stronger soul than I gunga-din."
I want this sucka done and making things and no pretty pretty is going to slow that down.

heck, if I had my druthers I'd be pulling an all nighter. Sadly work and an aging body that doesn't tolerate lack of sleep sez otherwise.

Hmmm....that seems awfully complicated.

Until now I have been laughing at the estimated build times (I've done the whole thin so far since...um build stage was done at 4:15 and its now 11:40 minus dinner while watching an episode of top gear...so...6.5 hrs give or take), but this looks like it might actually take two hours.  Perhaps its time for bed.  Sadly I've got work tomorrow (deinstalling an art show I built at the chicago cultural cente for christine tarkowski).  Hopefully it'll just be a few hours (shows down, morrow is load out).

To be continued...

Oh...and timeline

After the plexi licking I had dinner and watched some top gear...thus the delay.

Xy stage !

Tight is how tight? How bout a ballpark here guys...like...."tighten till a matchstick can't push the belt without breaking" or something.

I'm tiring....soon I will need an ice cream cone.

Peeling the paper off the plexi!

Nobody's ever licked this before! It was made in a machine and never seen by humans before now!

Oh...I digress....

back to the build.

Hmm...first big issue....

So...I didn't get the power supply from makerbot (I had a free one here) but now we see the error in my ways. A non standard fan position means it won't fit in the place it should go.
For now my answer is don't mount it and try to find a better one later.  Hope this doesn't bite me in the ass too much later.

Its a box1!!

More bits!

Electronics in!

Note to makerbot, you should mention that the bolt heads go on the opposite side from the electronics so the nuts touch the boards.

X-y stage complete!

Oh, and from earlier...a tip...
If you pour baking soda on super glue it kicks off immediately and adds as a filler.  Works great on the magnets.

Makerbot! X-stage done!

The cupcake assm. Begins!
Note so far: the pulley kit isn't labled like in the directions.  It isn't supplemental anymore I guess.