here's a flickr set for this bot
flickr.com/photos/sixmilliondollardan/sets/72157616240288122/

the zip file is a bunch of solidworks files. SW2006 i think. but i can't remember exactly. i will try to find my parts spreadsheet and toss that up as well.

Spring 2008.
I designed and built a simple torso for a Go playing(manipulation driven, not strategy) robot for Prof Rod Brooks at MIT CSAIL. Postdoc Eduardo Torres-Jara works on the motor drivers, control, and hand design. Josh Kargas did some of the electronics mounting and routing.

Robot has 6 Series Elastic Actuator degrees of freedom. But waist is locked out and shoulder joints have the spring shorted out.

DOFS:
waist yaw
shoulder x 2
elbow x 2
wrist vertical axis x 1
wrist rotation axis x 1
neck pitch x 1
head tilt x 1
head pan x 1

yes analog sensors. potentiometers are awesome.

Can this shape tile the plane? It is not easy to guess by just putting the shapes together. With a little thought however there is an easy proof. It can't. How far can it go though? How many rings of tiles can you build around a first one. This is called the Heesch number of the tiling.

Add the zip-cord, a short piece of electric lamp pipe, light bulb socket and lampshade and you have a nice little bedside table lamp.

Neat not of this earth tie tack design ...

This is another of many entries to the makezine.com/go/makerbot contest ...

blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/04/makerbot_giveaway.html

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.

First, Please note that this is my first Thing on Thingiverse. Please be kind to me. This is a draft of a draft of a draft. I mainly wanted to share this to try Thingiverse out.

I am in the process of learning AutoDesk Inventor at work. My son Gaelen and I decided to design something useful for me to practice using this new CAD software.

We came up with a way to turn a normal walking cane into a gripper. This makes the cane useful for picking up objects.

People who use canes often need an extended reach because of mobility issues in their joints.

This is how it would work: the blue cable near the handle can be pulled with their fingers when the person wants to open the gripper. The tension pulls the gripper finger back in the open position (Top Assembly Image).

When the person wants to close the gripper they simply release the cable and a spring (I didn't draw this in yet) would pull the gripper finger closed around the object (Bottom Assembly Image).

The cane can then be used to manipulate the object.

This is part of a study being done by Dr. Salim Azzouz of the McCoy School of Engineering at Midwestern State University. Senior Engineering students were challenged to find and/or design a gearbox that would transform a variable rotational input to an output at a constant angular velocity. This is the resulting study prototype, which uses a printed planetary gear train to accomplish the desired results.

If the single shaft is used as the input, it will drive the output (sun gear) at the same speed, however, if a different output speed is desired, the lower shaft on the other side (hub gear) can be driven faster, slower or even counter-rotated to produce the different desired output velocity.

This was a close collaboration between the students and myself in design and manufacture. Extensive work was done in SolidWorks, resulting in a functional digital assembly. The gears and carrier plate were printed on our Makerbot, the axles turned from aluminum stock on a CNC lathe and the support structure cut from Makrolon, an impact resistant, clear plastic. Delrin bearings were purchased from mcmaster.com.

Further study is planned, connecting the input and differential to motors, monitoring the velocities of each of the shafts with tachometers, recording the results at varying speeds and comparing the observed results with the theoretical calculations.

After upgrading my Y axis, I went on to upgrade the bearings. With this upgrade, you can remove the washers on each side of the bearing that keeps the belt on the bearing.

It will make it look simpler, save you for 6 washers, improve reliability and you can even turn the power to the stepper motors down, because there will never be any difference in resistance from when the belt is on the bearing/grinding against a washer.

Disclaimer: This is my first ever 3D project (I just started learning Cinema 4D) so please be gentle on the critiquing...

I built this design (and had it working) in my high school metal shop a long, long time ago (well not that long ago...) and thought I'd recreate it for you folks. I still have my original one I made somewhere, so when I find it (...in a box in the garage...), I'll post some real pictures of it later. I'm also including my original C4D projects if anyone wants to play with the design.

It's a very simple design but I haven't tested this exact 3D model yet so keep in mind it might need tweaking of the positions of the intake and exhaust ports and maybe some dimensions. Precision of the cylinder/piston and the two surfaces of the cylinder/block are the most important to make this work.

My instructions call for metal parts because that's how I made my original one, but I think with some machining with plastics (you need tight fits on piston/cylinder and other stuff...) I think it might still work.

The way it works is simple:
1. Down stroke: As the crank moves clockwise, the piston tilts the cylinder and lines up with the intake hole and receives pressure.
2. Up stoke: With the momentum of a heavy flywheel, the cylinder then tilts to line up with the exhaust port so the pressure in the chamber doesn't stop the upwards motion.

..That's it. Let me know if anyone actually makes one and gets it running. Hope you enjoys it!

Here's a video I found with the same concept engine: youtube.com/watch?v=vcaFWg-FvbQ

5/16" x 2.5" (8mm x 63mm)

Will work with both 3mm and 1.75 mm Filament.

I would recommend use this item:
thingiverse.com/thing:13351
with Greg's Extruder.