THIS IMPROVED ADAPTER IS A WORK IN PROGRESS.
I HOPE TO TEST IT NEXT WEEKEND ON GulaschProgrammierNacht.

Improvement:
* use a third M5 hole that already exists in the Thing-o-Matic to stabilize the adapter against backlash in milling
* grip the edge of the toolhead-platform for added stability

This should allow me to do the PCB milling much faster without loosing precision to backlash.

Blog post:

marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/06/improved-repman-to-tom-toolhead-adapter.html

original video:

youtube.com/watch?v=z14gkPYD0aI

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I made this adapter, so I could reuse my very stable Dremel milling-head on the new Thing-O-Matic.
Any RepMan-toolhead should fit with this adapter.


I oriented the part, so that it prints well on a Thing-O-Matic.

I've been working on this thingiverse.com/thing:5264 for a long time and with MBI's recent support of selling the high torque NEMA 17 motors, we can now use some of the heritage designs to create a direct drive, dual stepper extruder.

The original design concept comes from the awesome Printruder II, by Zaggo: thingiverse.com/thing:1980

With a dual extruder design, it opens up the possibilities of printing in two colors or two different materials, such as ABS for the main structure of the print and PVA for water soluble support material.

The offset between nozzles is 35mm.

I made this adapter, so I could reuse my very stable Dremel milling-head on the new Thing-O-Matic.
Any RepMan-toolhead should fit with this adapter.


I oriented the part, so that it prints well on a Thing-O-Matic.

I did test it with my RepMan tool-head and it worked. (see the video)

Video:

youtube.com/watch?v=z14gkPYD0aI

blog posts:

marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/05/toolhead-adapter-for-repman-tools-in.html

There are a couple of inspirations for this thing:
reprap.org/wiki/Plotting and the Unicorn thingiverse.com/thing:4185 and thingiverse.com/thing:790

This is a printable linear slide rail for Pandelume's printable Unicorn Pen Plotter thingiverse.com/thing:4200. The rail takes advantage of the smooth bottom surfaces of things printed on a heated build platform. the smooth surfaces allow the slide and rail to slide easily without catching on any ridges. These pieces were printed using a MK5 plastruder and heated platform with stock MakerBot unsanded kapton. I have no idea if this will work on sanded/taped platforms.

STL and SolidWorks 2010 model files are included.

This is a derivative of Makerbot's Unicorn Pen Plotter ( thingiverse.com/thing:4185 )

Basically, this is a direct adaptation of the unicorn assembly - all I did was break it down into a small number of printable parts. Pretty straightforward, and should go together pretty easily. One thing I changed was the extruder controller mount, figuring that it's better to use a separate mount like thingiverse.com/thing:4174

Now if only you could have the pen plotter and the extruder integrated so that you only need one controller and wouldn't need to swap toolheads. Hmmmmmmmm...

This is a syringe adapter for Nordson EFD 30cc or 55cc syringes, it may fit other air powered or Luer locking syringes...

This is perfect for a Pfiercestruder build!


Update 11/29/10: Now with smaller file sizes

This is a retractable Z-Probe.
With a Z-Probe your Makerbot is able to "auto home" not only X & Y but also the Z axis. This is done by mounting the endstop on your Makerbot in a way it senses the build platform directly (and nearby the real nozzle).
In order to get out of the way during printing, the sense-pin is retractable.

Although this is a working thing, especially the software changes are still beta. Both, firmware and ReplicatorG/host software, need to be updated. The extended versions are available as source code on GitHub.

For more information (and a sample video), see
pleasantsoftware.com/developer/3d/2010/09/14/finding-home/

This is a vacuum pick-and-place head design for automated electronic assembly. It features a stepper-driven rotary head with Luer-Lock port for interchangeable needles, and a feature for attachment of an "eyeball" style Webcam for optical placement (you can modify to support your own favorite camera). Vacuum is provided to the head via flex (fishpump) tubing.

Our windspeed meter broke in a hailstorm a while ago (See picture) so i decided to print out some hemispheres.

This is the pfiercest printable pfrostruder around!

I wanted to expand my printing capabilities and instead of actually buying a Frostruder, I came to the conclusion I have an awesome 3d printing powerhouse...Why not just print one?!

