Cupcake is Alive!

ok - well it was for about 3 prints.

Here's the short - and soon I will update with some pictures of the process and post some vids on Youtube. But for now - the long and short:

Cupcake cartesian bot - brilliant, few flaws in the design and went together SO easily. There were a couple of things not well illustrated in the online instructions that caused me to worry a little but when I went with my gut, all was fine.

The electronics and Replicator G work REALLY well to control the bot. I wish you could do absolute positioning in the remote control - but meh - whatever.... good enough. I feel like I should probably add an end stop for the Z axis - WAY too easy to hit that down button one too many times. (BE CAREFULY you can dent your little build platform if you're not careful.

The plastruder on the other hand - is fundamentally not flawed but the assembly of it is riddled with bad practice. things that need servicing require almost complete dismantling - this is just bad. So I'll be re-designing and working out my own.

I had to rebuild the extruder after only about 2 piles of plastic and a couple rafts because the idler wheel cracked. But I sandwiched the sucker between a couple discs of >PC< ,,, from a DVD heh.... nice - used some JB Weld to bond it all up and since then - BRILLIANT no flaws, and no chunks bitten out of the filament. However in the reassembly, the stress of screwing and unscrewing the M3 screws - some of the acrylic (GRRRR) developed little cracks and I am pretty sure if I disassemble the thing again - it's going to fall apart... for this I HATE ACRYLIC! it's Terrible - no thanks I don't like it... ick! For an extruder that takes these kinds of forces - it's just silly. (yes I know there are plenty of parts out there made from acrylic that work just fine - doesn't mean it's the best material for the job, by any means.

I've been looking at the Paxtruder - and while it looks interesting and potentially a lot better... meh - it won't be MY design so I think I'll do the extruder as a ME project!

The biggest problem with the extruder is the PTFE insulator it's nothing but trouble and you can't tell if it's failing until it's failed REALLY badly. there is actually a lot about the hot end I don't like, but in fairness - it's a complicated problem (I think) to solve. That is - heat up the nozzle and enough of the barrel, hold the barrel against something that protects the extruder and doesn't wick heat away from the nozzle and can withstand the pretty intense pressure from the extruder.

So - I'll try and post some images and vids from the build - and once I've done that I'll start posting my progress as I design my new extruder!

PS> Frostruder got here today - uh .... yeah it's a bit EXPENSIVE for what you get - but hey... the guys at makerbot deserve to maker some $ ? So support them! I did.