Metrix Create:Space

623A Broadway East
Seattle, WA 98102
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    4 posts tagged mendel

    The Makerbot Challenge…

    building mendel, fixing extruder

    One of the things about Metrix Create:Space that makes me happy is that it has become a hub for DIY 3D printing. We have one of the first 100 makerbots, and we have seen that community grow.  We have built printers from scratch and from kits, and have ripped apart commercial beasts.  Bre Pettis saw his first RepRap Mendel print here. Saturdays are slated for 3D printer topics, and we have a lot of 3D printers that just stop by now and then.  At one point, we had 8 printers printing in the shop.  This week we poured 20+ clonedels, and they’re on their way to help grow the 3D printing community.  It’s hard to say we don’t just breathe this stuff.

    Makerbot Industries has issued a challenge, and we are positive that the Seattle Makerbot/Mendel User Group (SMUG) can win.  We know that Makerbot knows there are more bots in Seattle than anywhere else, and we know we’ve seen a lot flow through here.   There are countless school programs, most notably the UW’s Open3DP which are just pushing 3D to the edge.  Washington loves 3D Printing.

    If you have a Makerbot (or a Mendel), come down to Metrix on Saturday (March 12th) at 6PM and represent the State of 3D Printing. 

    As a bonus for those of you on the fence, if you print (and bring) a Wade’s Extruder,  I’ll give you a set of titanium springs.

    Link
     View high resolution
    This weekend’s Makerbot Madness was amazing.  We not only had the usual flood of Makerbots, but we took a look at two new Mendels in progress.    At one point, we had 8 3D printers in the shop, which I think is a new record.   First up is the Open3DP Mendel.   It was born from a commercial FDM printer, and the build quality is excellent.    It should be running smoothly for next weekend’s Discovery Days Open House at the UW.    I highly recommend going to this event.   It’s running the TechZone reprap electronics and a Wade’s Stepper Extruder.   We spent a bit of time debugging the electronics, and although we didn’t have it printing by the end of the night, it’s definitely on track to be replicating soon.Second is Sharon Morrison’s Wood Mendel.  She has been building this repstrap with a scroll saw and a drill press.  She’s gotten pretty far in the past couple of weeks, and I’m going to guess it will be printing soon.   Sharon has been coming on Saturdays for a while now, and tested the 3D printing waters by designing and printing an awesome banana slug for Thingiverse.  You may also notice a new addition to the shop.    Jon Chandler dropped off an awesome servo clock, which conveniently covers our hours of operation.   If you hang out until midnight, you can watch it snap back to 0 right before we lock up.  Don’t look away though, it happens fast.

    This weekend’s Makerbot Madness was amazing.  We not only had the usual flood of Makerbots, but we took a look at two new Mendels in progress.    At one point, we had 8 3D printers in the shop, which I think is a new record.  

    UW stratasys printed mendelFirst up is the Open3DP Mendel.   It was born from a commercial FDM printer, and the build quality is excellent.    It should be running smoothly for next weekend’s Discovery Days Open House at the UW.    I highly recommend going to this event.  

    It’s running the TechZone reprap electronics and a Wade’s Stepper Extruder.   We spent a bit of time debugging the electronics, and although we didn’t have it printing by the end of the night, it’s definitely on track to be replicating soon.

    wood mendelSecond is Sharon Morrison’s Wood Mendel.  She has been building this repstrap with a scroll saw and a drill press.  She’s gotten pretty far in the past couple of weeks, and I’m going to guess it will be printing soon.  

    Sharon has been coming on Saturdays for a while now, and tested the 3D printing waters by designing and printing an awesome banana slug for Thingiverse. 

    servo clockYou may also notice a new addition to the shop.    Jon Chandler dropped off an awesome servo clock, which conveniently covers our hours of operation.   If you hang out until midnight, you can watch it snap back to 0 right before we lock up.  Don’t look away though, it happens fast.

