A few extruder experiments.

Once I get the extruder up and running I think I am going to try some new materials. I'd like to see if it can run hot enough to use UP filament. I'd also like to see if there are any new plastics that become useable at the new higher temeratures. There is also some stuff I want to do with color. I want to try interleaving by layer. I would create a plane that is as thick as the layer height of my printer and as long/wide as the xy build area. Then I just stack those with the same amount of distance between them (my layer height again). I difference that from the object I want to print. I save the resulting stl as something else. Then I open the original again. Do a boolean intersect with map stacked planes and save that stl. Then I just line up the two stls that I created. This would allow printing an object with alternating colored layers. With a small enough layer height we may be able to blend the two colors in the same way the pointillist paintings blend together to make a picture.

Makerbot Dual Extruder

So I am on the home stretch of my dual extruder upgrade. I ran into a few small snags. I forgot to order an extra extruder controller (duh) Luckily Dr. Glass of Freeside Atlanta was able to loan me one till I get mine from Makerbot. There was also only one e-stop port on the motherboard so I had to hack a cable to plug the 2 safety relays into it. Then I realized that I didn't have enough molex connectors so I had to cut off one of the sata power plugs and rewire it as an old school molex connector. SOOO I'm finally done with the hardware and wiring. Now I just need to tweak my REF values on the stepper controllers for the new extruders and install the new software.( Which means teaching myself github finally and compiling the latest experimental build for Rep G and maybe doing the same for the firmware too) This is going to be a treat because I am also forcing myself to learn how to use PLA at the same time so adventures are soon to abound...

Related articles

• Makerbot Releases New Extruder (techcrunch.com)
• More About "Dualstrusion" from MakerBot (makezine.com)
• Electronics: SATA to PATA/IDE Hard Drive Interface Adapter (murdr.blogspot.com)

New Nintendo Club reward

So that nifty super sized AR card that Club Nintendo members in Japan got just made it stateside. Get over there to order one now!

Swag for the LAN

I just finished the stuff for Tech-Node's upcoming LAN.  If you wanna get your hands on this sweet swag you'll need to show up...

Ordered Stepper Motors for Prusa Mendel SAE build.

I've been pretty busy recently with trying to gather all of the parts for my Imperial Prusa Build.  I went with this model partly because of the low cost and partly because the word "Imperial" makes me think of Darth Vadar...
Anyway I ordered four of these steppers for 10 dollars apiece. As well as one of these bad boys for 20 dollars.  I plan to use that last one on the extruder for precise control and feedback of the extrusion process.  I've finished printing all of the plastic parts (minus the brushings). They were printed on my UP.  One thing I like about having to print at 270C on the UP is that it means that  parts you make for other printers are that much more robust, temperature wise. Printing with  abs on a Mendel or Makerbot takes place at around 220C  So UP printed part have about 30 degrees more before they begin to get soft.  This makes the UP a good choice for printing extruder parts.  At about the third plate of the print I switched to printing on perfboard.  That completely removed any warping issues I had. Now all of my parts are perfect. I love it so much that I plan on not even having a heated build surface on the mendel and just use a large perfboard. I'll have to wait to buy the electronics and hotend for a bit (I do have a contest to fund after all ;-)   ) but I'll be finishing it in pretty soon.