Rep-Rap Build Part 3

Here is the 3rd installment of the rep-rap build. I've had this done for a few days but only had the time to update on it now. The Y-axis bed is installed along with the motor, pulleys and belt. The belt will need a final tensioning with a small tensioner but it moves freely and is basically done.

y-axis idler pulley

y-axis belt clamp

y-axis belt, pulley and motor with gear installed

Underside showing y -axis installation

After the Y axis was done I moved on to installing the Z axis.
The clamps were squared up and even and the smooth rods with printed bearings were installed.
After that was done the threaded rod was installed to drive the Z axis. The rod and nuts are installed on the Z bracket along with a spring to provide tension and avoid the nuts from pushing back out.
The motor to threaded rod couplers were installed and the motors were mounted and a quick test by turning the rods by hand was done to make sure they worked.

Z axis smooth rod, bearings and threaded rod
Left hand side

Z axis smooth rods, threaded rod and bearings.
Right hand side

Blacklash spring being installed

Z axis threaded rod motor coupler

Coupler temporarily installed with two bolts
to test the movement

Z axis motor installed

In part 4 I'll be installing the X axis motor and the extruder base.

Rep-Rap Build Part 2

I was looking over some images on my phone and realized I forgot to include a picture of the Z-axis smooth rod clamps and alignment.
The Z-axis retaining bar is a regular piece of 5/16" threaded rod as the rest of the frame and uses the same smooth rod clamps as the Y-Axis does from the previous post.
To make sure it is aligned with the top mounting spots I put a nut on a string as a makeshift plum-bob line and hung it down. Using the nuts to adjust the clamps in either direction enabled me to get it all accurately aligned.
I will just need to make sure the smooth rods are parallel when they are installed.
Once the X and Z-axis are in place I can do a slide test to make sure it runs smooth and do any fine tuning as needed.

Here is a picture of the plum-bob line and the clamp and retaining bar.

Rep-Rap Build Part 1

After a few weeks waiting all of the extra printed parts I needed have arrived I can begin the build.
I realized that I also needed to get a pile of nuts, bolts and washers. While sorting through the storage room I found the plastic tote of hardware I got from Jackie's uncle. Lots of containers of nuts, bolts, washers and misc hardware. Looking through I found just about everything I need. It's perfect and will help cut the costs down!
Going through some online assembly videos I realized I needed to do some alignment checks and tightening of the frame before I could begin adding all the of axis parts.
Here is a link to the prusa mendel i2 assembly site with videos.
http://www.reprap.org/wiki/Prusa_Mendel_Assembly_(iteration_2)

Joel included an alignment jig with the kit of stuff he gave me and boy was that a life saver.
Here you can see a few photo's of the alignment being done along with the jig.

Top Alignment

Lower frame alignment

More lower frame alignment

It took about an hour to make sure everything was properly aligned, squared and aligned and then double checking it over again to be sure it was bang on.

After that was done I could begin on some of the assembly.

I started with the x-axis basic parts as it was a quick win.

Here you can see some if it assembled.

x-axis rough assembly

X-Axis bearing installed

After that was done I could start on some of the y-axis construction.

First was to make sure the smooth rod clamps were properly aligned and square.

Smooth rod clamps and idler pulley

Next up was to install the rods with printed bearings installed, then check they were perfectly parallel and square. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Printed bearings on smooth rods

Now that they were installed I could add the print base plate clamps. to the bearings.

I was very impressed at the design to precisely fit some small zip ties to hold the clamps to the bearings.

Here you can see some examples of it.

Clamp with zip-tie

More clamp with zip-tie

Clamp tied to printed bearing

That's all I have for now, next up will be the base plate installation and hopefully the x and z axis installation.

Rep-Rap

I've been meaning to update this more often but life generally gets in the way.
On the life part, Amelia is now three and Lauren is crawling and cruising along standing up holding onto the edge of things. She'll be walking in no time! She's been saying "da-da" as well, it's pretty nice.

Here is a shot from Monday of Amelia at the airport sitting in Dad's plane. She loved it!

On the project end of things I've gotten a half built rep-rap i2 3D printer from my buddy Joel. I'm going to finish it off for him and use it to print the parts for a machine of my own, probably an i2 and i3 rep-rap. Once I'm done it'll go back to Joel minus the electronics for him to use as his 2nd machine for his shop.

It's a pretty amazing thing to be able to print off whatever you like in any numbers of mediums and Jackie and I are both looking at having a rep-rap with a chocolate extruder to be able to print in chocolate. The possibilities of doing it as a side business are pretty good for things like birthdays, weddings, Halloween, etc... basically any event that you'd want a custom printed chocolate, cookie or any other soft material you could pass through a syringe.

