My Second design of a small geometric sculpture that explores the battle between cake and pie

INTRO
It seems to be the month of construction sets on Thingiverse, so here is another entry in the category.

Contraptor is a DIY open source construction set for building Cartesian robots. It is basically 1" aluminum Erector set with linear motion extensions. While it's in development and sometimes things don't work as they should, functional robots have been assembled from it: contraptor.org/contraptions

The set is designed to be made with the simple tools of a basic workshop. A lot of materials for Contraptor like aluminum angle, threaded rods and fasteners can be found in a hardware store. In the spirit of modularity, it uses Makerbot/Reprap electronics and Arduino/Sanguino controller.

In addition to DIY plans, we're working on Shopbot-able kits that can be manufactured in small quantities by anyone willing, from open source drawings.

Contraptor components and assemblies are modeled in Sketchup and are hosted on Google 3D Warehouse, mostly for ease of accessing from within Sketchup. Thingiverse is the best place to host DXF/SVG sources and part lists for components, so there will be more Contraptor things coming (hopefully including printed ones from the community :).

Apologies for the long read, on to the thing:
/INTRO

Perforated angle comes in lengths from 1" to 24" and can be used as a structural component, as well as a linear motion rail for sliding elements. Attached DXF file and part list are for 1-ft long perforated angle.

Sketchup source:
sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?q=contraptor+angle

This thing is a part of Contraptor - a DIY open source construction set for building Cartesian robots: contraptor.org

Sliding elements slide on perforated angle thingiverse.com/thing:1066, driven by either leadscrew or belt. There are three sizes of the sliding element: 3.5", 2.5" and 1". The part list is for 3.5" size.

Sketchup source:
sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?q=contraptor+sliding-element

This thing is a part of Contraptor - a DIY open source construction set for building Cartesian robots: contraptor.org

Linear rail comes in several lengths: 6", 12", 18", 24" etc. Attached DXF file and part list are for 12" long linear rail.

The rail can be attached to perforated angle, channel or T-slot profile, such as 80/20 Fractional 10 series. A pair of rails and at least a pair of linear bearings thingiverse.com/thing:1075 are needed to make a complete linear stage.

Sketchup source:
sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?q=contraptor+linear-rail

This thing is a part of Contraptor - a DIY open source construction set for building Cartesian robots: contraptor.org

Linear bearings ride on linear rail thingiverse.com/thing:1071, driven by belts or leadscrews. A pair of rails and at least a pair of linear bearings are needed to make a complete linear stage. There are three sizes of the linear bearing: 3.5", 2.5" and 1". The part list is for 3.5" size.

Sketchup source:
sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?q=contraptor+linear-bearing

This thing is a part of Contraptor - a DIY open source construction set for building Cartesian robots: contraptor.org

A pair of shaft mounts with bearings support a threaded rod used as a pulley shaft or a lead screw.

Sketchup source:
sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?q=contraptor+shaft-mount

This thing is a part of Contraptor - a DIY open source construction set for building Cartesian robots: contraptor.org

Motor mount is used to attach NEMA23 stepper motor to Contraptor assemblies.

Sketchup source:
sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?q=contraptor+motor-mount

The tin tin rocket just wasnt enough for me! I wanted to be able to add an engine in mine! (some drilling required. I havent tested it on wether or not it will fly but the fins should do the trick!

A printed spur gear driven extruder for Mendel or Darwin.

This is a printable, grooved version of the 1/4" Linear Bearing used on the cupcake CNC. ABS isn't an ideal bearing material for several reasons, but I think it should be ok for light duty applications if properly lubed (hence the grooves), and you can always print a replacement. Alternatively you could use HDPE or UHMWPE (which melts at about 300F); I've attached a non-grooved version just in case.

Notes:
1) Should print ok, but I haven't tried it.
2) ID as shown is slightly undersized - it should be reamed to get a good fit.

I got sick of trying to use my drill press as a lathe in my attempts to build my extruder, so I threw this together in SolidWorks. I used 1/4" and 3/8" acrylic for most of it. There are three pieces of 3/4" HDPE for slides. It has 12 X 1/4-20 hex nuts, 36" of 1/4-20 threaded rod, two plastic knobs, and the drive assembly from a cordless drill. I left off the tailstock, live center, and cutting tool plate, but those can be easily fabricated. Use it at your own risk. I uploaded some pictures of the finished lathe and my first completely successful part. The lathe isn't the perfect solution, but it get's the job done.

UPDATE 2010-03-19
I've added new pictures and completed the build and usage instructions. I spent my time on those so am still cleaning up the OpenSCAD files.

UPDATE 2010-03-05
I've uploaded two new STL files. These supersede all previous versions:

* MouseMotel_0.3.stl
* MouseMotelLid_0.3.stl

These are for a 70 mm ID bottle. I used a 20 oz/591 mL one.
I've uploaded an OpenSCAD screen grab of the parts assembled to show how they go together.