    Link
     View high resolution
    Saturdays are Makerbot Madness.   If you want to see the future of 3D printing, it’s a good time to come down.    This week, Nick Burrows brought by his bot and his Sarrus Linkage,  It was the first time I’ve seen a real one, and although we have a ton of shop projects already,  I really want one now.    Smooth linear motion with no guide rods.   Pure awesome. The LearnMakeCupcake crew and the RHS TEC club also showed up to work on their makerbots.  LMC is learning to build, tune and use their machine, and Ben is working furiously to build a mendel for as cheap as humanly possible. Ben’s CupcakeStrap is making some good progress, and he showed off his new extruder mod, based on a paxtruder, but with a gigantic stepper from a printer.   It’s amazing what you can scrap together with a little ingenuity and time.  This 3D printer has cost somewhere around $300 so far, witth most of the money sunk into electronics.    Once it is up and running, they’re going to build up a Mendel and scavenge the strap for the parts.  It doesn’t have to be pretty (although I think it’s awesome since it’s made of so much scrap), it just has to work well enough to get them to the next step.    One thing they (or anyone looking to print cheaply) might take a look at is Polypropylene(PE).   Mark Ganter from Open3DP stopped by with a -massive- roll.   He just picked up 50lbs for $1.50/lb (shipped!).    We decided to take a closer look at it on the Shop Mendel because our Wade Extruder will extrude pretty much anything and if it jams, it’s simple to fix. (Thanks Wade!) PP prints best on Polyethylene (we used an Ikea cutting board).   Our first two prints were too hot and fast to produce a good result.   The filament bubbled and separated and had a finish like cottage cheese.  It didn’t stop us though, and by the third print, we were getting a clean but warped part. (this is a mendel circuit-board-spacer-m4_2off for those of you wondering).   All were solid enough to use, and dimensionally correct in hole and spacing. Other than the warp, which we can likely eliminate with heat, the last one didn’t even look bad.  This stuff is strong, printable and dirt cheap.   We were wondering what it was originally produced for to make it so cheap, and I now think I know the magic google words.  11 gauge monofilament horse fencing Be careful with those words though, there’s a lot of horse and deer fencing out there that’s polyamide 6. That means nylon, and as far as I know, that’s untested grounds.    Definitely worth some experimentation at those prices, but a 1000ft spool of fail could also be a result.

    Saturdays are Makerbot Madness.   If you want to see the future of 3D printing, it’s a good time to come down.   

    This week, Nick Burrows brought by his bot and his Sarrus Linkage,  It was the first time I’ve seen a real one, and although we have a ton of shop projects already,  I really want one now.    Smooth linear motion with no guide rods.   Pure awesome.

    The LearnMakeCupcake crew and the RHS TEC club also showed up to work on their makerbots.  LMC is learning to build, tune and use their machine, and Ben is working furiously to build a mendel for as cheap as humanly possible.

    nema23 paxtruder

    Ben’s CupcakeStrap is making some good progress, and he showed off his new extruder mod, based on a paxtruder, but with a gigantic stepper from a printer.   It’s amazing what you can scrap together with a little ingenuity and time.  This 3D printer has cost somewhere around $300 so far, witth most of the money sunk into electronics.    Once it is up and running, they’re going to build up a Mendel and scavenge the strap for the parts.  It doesn’t have to be pretty (although I think it’s awesome since it’s made of so much scrap), it just has to work well enough to get them to the next step.   

    One thing they (or anyone looking to print cheaply) might take a look at is Polypropylene(PE).   Mark Ganter from Open3DP stopped by with a -massive- roll.   He just picked up 50lbs for $1.50/lb (shipped!).    We decided to take a closer look at it on the Shop Mendel because our Wade Extruder will extrude pretty much anything and if it jams, it’s simple to fix. (Thanks Wade!)

    PP prints best on Polyethylene (we used an Ikea cutting board).   Our first two prints were too hot and fast to produce a good result.   The filament bubbled and separated and had a finish like cottage cheese.  It didn’t stop us though, and by the third print, we were getting a clean but warped part. (this is a mendel circuit-board-spacer-m4_2off for those of you wondering).

     PP Printing

    All were solid enough to use, and dimensionally correct in hole and spacing. Other than the warp, which we can likely eliminate with heat, the last one didn’t even look bad.  This stuff is strong, printable and dirt cheap.   We were wondering what it was originally produced for to make it so cheap, and I now think I know the magic google words. 

    11 gauge monofilament horse fencing

    Be careful with those words though, there’s a lot of horse and deer fencing out there that’s polyamide 6. That means nylon, and as far as I know, that’s untested grounds.    Definitely worth some experimentation at those prices, but a 1000ft spool of fail could also be a result.

    Link
     View high resolution
    It’s nice when a shop project comes together…   Today we printed some test objects on the Reprap Mendel, our new 3D Printer, which we printed on our Makerbots.    Things still need some fine tuning before we can make it start self-replicating, but we should be announcing mendel parts kits shortly so you can jump into the recursive robot revolution. If you’re keeping score,  this is the 4th bot in Seattle that’s gone live (that we know of) this week.   Shouts out to Humblefactory, LearnMakeCupcake, and the UW Mechanical Engineering’s Open3DP!

    It’s nice when a shop project comes together…   Today we printed some test objects on the Reprap Mendel, our new 3D Printer, which we printed on our Makerbots.    Things still need some fine tuning before we can make it start self-replicating, but we should be announcing mendel parts kits shortly so you can jump into the recursive robot revolution.

    If you’re keeping score,  this is the 4th bot in Seattle that’s gone live (that we know of) this week.   Shouts out to Humblefactory, LearnMakeCupcake, and the UW Mechanical Engineering’s Open3DP!

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