Here are some shots of the machine as it stands, all the rest of the parts needed are on order and should arrive the 1st-2nd week of July. I can't wait!

The frame and misc parts and motors.

The box of rods and belts and power supply.

Misc brackets, pulleys, gears and clamps.

 Drive belt gear.

 Drive belt pulley with bearing installed.

Nema-17 extruder stepper motor with orbital reduction drive.

 Extruder motor/reduction drive and its mount.

Drive belt motor mount.













More updates to come as I get the parts in for the rep-rap and the build begins.
-Colin.

Cars, Code and Cats

There hasn't been much of an update for the past few days as they've been filled with basically work, work and work. Reporting, stats, coding, more stats all toward some greater good I suppose. Working through the weekend and at night to get this stuff done, happy I am not.

So with all that, some positive updates.
My dad is buying a car and he is giving us his old one! A 2003 Mazda 3, 4 cyl-2.4L 4 door hatchback.
No more car shopping for me! It's a little rusty and rough around the edges but it runs smooth and has a good few years left in it.

On the topic of cars, I've put up a few ads on kijiji looking for a donor car to convert to electric power and a dead or surplus electric forklift parts. I've pined after owning an electric car for years and years and I've seen a good number of budget builds on-line, so I'm hoping to get lucky on some free and very very cheap parts and see if I can build a local runabout for next to nothing.
It's going to take a long time to gather everything on a next to nothing budget but with a little perseverance I bet I can pull it off.

That's all I really have for now. My life has been filled with work and kids back to back and lately at the same time so no real time for anything else other than stats and stopping Amelia from terrorizing the cat.

Code and music

It's been a regular day of coding here. Setting up test databases of test data for testing code, formulas and verifying hand calculations. Fun times.
In those lull times of thought and being stuck on a problem I've been looking at getting my dev server at home back up and running. It's a very, very old Dell I purchased when I first stated working at Mountain Cablevision on the employee 0% interest computer plan, which was a great deal at the time and I wish Shaw had something like this.
The system started to bug out the other day and display a lot of random ASCII on the screen. It boots, I/O works, I can make out the BIOS but it's toast, well the video at least.
At this point enter Les, who has a bunch of old computers parts and that now ohh so hard to find PCI video card that still works and he's willing to swap for some old iMac parts I have. Good trade.
So hopefully as of Saturday I will have an operational development server working at home again and I can fill my life with more code. Why? Well as usual in the words of Bauldrick "excuse me sir, I have a cunning plan."

With all of this I'm getting bored of the music I'm listening to while coding. Grooveshark is my usual go to place while at work. Feel free to shoot me some recommendations on something new or different to listen to while coding away if you like. No whale sounds please, I've already got the best of album.

Well that's my mind dump for now. I suppose there will be something interesting coming up soon as I dive into setting up the server.

Ford concept cars

Last night I was hunting for a cheap used car on a budget with Dan and we came across two amazing oddities at the Hyundai dealership at Parkdale and Barton st E. in Hamilton.( http://www.hyundaiinhamilton.com/ )

They had on display a 1996 Ford Lynx styled by Ghia and a 1986 Ford Via style by Ghia.
Simply amazing to see these old classic concept cars still around and being loved and cared for and out in the open for the general public to see. I have to hand it to the owner of the Hyundai dealership for being both a Ghia fan and keeping them out there for all to enjoy, good job man!

Though I'm an idiot for completely forgetting to take some pictures of them, it was dark and they were inside the building so they probably wouldn't have turned out very good anyway.
Maybe on a nice day I can grab some personal pictures of them if they let me in to check them out.
If I'm in the right place at the right time maybe I could snag a quick sit down in them for a photo op. I can dream right?

If anyone knows the owner of the dealership I definitely won't turn down an opportunity to get inside those cars!

So with all that I'll post some images of what they do look like.

This is the 1996 Ford Lynx Ghia.
Image lovingly used from ( http://www.carstyling.ru/en/car/1996_ford_lynx/images/7065/ )
Go there for more pictures of what it looks like.

And this is the 1986 Ford Via Ghia
Image lovingly used from ( http://www.motorstown.com/56563-ghia-via.html )
Go there for more pictures of what it looks like.

Shopping for cars on a tight budget is definitely not my favourite task but seeing these fantastic cars really made the night out looking for a cheap car worth it.

That's it for now.
-Colin.

OBDII

I received my OBDII BlueTooth scanner in the mail! $10, free shipping and 12 days from Hong Kong and I can now scan the car and get any data from it.
The best part is shopping for a car. I'm looking for a cheap car to take to work every day and being able to take it for a test drive and hook this up and use my phone to check for any fault codes and general stats is great!
Not a bad investment for $10CAD!