RepRap Rebuilt! A 3D Printer Story

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So it has been a long time since I made a real post; but we won't dwell on it. Instead, let us get to the good stuff and share some information!

This post regards my long term rebuild of my Prusa Mendel Reprap, which I decided to do back in March. If you saw my previous blog posts, you will have seen the state of the printer. It worked, but it didn't print well and there were wires everywhere. I even used some CAT5 as motor wire.

Because of the setup, the printer experienced many problems:
  1. Wires would catch during the printing run.
  2. The printer could not be moved.
  3. The RAMPS (Arduino Mega + Shield) kept getting bumped around, etc.
So, I took the entire thing apart and took the following steps:
  1. All wires now use connectors (pictured below).  These are available at Ultamachine: http://ultimachine.com/content/molex-4-pin-plug-socket-connector-kit
  2. The power supply and RAMPS are mounted on a small piece of wood, which is mounted to the reprap (pictured below)
  3. The thermistor, print head, and extruder motor now share the ribbon cable, instead of 3 wires handing intermingled in the machine.
With the changes in place, the printer actually printed really well with no calibration. The controller computer was also updated; (1ghz/512MB -> Core i3 + 2GB). Going forward, I don't recommend hooking a reprap up to an older machine like that unless you are going to "slice" on a different machine. I consider the connectors to be a big upgrade, it should be easy to swap out, adjust and generally maintain all of the connections.

Here are a couple pictures:



Well, that is the 3D printer post. I've been printing some Hexy parts to calibrate it; and I'm very happy. It prints better than it ever did before!

I have a post coming up with some code in it that is pretty exciting, and I'm continuing to experiment with the printer while waiting for my Hexy. Don't forget about my little tracked bot! A model is needed for the sensor mount to make the line following more smooth!

That is all for now!

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Printhead911
2:10 PM
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