Some more progress last night 🙂 I’ve managed to make all the ‘printed parts’ from wood now, finishing the extruder last night. As a reward, the universe also delivered the final shipment of parts from MakerBot this morning. So I’m very close to having a complete, working Mendel :D.
First some shots of the Z-Axis bearing mounts, which I forgot to post weeks ago when I made them. They were pretty tricky parts to carve, and the grain of the wood isn’t ideal for the loads they’re supporting. So these are pretty high on the list to replace (as with the majority of parts :S).
The timing belts also arrived the other week and I’ve finally gotten around to building a splitting jig. It’s amazing how easy these things are to come up with when you have decent software, and can print templates to scale.
Some of the belts are supposed to be ‘ended’ as in they’re not complete loops. Unfortunately I cut the wrong one and had to rejoin the ends. Luckily the belts I bought have steel cable reinforcement, so it was just a matter of scraping off the rubber, cleaning the cables, and soldering them together (using a LOT of flux).
…I’ll probably replace it the next time I order from Small Parts.
Finally, here’s some shots of the complete extruder carriage. The extruder itself just needs the nichrome, thermistor and kapton tape attached.
So no more carving to do. Which I am very relieved (and proud) about. It’s about time I start looking for that celebration scotch 🙂
That is absolutely gorgeous. I am in awe of your build skills. Congratulations.