This is still in the beta test stage, i'm waiting for my solenoids to arrive, but thought I should release this and see what people think and or can come up with to improve the design.

Update 11/29/10: Now with smaller file sizes

Plastruder MK5, Do or Die!

After strenuous testing which logged hundreds of hours of continuous extrusion, we are supremely excited to offer the all-new Plastruder MK5.

Designed for reliablity, low maintenance, and ease of use, the next-generation MK5 revolutionizes the MakerBot's extrusion mechanism.

Hot End Reinvention:

This story begins with the complete redesign of the extruders' heating element, barrel, and nozzle. Our goal was to take user feedback and our experiences the MK4, and return with the most robust, most reliable, and longest lasting extruder possible.

In close consultation with our manufacturers, we opted for precision machined stainless steel throughout the hot end. Every part was totally redesigned and pushed to the limit before we included it in the final product.

Each component screws tightly together, creating rigid connections and no room for leaks or loosening over time. The result is an all-stainless hot end that feels heavy and strong, and extrudes smoothly for hours and days without issue.

The heating element has been reinvented too: Nichrome wire has been replaced by two matching power resistors that screw-mount directly to the stainless steel MK5 Thermal Core. The resistors receive current straight from the Relay Board, and they heat evenly to produce a consistent temperature perfect for reliable extrusion.

Sayonara Idler Wheel:

You may notice the reduced footprint and profile of the MK5 Plastruder. It's thinner, sleeker, and the motor housing is smaller. The reason for this is the complete "Paxtruder" inspired redesign of the filament guide mechanism. Now simply twist the thumbscrew to push the Delrin plunger into place, and your filament guide is set. No moving components, and the low coefficient of friction and high strength of Delrin means that the filament will slide over it smoothly and meet with the MK5 Drive Gear with no variation. It's a simple design, and it's simply effective.

The Gear that Drives It:

The MK5 Drive gear, released earlier this year, has become the defacto standard drive gear for MakerBots around the world. It's custom machined stainless steel, lasts ages, and is easy to clean without removing from the plastruder body. The MK5 Drive Gear grabs filament with 100% greater push strength than the MK4 Extruder Pulley. The proof is in the pudding for this item- it's already in successful use around the world.

Power Play:

With the larger surface of the MK5 Thermal Core to heat, the extruder needed more juice to get hot. For this reason the MK5 is powered by our Relay Board Kit, already in steady use with our Heated Build Platforms.

The Relay Board comes standard with enough outputs to run the Plastruder MK5 and the HBP simultaneously. By using the relay, the MK5 doesn't draw the power load through the Extruder Controller. Translated- Steady power, without wearing on sensitive circuits or microcontrollers.

The combined effect of our innovative new components, redesigned filament guide, and stainless steel construction is tremendous. It's a totally reinvented extruder that mounts easily to existing CupCake CNC Z-stage, and makes your machine better instantly.

Use this thing to mount a Printruder II on a Mendel's X carriage.

This the same model as thingiverse.com/thing:3015 but its mirrored.
You need this for the 2 head mendel x-carriage.

All other parts are unmodified, take them from the original Wades extruder.

You can find more info about it here: ifeelbeta.de/index.php/mendel-x-carriage-for-two-extruders

This is just a little thing you put together and you have a RadioMeter... A RadioMeter is something that spins by it self when the sun hits it....

NOTICE-- This has to be printed with white plastic, or self it won't work.

x

The insulator retaining ring on the Makerbot plastruder (Mk3 and Mk4) takes a lot of punishment. If it breaks, you can't print. With these instructions, you can make an emergency replacement that'll keep you going until you can buy / print a replacement.

NOTE: This isn't a precision part. It's a quick hack to get you printing again. Using this as a permanent part isn't recommended. Your best bet is, once your printer is repaired, immediately print a replacement retainer and one or two spares.

This is a holder for multiple extruder barrels in a square ptfe or peek block.
it is not parameterized, im not that good with open scad scripting so if someone wanted to do a parameterized version (nudge vic :) )it would be fine by me :)

You all know and love the additive method of 3d printing with the plastruder. And now you can try the subtractive method by using this dremel attachment that i have been thinking of making for a while now, and finally sat down yesterday and designed it.

