arduino, robots, cameras, and life

I’m really excited about some tools I have found recently, so I figured I would start a recurring series of posts about them. There will be some simple cheap ones, and some expensive ones. Hopefully they are useful to someone else!

If you want a sneak peek, then you can check out the amazon list I made.

Here is the first review: keep your eyes peeled for more!

Irwin Industrial self-adjusting wire strippers.

You can certainly get good results with a traditional wire stripper, but this is faster and can be done one-handed and in awkward situations. Once I unwrapped it, I ran around the house looking for wires to strip (not always a good idea) and happily found a few solid core and stranded wires. This stripper was like magic. You can set a depth stop or you can eyeball how much wire you would like to strip. It has a simple cutter (probably better for solid core) as well as a few crimpers built into the handle. The plastic covers on the steel handle really give the tool a solid feel in your hand.

The best thing is that this is roughly the same price as a good quality pair of traditional wire strippers. I got mine from amazon for about $16, and you may be able to do better off by shopping around. If you do see them in-store, pick them up and feel them. It is a solidly built tool.

Why?

I think the usefulness of this is obvious, but it will assist you in doing all of the wiring for your reprap. Your motors, endstops, power cables, heated bed, extruders and thermistors all need to be stripped / cabled and attached to your electronics. It is super useful beyond the reprap as well. Automotive, audio video, and home electrical all are made easier with this.

One last note: If you do end up getting this from amazon, then definitely browse through the rest of my reprap tools list. You might get that cart-filler to become eligible for free shipping, or you might find something that will knock your socks off.

This is a running list of all of the ways I have broken a print. This doesn’t have anything to do with my machine calibration. That’s a whole other post in itself!

-I got a snag in the filament feed which stopped extrusion.
-My heated bed shorted out on a bulldog clip.
-With the print not centered on bed it hit the endstop a few hours into the print.
-I have tried to print from stls not positioned at z-0.
-My cooling fan for extruder unplugged midway through and then the extruder jammed up.
-With the firmware z speed not limited properly, i have lost steps due to rapid z moves.
-Filament strips and stops extruding.
-I have run out of filament.
-On a multi part bed, one part became loose and then slowly caused blobs to build up on other parts. It eventually knocked most of the other parts loose.
-Before I had my heated bed fully figured out I had a LOT of parts curl and then come loose from the bed midway through a print.
-I didn’t check the scale of one stl I downloaded from thingiverse and it ended up being about 4mmx4mm.

Got any more to add? post them below in the comments! I’m sure I’ll keep discovering more.

I’ve been on the lookout for the same kind of gear that makergear uses on their extruder for quite a while. Not the gearhead for the motor, but the actual part that bites into the filament.

I found cornwall model boats this morning, and I ordered a few from England. It appears to be a fitted end for a model boat u-joint, but it looks like it could easily work and they are available in both 5mm and 1/4″. I have a vague idea of using two of those on the shaft of this motor to make a dual filament bowden extruder.

The point of that would be to print the same part on the same machine twice at the same time. RAMPS has support for three thermistors and three outputs, so I could effectively double my print speed for parts that occupy less than half of the bed! An alternate idea is to use one RAMPS to control two machines, by either getting more powerful motor drivers or by getting twice as many. The only issue with that would be the 4 thermistor issue. Either printing PLA or some external circuitry could be fix that. I’ve been meaning to build up a bang-bang heated bed for some time now…

For the uninitiated, a clonedel is a set of molds with which you can cast a reprap with polyester resin. It made a big splash in the reprap circles when it first came out, but Clonedels have really died off in popularity since then. I know why. It seems like a great idea. It can theoretically produce an entire set in an hour or so, and the material cost is significantly cheaper as well.

Unfortunately, clonedel is only a good idea in theory. I bought my clonedel set for $50 when printed prusa kits were $80-$120. Then I had to drill all of the pieces out, sand pieces flat, cut off the mold lines, and deal with missing pieces in my kit. Oh, I also forgot to mention that my parts ended up coming in a fruity flavored assortment of colors that looks pretty hideous.

The thing that really put me over the edge is that the parts just aren’t strong enough. My x-axis motor mount is now flexible enough that the motor shaft isn’t perpendicular to the belt, and my prusa hasn’t printed a single thing yet! In the top view you can see how far off the belt is deflected, and the side view is just for fun. Is there anyone out there who can print me both x axis parts? Pretty please? Those are the only two big parts that I haven’t replaced, and There is no way I can print their replacements with the belt constantly slipping off of the motor.

After a fair bit of thinking, I have changed my stance on how people should build their first reprap. Unless you have a strong community around you. I really think that a kit is the best idea for your first machine. Provided you buy it from a reputable vendor (I like makergear) then you should get all of the parts you need and support to help you get it together. Then feel free to self source your second one!

It’s been a busy start to the summer! I was able to go to Maker Faire, and now that I’m back I’ve spent every spare second on my bike or at the new hackerspace in town. One benefit of being a hackerspace member is that I finally have a place to keep my big /noisy / messy projects!

Here’s a pic of where it stands right now. I have everything together, but it’s not wired up yet. I’m also replacing the clonedel parts as fast as I can. They are causing more trouble than they are worth right now.
Here’s a link to solid state depot’s wiki on my prusa.

Here’s a pic of my monster e-stop button. It came out of a printing press. It is wildly overkill, but it looks cool. It is currently wired up to the psu, so if the switch is tripped, it cuts power to the machine. dead stop.

I’ll update more when I do more. I’ve been learning how to use a lathe in order to drill out some hot ends. It’s been exciting so far…