Up to Some Good: 3D Printing FTW!

In the Beginning:

In November of 2010 a bag of parts showed up on the door step. These parts were printed for Free Geek Arkansas and came with a challenge attached. Build a RepRap Prusa Mendel. For our group of hackers and builders this was a welcome surprise and quite the call to arms.

It took us a long time to come to grips with the design and source a lot of the materials needed. We recruited members of the Free Geek community to assist in the building of the machine and bode our time until we had all the components in order.

Learning To Build

For someone not very mechanically inclined like myself it was rather intimidating getting just a bag of printed parts in the mail. While I've studied this technology for a long time (over 10 years of wishing) I was not in a position to envision the finished product from what came in the mail.

I learned quickly that pictures and video helped me very little in this endeavor. Most likely due to my lack of mechanical skills (which are much better now). I had no basis for reasoning about how things fit together and why they are put together in this way. Luckily the RepRap community is quite good at helping newbies get a handle on their machines. Unfortunately this comes with a barrier of language that can be cumbersome to deal with. In the end even newbie builders can interface with the community and get help.

You can find me(most work days) and many others on #reprap on irc.freenode.net for ideas/suggestions and general help getting your machine off the ground. You can also ask for parts there and get pointers to better techniques than you might find on the wiki(this is being addressed as I type). Really and truely the best help you can get is from people in your community. Find a hacker space or a Free Geek and reach out if you're interested in this technology. Our build time lag is not the same as others. We have had time commitment issues, parts issues and monetary issues. The economy hasn't been particularly kind to any of us in the last several years and complicated the building of this machine.

Take Your Vitamins and Buy Them!

Working on the RepRap has been a journey full of surprises. Did you know it's better to tear down ten HP LaserJet 4p machines than to buy smooth rod? In the end we still had to buy some 8mm smooth rod from China, but only the longest rods needed for the machine. Thanks to the recycling efforts of Free Geek Arkansas and its regular volunteer staff we were able to build this machine out of almost entirely recycled parts.

We were able to buy the required threaded rods at the local Lowe's and these should be available for cheap at any local hardware stores. Avoid Fastenal if you can. If money is no object then by all means use them. I have nothing against Fastenal, however parts from them are rather expensive and it appears this is mostly due to the downfall of steel manufacturing in the United States. We only export scrap metal now and import MOST steel products used here now. This makes things cost more if you want anything approaching local sourcing of materials.

For motors, you can find them everywhere.

OMFG! There's More, But the Printer is Gone!

This post was supposed to encompass much more than getting the parts.  I wanted to add more notes on the adventures of getting the printer up and running and little tweaks that have been done to the printer to customize it to Free Geek Arkansas' needs. Long story short, we got the printer working really really well.  It has been demoed during summer outdoors in Fayetteville, Arkansas (90+ degrees F) and got a great reception from the community at large.

The unfortunate thing is the printer was stolen by a (possibly) disgruntled ex-volunteer.  This has left me and the rest of the 3D printing gang slack jawed.  We are completely gob smacked and printer #2 is in the works.  I'll likely publish a follow up to this post detailing what it looks like the second time around.

I apologize if the post jumps from explanatory to a screeching halt in 0.1 seconds.  Look forward to the next installment where we cover implementation issues and customizations that we think are must haves for RepRap Prusa Mendels that need to work long hours.