Monday, April 23, 2012

RepRap: Upgrades!

This year I started feeling like I was falling behind with the opensource 3d printing movement, so I made the time to upgrade my printer. I started by finally installing a new heated bed. Before now I was still printing PLA on blue tape. Now I'm printing PLA on heated glass. Here is a before and after:




 I followed Nophead's lead with simplifying the y axis by using a few linear bearings.

While I was at it I also upgraded my electronics! I was pretty happy to get away from prototyping breadboards by upgrading to RAMPS. These pictures say it all...

Before:




After:



Finally, I upgraded my extruder. The old extruder was my own design that was still running strong after over a year of use, but it was big and bulky, taking up to 10 minutes to heat up. It also pushed 3mm filament through a .5mm hole. The new MakerGear extruder only takes a few minutes to heat up and pushes 1.75mm filament through a .25mm hole. Here is a before and after:



Special thanks to the authors of the following things on thingiverse to add finishing touches to my printer:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6630
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:14112

One last before and after:




 I am very happy with my printer and can't wait to start working on my DogBot again!