Once I clean up the MouseMotel.scad file I will upload it too.

UPDATE 2010-03-04
I've uploaded an STL file of the main part. I still need to tweak the flap that contains the mouse.

UPDATE 2010-03-02
Look at the photo; mine works!
And it's still alive!

;)

Seriously, since any garbage can contains a suitable enclosure for the trap, i.e., a soda or water bottle, I decide to focus on creating a printable one-way flap that can be fitted to a cut-down bottle. This reduces the size and number of parts necessary for the trap and because I used my favorite modeling tool, OpenSCAD, I parameterized the design so it can be used for bottles of various diameters.

Here's the basic concept:

* Cut off the top of your selected bottle
* Size and print a ring that fits inside bottle
* Print flap that sits inside the ring
* Insert 2 3 mm captive nuts into holes on outside of ring
* Insert ring into bottle
* Punch/cut holes for stabilizers
* Insert stabilizers into captive nuts
* Insert a length of 3 mm plastic feedstock to function as the flap hinge pin
* Place motel at desired location
* Bait motel with peanut butter
* Wait

The mouse will smell the bait, enter the one-way flap in the bottle to get it, and be trapped!

The stabilizers on either side of the bottle will keep it from rolling around as the mouse explores its new home.

I'm still working on a few details, and will update this thing as I finalize them.

The human powered internet cafe looks at the issues of renewable power generation and aims to educate users to the energy requirements of surfing the internet.

Users are asked to peddle the exercise bikes in order to turn a dynamo which would in turn power the computers. If users fail to peddle hard enough the computer monitors will begin to flicker encouraging them to peddle harder.

The thing would ideally be placed in public areas where all forms of society could view it and try it out for them selves, thus educating as many people as possible.

This is an alternative extruder hot-end design for the makerbot, though it may work for other 3d printers as well.

The big advantage is that it does not require an insulator (usually PTFE or PEEK), which causes problems for some (or perhaps many). Instead, a stack of washers and nuts is used as a heatsink to reduce the temperature.

It worked really, really well for me, no more stalled extruders, stuck filaments, half-way prints. It heats up rapidly less than 1 minute from 25 to 220 degC), and I haven't had any problems with it (yet..).
I've only printed ABS so far, so I have no idea if it will work with other materials.

My original version used an aluminum heatsink (bottom image), but I thought that might be a bit hard for others to duplicate, so I built this one. Works just as well, just looks a little less fancy.

You'll need a small fan, stainless steel M6 bolt as well as a stack of M6 nuts and 25mm M6 fender washers in addition to asome components from a standard makerbot extruder.

This is notionally based on the Printruder II extruder body. I like the basic design, but I had problems with filament getting kinked in the empty air below the drive gear. I was having too many issues getting the extruder to work reliably to be able to print a new modified one with less open space.

Since I also have a CNC mill and a tap&die kit, I just designed up and carved a new extruder head out of Aluminum. It allowed me to have tighter tolerances, and it seems to work pretty well with my home-built Mk5-alike worm gear.

This is designed to work with an 11mm outer diam worm gear drive wheel.

A fingerwheel for a M8 threaded rod (like the MakerBot Z rod), with space to add a M8 nut. I plan to add this to the CRASH Space MakerBot as a manual Z-axis control, and to use it for a leveling platform idea I'm working on.

Inspired by Antona's 4-Star Knob For M8 Nut (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3723), I used zignig's Finger Wheel OpenSCAD script (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3288), tweaked it a bit, then added a larger shaft and carved out space for the M8 nut.

Put this on a rod, lock a second nut next to it, and you can spin the rod all day without it unscrewing from the rod.

I have a netgear gs105 network switch, which has no fan and vents on the side. I think it was designed to hang on a wall by its screw holes, because it overheats sitting flat.

So I built this stand to let me put it on its side while elevating it high enough to keep the vents clear. It runs much cooler this way! I notice the newer models netgear sells come with a stand.

This model is parametric, so if you've got a different device with a different width, you can adjust it to fit.

Well this is finally a lock box that works. It takes a couple prints to pull off but it works in the end. Skip the instructions and just use common sense if youre clever enough ;)
youtube.com/watch?v=kq4WPenqdDM

For my wedding in October 2011 I asked my fiance if I could build something, she only asked that it not be tacky. This is what I came up with. It's a modular folding photo booth. I designed the model in Sketchup, programmed it in Autoit, and gave it a nice Glados voice. I needed an input device and I decided to make a serial comm button. I took a 555 timer and made it generate a 4.8kHz square wave. At 9600 baud this translates to UUUUUUUU plus one garbage character when the button is released. for now it only uses a Webcam to take photos but hopefully I will be find a deal on a canon power shot sometime in the next months to upgrade it. Since the printouts are resized, the small webcam resolution isn't noticable, however it won't be suitable if i wanted to incorporate the singles frames into a album. I'm working on some upgrades using the twitter api so I can have the booth update me whenever it is taking photos. This way I can tell it's status and share photos easier.


