SLA 3D Printer Project Log 12: Dropping the Hammer on lack of construction

You know that feeling when you've finally been liberated to make real progress on something?  In a sea of drudgery and busy-bodying in the real world, this is a shot of Dopamine straight to the brain.  This is even more so when you've been procrastinating something for so long that spiders the size of your big toe have set up ambush positions in your cooking utensils (as happened to me when I cleared out my shed; yes, my spine is Petri Jelly, no need to remind me...  *sigh*).

Nails, the classic solution for design ineptitude - that or excessive amounts of glue and filler!

The rush of finally taking action is, as we all know, the best time to find out we've been imbeciles – as I found out when I discovered my top vent had no tabs for locating the parts together!  I had basically expected the builder to be able to glue these together against gravity no matter which way up the join was being made.  Rest assured this will be fixed in the final 1.0 release, but for now, we can get busy with a Pin Vice (Check out the review here!).

If you think this is laborious, try correcting a hammer drill gone haywire...

As I examined the Z carriage to which the Build Bed is mounted to, I couldn't help but notice that there was a slight warp, a horrifying scenario for a part absolutely dependent on being straight and true!  At risk of making the Z carriage too heavy for the Stepper Motors, I knocked together a barn-door solution on a whim...  Unprofessionalism?  What is this, the Intel FABs?

Spare Extrusions fixed in place with Stud-Locked Nuts and Bolts; a nice solution, though I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned for strain on the Z motors.

Among the bits that I bought in a project-buying frenzy were some black, chunky tapes with a faint magnetic field.  These are for mounting the UV-Reactive Acrylic Window Panels.  TBH I'm a little worried about their powers of retention given that most ferrous things are barely attracted to them, but at least my Hard Disks are safe :)

Pro-Tip for those doing this:  Dampen the plywood surface where the ends of the tape meet, apply cyano, then affix.  Safeguard against peeling ;)

One final note is how we can expect the panels to be mounted; I've found some Slim T-Nuts for the extrusions that don't need to be slid in before the panel is aligned, so I can mount the panels after the frame is built – you can't imagine how much rage this will save!  On the downside, I've missed out on the chance to become the next Francis...

This thing locks against the extrusion when tightened, so no worries about it spinning in situ.

Locking in action, shouldn't too hard to remove them again.

Stay Productive...

SLA 3D Printer Project Log 10.5: 12 hours in a single shift? Count me in!

Late July?  What kind of excuse do you suspect I have this time?  I mean, 2.3 months, okay, that's not too bad, I thought it was at least 6 months for some reason.  There is a reason why the Tawe TMD blog has suddenly come back to life (hopefully not to fall dead again), and bizarrely it has nothing to do with model trains.

Let me introduce you to my working life; Before recently I was working a standard 5-day 8-hour week, "Big Deal!" you crow, "I manage to model!", trouble is that I'm quite the lazy git - me and go-getting just don't gel.  The company I work at (not named because legal blah) has been quite demanding with regards to overtime, I usually ended up doing 4 hours on Sunday; Add that to my gym session, an essential as I approach that dreaded mid-twenties period where you apparently balloon up without warning, and I am left with only one free day - Saturday.

Now, if some of those who know me suggest "well, if you let go of them train trips you keep taking all the goddamn time..." they'd have an irritatingly condescending point; I take these trips as though I'd go mental if I stop, I don't even know how I can afford anything else sometimes.

This brings me neatly to 4 on 4 off - this is where you take 4 12-hour days in succession in exchange for 4 consecutive free days.  A quick cliff-note version of my verdict:  Super!  The 12 hour days might sound arduous to some, and they are when there's nothing to do and you are basically being paid not to have fun at home, but overall they only feel marginally longer than 8 hours due to sheer momentum.

"But don't you feel super-knackered afterwards?"  That is true, when I cycle home I feel as though I'm being fuelled by raw desire to slump into bed, but that was also true of 8 hour days and even of 4 hour days when I worked retail or even as a gardener (Sewer Maintenance looks like an adventure compared to those two).  You just exist in a state of semi-cryostasis in which you can only find energy to procrastinate.

Is this a SLA log or not?  Content, dammit!

Yep, this is instalment 10.5 simply because I've not got much new to announce, just a milestone and a minor announcement, really.

I've begun construction!

What industry and a wrecked elbow looks like.

Looks like a sizeable pile of parts, no?  Tell you the truth, I have nearly 15 metres worth of extrusion to cut!  Its all spread out across 11 1.5m extrusions (a decision I rather regret now), and initially I used a junior hacksaw i.e:  a one way ticket to both carpal tunnel syndrome and a dislocated elbow.  Get an Angle Grinder on the Case!

Fittings are yet to arrive, as I've ordered 75 Corner Braces alone, it's not easy for Proto-Pic to fulfil such demands as mine on a dime.  Overall, I seem to be well on my way, a fantastic feeling once you've cleared that dreadful middle part of any project, that pit in the bell curve where energy goes to die.

Minor Announcement?  Oh yeah, I plan to make a free build guide for anyone wishing to make their own machine, I believe that I've already said that the .skp file and .STLs will also be open source.  This, if anything, is a dry run for how I take to writing future build guides and possibly eBooks in future.  I dunno what those'll be about yet, probably train trips.

Stay Superb.

SLA 3D Printer Project Log 10: It's Extrusive!

Aluminium Extrusions...  How could I have missed you so?  Such a simple way to build up frames, especially for prototypes; here I was about to spend £400 on laser cutting plywood into a rigid frame, as well as £160 for 3D Printed parts!

Advertising my stupidity is a good way to begin a post, no?  Just to prove the opposite, I'll divulge to you what I've got in mind thus far:

A fairly basic crate :)

As can probably be seen in this image alone, Aluminium Extrusions are essentially the Lego of the garage hacker, allowing rapid construction of non-standard frames and sub-assemblies by way of nuts which fit into grooves in aluminium bars, with bolts then holding it all together.  Compared to the previous laser-cut plywood design...  Actually, why not invoke an excuse to use bullet points rather than actually write?

Goods

• Rapid addition of any newly-required features
• The Projector Crane can be an integral part of the frame for additional strength
• Plywood parts can be cut by hand - superb precision is no longer needed since it is automatically attained by a precision-manufactured metal framework

Bads

• If a casing is used (as you can see, it is), you may have trouble upgrading to a bigger projector
• Design is largely limited to right-angles

Not much on the bad side, eh?  Pity it's far from finished - the build-bed requires extensive re-working since I plan to only use laser-cutting for the Resin Basin (this part needs to be made so well you'd think I cast it whole) and I need to model all the brackets I'll need to assemble this thing.  All in all, not bad for a rediscovery made possible by a discussion with a colleague at work :)

Until we meet again...