Y-Axis

The Y axis is the same basic design as the X axis.

Initially I built the Y axis rails too short. My father has told me to measure twice and cut once, Applying that would have saved me considerable time and materials. The upside is I have more travel on the Y axis than I expected, about 14".

I have just clamped the two frames together for now, I want the table on so I can level it before drilling the holes to attach the Y-axis.

I completed the z axis too, same basic design. I'm getting ready to move, so the last time my brother visited I gave him the semi-completed frame in hope that he may have more time to work on it than me. It just needs a table, motors and lead screws to be working. Whether he has time to work on it or not remains to be seen, but I know I won't have any time for at least a few months. I still want a 3d printer, I kept all my electronics, when I have time I'll build another one.

Building a CNC Machine - Linear Bearings & X-Axis

I've been back and forth between buying the parts to build a RepRap off eBay or designing something myself. I've also been concerned that the Prusa frame wouldn't be strong enough to handle pcb routing. So I decided to build a somewhat heavier duty cnc machine to do pcb routing, but make it able to run an extruder. I may just use it with the extruder or use it as a RepStrap to print the parts for a Prusa at a later date. I intend to use the Sanguinololu board I built to control it.

Linear Bearings

The linear bearing were a hangup for me, all the best ideas were either expensive (v-groove bearings, 1/2"+ linear bearings), or looked flimsy for my application (8mm linear bearings).

I've seen this design on the internet before, and couldn't come up with a better solution that didn't cost a small fortune.

I bought 100 608zz bearings, some angle iron and a big bag of 5/16" nuts, 5/16" x 1" bolts and 1/4" washers. I made a jig to ensure the holes were in the right place, clamped it to the drill press and here's what I came up with.

I will weld 1 1/2" angle to the backs to make mounting brackets. 

Specs: 

• 1" angle iron cut to 4"
• Holes drilled at 1/2" and 1 1/8" in from each end (roughly)
• Clamped to a jig to ensure holes are perfectly aligned in relation to the center
• Each bearing has a 1/4" washer on each end of the 608zz bearing, a 5/16"x1" bolt and 2 nuts (one on each side of the angle iron)

X Axis
With the bearing design done I started the X-axis
I wanted a bigger work area that the RepRap's 8"x8"x5.5" My X-axis has 11 3/4" max travel. I was going for 12", but the frame interferes. I'll probably limit it to 11-11 1/2". the Y-axis should be about the same, haven't decided on the Z axis yet, I have 8" in mind, but probably between 6-10"

Specs:

• Slides are 16" long, allowing 12" travel (without the cross pieces). the slides are structural frame parts. they have 1 1/2 angle iron welded to the back of each end to attach them to the cross pieces
• Cross pieces are 18" wide, allowing slides to be bolted at 15 3/4" wide. It will work out to 16" when I do the Y axis mounts (1/8 added per side)

X-Axis

It seems very sturdy, I stood on it, and it was still easy to move. I'm out of 1" angle iron again, so that's it for now. I still need to attach a table, mount a stepper motor, and it hook up a lead screw of some sort.

Closeup View

 Weight Test

Sanguinololu 1.3a - Part 1: Build

See Also:
Part 2 -  Trouble in Paradise
Part 3 - Not Out of the Woods Yet

I've been playing with electronics a bit lately. I've built a bench power supply and an ESR Meter.

I make a case for the Power supply out of an old atx psu case, but haven't found a good one for the ESR meter.

Then I found the RepRap. Of Course! Why buy a box for $5 when I could build a machine that would print me one for just $500? So it was settled.

Oh yea, my brother is building a cnc machine and after the tedious job of wiring up those two projects a cnc pcb router seemed like a really good idea. I'm not sure if the reprap frame is sturdy enough for what I have in mind, but I'm going to build something along that line. Of course the most fun part of the whole project is the electronics. After looking around a bit I decided to build a Sanguinololu to control the machine.

I bought bare PCB's, and assembled pololu (stepstick) boards from ebay, all the components from Mouser (BOM from the Sanguinololu page)

The FTDI Chip Installed:

The USB jack and related Components:

The Pololu Headers, decoupling Caps, etc:

I'm really bad about taking pictures, I am improving, but at this point I got busy and stopped taking pictures, so we skip way ahead to the completed board:

The Pololu Drivers arrived the today:

The Pololu drivers came with tiny heatsinks, here is the completed board, drivers and all:

I did one Sanguinololu for my brother and one for me, the first took about 6hrs, the second about 2. I had some trouble and I'll cover that in another post.
Steve