Exciting news on the making front: my Laser Cuts have arrived! Before I've even finished cutting my Extrusions (I'm a horrendous procrastinator),
CutLaserCut of London have furnished me with 6mm Plywood Panels for the exterior; These parts have an almost psychotic precision to them - I drew these in Sketchup which draws Circles as slightly smooth polygons, and every face was sharply defined on even the smallest curves, running my finger over them felt like a D20 would if you felt it with your foot.
I reckon on a little show 'n' tell:
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| Clockwise from left: Rear panel with PC Case and 180mm fan in place, Top Panel, Bottom Panel. |
As you can see I stuck to fairly simple shapes for this, with lots of holes for the M4 bolts holding the panels on.
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| Left: Front Panel; Right: Both Side Panels (they're identical) |
The Oblong bevelled holes are for the access panels which are to be made out of Fluorescent Acrylic (these absorb UV light, cuts out light pollution from external sources).
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| Another shot of the rear panel with rear-mounted equipment in place. |
Of course, the fans will be internal and behind fan grilles once I assemble this thing, but the PC will remain external for access and cooling.
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| Misc Accessories, parts which make up things like the build bed (bottom left) and the Z carriage upper plate (top right). |
The only problem I can see so far is the fact that many of the panels have warped, as can be expected for such thin plywood panels of this size. It doesn't matter for parts other than the Z Carriage and possibly the Top Vent Cover (the rectangular plate with curved corners and all the cut-outs in), so I think I'll use Aluminium Angle bolted to the Carriage to ensure a level fixture for the Bearings and Threaded Rods driving the Z Carriage up and down.
"Why not use more plywood, or just glue on some Straight Scrap wood?" Wood has a fantastic Strength-Weight ratio, especially Plywood, but ultimately while it can be very stiff, it is not that strong overall; The parts I use to stiffen can also warp which takes me back to my original problem.
Whew, an enticing delivery indeed, a glimpse into the future form of my Printer; just to end it on a high note, let us view this ultra-cute image of my bodged projector perched on it's mounting plate:
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| So far I've logged more hours watching youtube videos on this thing than it would be used for roughly 100 small prints! |
Stay Industrious.
