After I switched my RepRap to run on g-codes a few weeks ago, I started writing little Python scripts to do various things like lay down a raft, shut the extruder off and move the platform out of the way, extrude in preparation for a build, and send a g-code file to the controller. All [...]
I’ve been building small RepRapped objects successfully. (Larger objects not so successfully… I’ll talk about that another time.) One significant problem I’ve noticed is that a series of short line segments is drawn much too slowly. You can see this if you draw a circle using just the cartesian bot. If the circle has only [...]
Continue reading about Delay Compensation in the G-Code Firmware
I’ve switched my RepStrap to use G-Codes, since that seems to be the direction the RepRap project is heading. I’m glad I did! The G-Code protocol consists of ASCII text I can read in a terminal, edit with a text editor, and generate with Python. Now I have several Python scripts for doing various things [...]
The 3D printer is working and I’ve begun calibrating it. There’s still a lot of tweaking to do, but now I can finally watch the whole process in action!
All of these are done with ABS. This is a chronological sequence. On the left, the extruder nozzle was too high above the bed and the ABS [...]
I just posted the detailed bill of materials for the hardware and electronics in my Rep(St)rap. Most of the lines have a comment. The comments and URLs would have made this whole process a lot easier for me, so I hope the spreadsheet helps someone else!
This is the first time I’ve used Google Docs and [...]
I put together my fourth heater on Friday and Saturday. It worked fine for a while; I was able to extrude both HDPE and ABS! However, after I allowed the plastic to cool in the extruder, I could not get the extruder to drive the plastic again, no matter how hot I melted it. I [...]
Items of note that you can see in this picture of my Rep(St)rap:
I used the BitsFromBytes laser cut plastic with alloy screws and other hardware I bought from McMaster.com and Fastener-Express.com.
I decided to mount all of the electronics on a thin 8×10 acrylic plate ($1.58 at Lowe’s) to make power distribution easy and to retain [...]
I am a RepRapper! The RepRap project is an open source effort to build low cost 3D printers. Yeah, we’re building the seed of a Star Trek replicator. Don’t expect to eat the results yet, though!
A few months ago I bought the laser cut parts kit from Ian Adkins’ BitsFromBytes store. I expected that the [...]