Here’s an overview shot of the prusa, E-stop switch, and macbook. I still have to build the bed, but the rest is all there. Yesterday I flashed it with the sprinter firmware and I like it so far! The biggest thing is that it has acceleration. That enables lower torque motors to start slow and ramp up faster over time. I also installed pronterface, because replicatorg has been very buggy with my prusa. One quirk is that the default z-axis speed is set to 200mm/minute. That was way too fast for my 80oz/in motors. Perhaps with a slow acceleration curve they might get up to that. I cut it down to 100 and they were much happier.
Here’s a pic of my test extrusion from a couple of weeks ago. I really want to get a better hot end, as that one is mediocre at best. I’m also going to switch over to a gregs hinged wade extruder because it’s what all the cool kids are using nowadays.
I printed a set of these couplers from nophead on my makerbot. The molded ones from metrix createspace were very difficult to drill out precisely. As a result there was always a ton of wobble. I’m hoping these do the trick. Unfortunately, the makerbot died (again) before it could print up the second set…
…so I turned one out of brass! I have really been having a ton of fun learning how to use the lathe at my hackerspace, solid state depot. I turned this out of roughly an inch of brass .625 rod. I drilled a 1/8″ hole all the way through, and then used a bigger bit (maybe 5/8) halfway down. I then used a 5mm drill and 6mm tap to drill and tap the set screws. I think I am going to need some lok-tite on the threads, but it seems nice and smooth so far!