It uses the same holes as the plastruder for mounting, and even the same screws

It is now printed, mounted and tested.

I'm working on a different extruder (for thick sticks of plastic) based on a glue gun. The hope would be to make starch plastic/glass like this:
shapeways.com/blog/archives/374-Cooking-molding-bioplastics-at-home-recipes%2C-results-tips.html

and then use the glue gun on MakerBot to do the extrusion. We are also testing other materials to extrude. Stay tuned!

This is the first version of the glue gun support. Each side takes about 3 hours to print. Screw together with M3 bolts you have leftover from your CupCake CNC. The wings fit over the z-axis bolts to mount directly in your CupCake CNC.

A way to automate glue gun extrusion is in progress and even more experimental than this glue gun holder...

I own a rapman (bits from bytes laser cut reprap derivative) and looking at many designs I like the extruder this guys made very much. The extruder is divided in two parts (linked with 2 screws) - the "drive" part where a stepper driven shaft grab and push the filament - and the "hot end" part that is, well, melting the plastic.

After many kg's of filament (abs, pp, hdpe, pla) trough the hot end from bfb I never had issues with it and as they sold hot end as a separate "part" I figure one can mount it to the Mendel using the pinch wheel drive and the bowden cable as the "other part" of the extruder assembly. This is a good idea but a hot end from bfb is ~40mm in dia hence I had to modify the carriage a bit (just drilled a big 40mm hole in them).

Want to upgrade your print-speed?

This is an extruder that allows you to mount a beefy, high-torque, NEMA23 stepper motor. You can directly attach it to the Bowden cable. With the Bowden extruder (see my other designs under the Thingiverse tag: bowden), the plastic throughput is your print speed bottleneck. Or should I say, was your bottleneck: With a NEMA23 motor I've been able to extrude more than 15 mm^3 of molten ABS per second. That's about a (fully solid) mendel in 22 hours! So now XY-movements are the bottleneck again. For this, I think I need to further reduce the weight of the carriage (lighter rods, etc.).

Usage:
You can simply press the Bowden cable with an M6 nut into the T-slot (to attach the extruder drive mechanism to the extruder head via a Bowden cable).
Note: An M5 nut will also work (for smaller PTFE bowden cables), it will be able to slide slightly, but its movement is constrained by the filament.

Dremel Flex-Shaft + MakerBot + MakerBeam + OpenSCAD = (Micro CNC Mill | Drill Press)

Expect future refinements, but this is the first version that works on my Batch 1 MakerBot.

Hey, if youve been following me on the group ive wanted to make a lazor cutter attachment for my makerbot. I finally made one!! It fits a 200 mw laser pointer. Just change up the feed rate and itll cut or burn anything (dark). Enjoy!

Simple holder for flexy shaft (I use the Einhell flexy shaft but Dremel one should work too - the inner dia of the hole is 21mm). It can hold a marker or a pen too.

This is an improved Printruder. It can now hold the Plastruder control board and can wipe down your filament. The old problems of mis-aligning your filament are gone now too.

This is a modification of the model by Zaggo thingiverse.com/thing:958

Come and check out the youtube video about it at:
youtube.com/watch?v=TPkTAH_NvaQ

UPDATE: ssd pointed out trouble with the overhang mentioned for the PCB support. Considering to make this an easier print overall please print out the "Bearing Holder Overhangless thx ssd.stl" or gcode file if you do not want to worry about putting in your own support material. Good luck.

A printed spur gear driven extruder for Mendel or Darwin.

The waxuum is sort of a reverse-extruder. The idea is that a heated hollow needle is used to remove material from a block of wax in a controlled manner, analogous to conventional machining using an endmill. A vacuum pump* pulls the molten wax through the needle, after which it is deposited in a reservoir where it can be recycled. The wax part can then be used directly, or more likely it can be used as a pattern for a mold. Below is a basic overview of how the process might work in a well-developed system. See video of a simple test at youtube.com/watch?v=rnKD9oIzcnM .

1. A heated basin is filled with wax, which is then allowed to cool. This big block of wax forms the working material for our little setup.

