Kono manga yomimasuka?

Even if you can't read the title of this entry you might still enjoy Brudders - Episode 59 'Hiragana'. Alisa's Japanese reading and writing skills helped make this one special.

Over at the dining room table, our MakerBox Thing-O-Matic assembly project continues. Today we studied the instructions for assembling the Stepstruder which is the part that will actually 'print' the 3D objects. It's very involved so we're going to take a break and pick up on it later this week.

- Sgt M.

Interlude and Z Stage

This is what we saw while driving along the coast this week.

Elephant seals!

Lazy elephant seals. Don't mess with them though--they grow up to 16 ft (5 m) in length!

Fear the mighty elephant seals! They make a sound like a backed up sink but even scarier.

 This is how close we got to them.

And today we worked on the Z Stage of the Thing-O-Matic. This part has two self-aligning bearings for the two steel rods that allow the build platform to move up and down. At the top center you can see the threaded Z motor flange for the step motor.

This part was very easy to assemble but it took me over an hour because I thought the Z motor flange was missing. I double-checked and triple-checked all the parts bags and boxes before starting to write an email to MakerBot Industries. As I was writing the email I had to check on which model step motor we had and that's when I discovered that they had screwed the flange on the motor's threaded shaft. I guess that seems logical...now.

Tomorrow we begin working on the Stepstruder, which is the part that 'draws' the 3D objects.

- Sgt M.

Assembling Y Stage

Today we worked on the Thing-O-Matic's Y Stage. (The Automated Build Platform we built yesterday was X Stage.) Y Stage will contain the mechanisms that make the build platform move side-to-side and back and forth. Here we just finished assembling Y Stage's belt and bearings.

This is the Y Stage housing in mid-assembly. The steel rods have been passed through the build platform and attached to the Y Stage housing. The ABP's timing belt is being attached to the Y Stage motor.

Y Stage and X Stage finished.

Tomorrow we assemble Z Stage.

- Sgt M.

The Automated Build Platform

Today we built the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic's Automated Build Platform. The ABP has a heated base and a motorized conveyor belt so we can print multiple copies of 3D objects if we want to. Here's a picture of the parts for the heater board and conveyor belt motor.

Wiring the motor was easy: a little bit of solder, heat shrink over the connector to make it pretty, done.

Sticking the foil on the heater board was a little tricky to do neatly but not too bad.

This is one of the rollers for the conveyor belt. A rubber tube had to be cut precisely to 50mm pieces to make the rollers. For some reason, the rollers attract a lot of cat hair. Moistened disposable wipes got them clean again.

Here are the laser cut parts for the body. Most of these pieces are cut from plywood and some are cut from plexiglass. I wiped the ash from the edges using disposable wipes.

Here's the body assembled with the motor and timing belt inserted. At this point I noticed that I attached the motor to the wrong side of the platform. The instructions explicitly stated that it needed to go on the left side but I was holding the unit upside-down when I read that. Oops.

All better. The faceplate makes it cool.

Fully assembled with heater board, gears and conveyor belt in place.

The dinosaur is not a 3D print by the way. We just like dinosaurs.

- Sgt M.

Unboxing the 'Thing-O-Matic'

We got a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic recently. Well, actually we ordered this 'do-it-yourself' 3D printer kit back in March of 2011 but we've been so busy this past year that we didn't get around to opening the box until tonight. Here are some pics from the unboxing:

"One of us, one of us..."

 "Open the box already human!"

 "At times like this, we wish we had opposable thumbs."

"MakerBot inside!"

Installed the software tonight, we start assembly tomorrow!

-Sgt M.

Happy...uh...30th of July?

So we're late--what else is new? Brudders - episode 58 'Independence Day'.

We can at least say we published two weeks in a row. Now that's something to celebrate, right?

-Sgt M.

Everybody's Got One

It's long overdue but a new Brudders has been posted. Brudders - Episode 57 'Opinions'.

Look for the next late episode next Monday.

Also, new artwork by 'Sister' in Sister's Sketchbook.

-Sgt M.