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Motorcycles, tools, and garages! A little bit of everything mechanical and technical.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Makergear Plastruder, Part 2.


Bit of a step backwards, but I have to finish up the plastruder because its time to put it in!

Parts.



Install and tighten the nozzle using the 2 lock nuts to hold the tube while tightening the nozzle, then remove the nuts.



Heater.  Do you remember all the fun steps getting this little guy put together?!  Sheesh.



Mount. The mount and the nozzle need to be tight so the melted plastic doesn't squish out.



This was kind of tricky. You can barely see the thermistor- it needs to be touching the nozzle and is held on by the "Kapton" tape. Pllleennnnty of tape included.



Installed.



Insulation. Real easy, just slide it over.





Had to install a few connectors, including soldering the teensy bits to the wire first.









Again, if you buy a plastruder, pay the extra $10 and have it pre assembled! 

Installation. The screws make a little more sense now- the plate that the plastruder bolts to is a little thick. Just have to make sure the screws don't contact the motor.







Done.



As you can see I pulled the bed back off to run wires. Lots of them going all different directions. I'll have to mount the power supply and RUMBA board, then I can finalize the wire routing, plug everything in, and try it out. 

Time Spent on this step: 1 hr.
Total time so far: 9 hrs. 45 min.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Mendelmax 2.0- Bits and Pieces.

Are we getting tired of this thing yet?!  I am SO ready for it to be done...  Lots of little odds and ends to tie up.  Let me apologize right now in advance for this gi-mongous post... Sorry. 

Assembling the Y idler. Here is my first complaint... this step uses 3D printed parts- and the print quality was pretty poor on these two. I'll explain more when we get to the pics.

Parts.



These two slots are supposed to have nuts slid into them- but as you can see the right slot is warped. It took me a bunch of dinking around to carve it out big enough to get the nut to fit (both sides were too small and had to be carved out).





Finally got them in...



This nut went in fine, but the screw wasn't long enough to reach it so I had to drill out the other side.





Once I got it drilled out enough, take the screw out and install the bearings.



Attach the base. The instructions called for M5-8, but they wouldn't reach so I used M5-10.



Install the tensioner nut on the back. This hole had to be carved out too...



And the tensioner screw.



Easiest part- put it on the machine.



Time Spent on this step: 40 min. (should have been like 5...)
Total time so far: 6 hrs 30 min.

More fiddling and tweaking.  I also spent some time adjusting things to get everything square and moving as freely as possible. The first order of business was to free up the x-axis- I made the mistake of tightening up the rails too soon. One of the little screws stripped out trying to loosen them, so I had to drill it out, slide the rail out, and replace it.





Once I had that fixed, I just slid the plate back and forth and slowly tightened the screws until they were all tight and the plate slid back and forth freely.

The z axis was similar. Loosened things, and slowly tightened them back up until it seems to move freely. The thing that seemed to make the biggest difference was to not tighten these busing blocks as tightly- they are plenty tight, just not gorilla tight.



The y-axis didn't need and adjusting- it moved very freely.

The last thing I did was fix the x idler- had to add a few washers. Here is the correct assembly.





And installed.



Also went over all of the nuts and bolts and checked and tightened anything I found loose.

Time Spent on this step: 1 hr.
Total time so far: 7 hrs. 30 min. 



Finishing Touches! The closer I get to done the more I notice the hundreds of little things that still have to be finished...

Parts:



Install the pulleys. They have to be oriented a certain way to line up with the axis and idlers.

Y-axis:



X-axis:



Cut the belts.



Attach one end to the axis plate.  I plan on adding another zip tie and trimming of the extra on all of the belts still.  Y axis:



Loop it over the pulley



And through the idler



And attach it back to the axis plate.



Obviously the extra belt needs trimmed off still...

Adjust the tension using the idler.



X-axis. Still need to trim the belts.












Once the belts are on, adjust the tensioners to tighten.



Time Spent on this step: 30 min.
Total time so far: 8 hrs.

Spent some time routing stepper motor wires and figuring out how to hook things up. When I was talking to the company about what electronics to get, they recommended I get the RUMBA contoller board. It looks like the mounting brackets supplied do not work for my style of board, so I'm going to have to make something up. Same for the power supply. Means it'll take a little longer but I feel like I'm reaaalllly close to firing it up and figuring out the software!


Electronics bracket... not designed for my electronics.



Rubber feet.



Install one foot, then the bracket, then the other feet.





These should have all been installed while assembling the frame... The instructions have already been fixed to reflect that.

For the most part, all of the hardware is now DONE!!!  I *only* have to install the electronics and get the software figured out.  Sounds simple, right?  NOT.


Time Spent on this step: 45 min.
Total time so far: 8 hrs. 45 min.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Mendelmax 2.0- Y-Axis assembly.

Assembling the Y axis.  Pretty simple and didn't really have any issues here other than some confusion from the instructions.  They have already been updated now and are much more clear.

Parts.



Rail.  By now attaching things to the extrusions with the t-nuts is cake.







Cars.  They slide right on and don't need broken in like the bushings for the z-axis.



Y plate.  I'm not sure if it matters, but in this picture it's upside down- the two empty holes are supposed to be facing the other direction.  Haven't figured out what the holes are for yet, so it may not matter.  Wasn't hard to get the cars to slide freely- lightly tighten them up and then tighten them all.




 Printed part.  The print quality seems pretty poor... easy to attach.  This piece is what the belt from the y axis stepper motor attaches to so the y plate moves.



Motor.  Can't use a screw in the top hole when mounting the stepper motor because it interferes with the slot in the extrusion.







Completed assembly.



Pretty simple step.  Almost looks like a printer!

Time Spent on this step: 30 min.
Total time so far: 5hrs 20 min.