2. A waxuum mounted where the extruder usually goes on your 3D printer carves a master pattern (including containment walls) out of the wax block.

3. Elastomer resin is poured directly into negative pattern in the wax block.

4. When the elastomer cures, it is peeled off the wax master and used as a mold to crank out large numbers of parts.

5. The wax master is remelted within its heated basin. The removed wax in the reservoir is added back. The basin is cooled, and the wax is ready to use again for a new master pattern.

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ADVANTAGES

1. The wax is melted instead of cut, so high forces are not required at the tool-tip. The low force requirement means that the XYZ positioner can be much more flexible (and cheaper and easier-to-make) than is normally required for conventional machining. Unlike conventional machining, there is no need for chip removal.

2. In many cases the surface finish on parts is better than that on filament-extruded parts, due to the smoothing effect of the hot needle moving over the wax. There are also fewer warping, delamination, and anisotropy problems.

3. You get a mold instead of a part: casting from a pattern can produce parts at a much faster rate than printing. You also have a greater choice of materials (plastics, metals, ceramics, and wax can all be cast in silicone molds).

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DISADVANTAGES

1. You get a mold instead of a part: there are several additional steps and materials, including the manual work of pouring resins. Sometimes you really want to just print your parts and go.

2. Limited geometry: unless you make multi-part molds with cores and such, you are limited to relatively simple geometry. Hollow and concave parts are difficult.

3. The waxuum is relatively unproven compared to the many filament extruder designs currently in use.

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RESULTS

The test showed it was feasible to use a tool of this design to make wax patterns. The most important thing to consider seems to be optimizing heat transfer from the needle to the wax, while minimizing heat loss due to movement of cool air through the needle. The thin-walled brass tubing is just barely acceptable for this purpose. The next version will use a material with higher thermal conductivity, such as thick-walled copper tubing. The heater should probably be located outside of the case. Possibly two heaters should be used - one for the needle and one to keep the wax molten inside the case.

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*Update March 6 2010: See this cool article on converting an aquarium pump to a vacuum pump garage-shoppe.com/wordpress/?p=109

It first started out as a clip on thing for my glasses so i didnt have to wear a welding helmet (It was supposed to be printed with BLACK ABS so i wouldnt blind myself through peripheral vision). I know its not perfect but its an open source platform to attach to your glasses so you can add anything you want! My new plan is to make a monocular so i can increase my viewing distance. The opposite of Mr. Gadget when he zooms in on that piece of metal. (Insert video clip here)

This is an alternative toolhead to allow milling with a RepMan 3d printer.
Feel free to adapt it to other printers like Mendel, Darwin and Makerbot.
It should work fine for milling 3d-objects (Skeinforge) and PCBs (visolate) or for exact drilling (drill holder attachment) and cutting (90° attachment and cutting-disc).

You need a Dremel Flex Shaft Attachment (Model 225) and a Dremel as well as an M5x95mm(or longer) screw or threaded rod for this.

Documentation: bitsfrombytes.com/wiki/index.php?title=Milling#milling_PCBs
Forum-Thread: bitsfrombytes.com/forum/post/milling-toolhead-o-thingiverse
(I used bitsfrombytes.com/forum/post/3d-model-toolhead-attachment-design-alternative-heads )

Update: I made a Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOt_yXAkMrs) of my first tests of PCB milling using this toolhead. It performed well given that I fitted a way too large milling-bit and did not tighten/block the springs holding the print-surface.
Update: Experimental Skeinforge settings for milling are documented here: bitsfrombytes.com/wiki/index.php?title=Milling#milling_in_3D
Video: youtube.com/watch?v=7rdkIjtuiYA

Challenge:
(Details: bitsfrombytes.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:MarcusWolschon/Challenges )
Get 10 small mendel parts or 2 larger ones or your design printed for
adapting this RepMan Dremel milling-toolhead to fit the Mendel.

See:
objects.reprap.org/wiki/Mendel_X-axis
Note that you will probably have to design a new x-carriage-lower_1off or even also a x-carriage-upper_1off due to the poor design of the Mendel x-carriage regarding mounting alternative tools that are wider then 22mm.
5 additional small or 1 large parts if you can do it so extruder and mill can be switched with 4 or less easily accessible screws.