Here is a video of it's assembly and the software.

youtube.com/watch?v=jNGg821bC7c

I built this CNC router from designs I saw all ver the place and like the idea of using aluminium channel and steel. I simply built the table then measured the gantry to suit. You can build any size this way as long as you re-enforce properly. The control board came from HobbyCNC and the motors are NEMA 23. The power supply I built (simple 24v 7A).

This is a simple, temporary workaround for misbehaving Thing-o-Matic ABPs.
It seems that a lot of folks are having trouble getting good prints out of their ABP's. I am one of those folks. I've had some limited success with an experimental ABP belt made out of 1010 steel, but realized that in order to make it work well, I would need to redesign several pieces of the ABP body itself. I saw some really cool things on Thingiverse and wanted to print them NOW (kinda like Veruca from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, "but I want it NOW daddy..."). I wanted a primo HBP without having to tear down my current ABP.
Pros of this workaround:
-A flat, rock-stable build platform
-The use of raftless printing with the stability of a huge, easy-to-remove raft
-Finally gives you a good use for your scrap ABS
-A non-destructive mod; when an improvement to the ABP belt comes along, you will not have burned any bridges
-No more exposed SHCS's on your build surface for your extruder nozzle to crash into
Cons:
-You will need to re-set your Z-axis calibration value
-No more ABP conveyor belt action for you; one print at a time
-Requires the use of acetone; you must use proper ventilation/safety precautions with acetone to prevent fire/explosion

This Machine is an an experimental prototype created for the purpose making light weight hollow castings from rapid setting resins cast into rubber molds.
-Centrifugal force allows liquids to flow evenly to all interior surfaces of an mold and cures to an solid state while in motion within minutes.
- ideally the motion of rotation could be optimized toward the shape of an object and the speed of an curing material so that the casting would have even wall thickness no greater than necessary to support the structure of the shape.
_This process would also lend it self well to casting waxes into rubber molds to produce patterns in an lost wax process for metal casting in an foundry situation.

The Clonedel RepStrap was inspired by the Prusa Mendel (see the related article).

open3dp.me.washington.edu/2011/02/prusa-mendel-and-the-clonedels/

It came about due to necessity of students wanting to build RepRap style machines faster than we could 3D print them. It took about a week outside of class to redesign Prusa parts for mold production. Most of the parts required only minor modifications, but several parts, such as the X-Carriage assembly, required redesign. All modified parts were placed on mold pattern plates to allow for the production of silicone RTV molds.

All of the STL files are now posted here and on GitHub as an Open3DP fork off of the Prusa tree.

github.com/open3dp/PrusaMendel/downloads

They are to be considered Alpha release (and we are already working on some changes). However, we am quite sure that you will be able to use them to print master forms to produce molds (because we have produced molds and we have used the molds to produce RepRaps).

These mold plates represent the current best practice as provided by reprap project, prusa mendel, jnfisher, whosawhatis, rustyspoon1121, etc.

Further, Metrix Create Space has already created molds sets and cast parts. Metrix Create is already making them available.

metrixcreatespace.com/post/3587952561/clone-factory-bootstrapping

{P.S. Several people have had trouble with EndStops and XMotor. I uploaded them to NetFabb Beta to fix them. I have uploaded _Fixed versions. Please let me know if these files are better.}

I found a local source for bronze bushing, but they are too big for anything already here on TV, and they have a notch on the side to boot, so I designed a replacement. These bushings come off of various laser printers and copy machines. Might not be too difficult to come across when dumpster diving.

This is the result of my efforts to produce a reliable hot end for RepRap, using minimal components and tools. In it's most recent incarnations, you no longer need to tap threads for the MIG welder tip, make the nozzle clamp, or cut a slot for the power resistor.

The original instructions are on the RepRap Wiki (http://reprap.org/wiki/Wildseyed_Simple_Hot_End), but I'm not wiki savvy, so I think I'll be posting the progress here first from now on, and updating the Wiki with well tested results.

Firstly, this is NOT MY IDEA! It was published by Vik Olliver, Diamond Age Solutions Ltd. diamondage.co.nz. I have reproduced it here, assuming that it is public domain. However, I will be happy to remove it if the original author would like me to. His document says "Documentation released under the GFDL for free reproduction." I hope that extends to his pictures!

I am building a mrkimrobotics 1X2 reprap mrkimrobotics.com/ and thingiverse.com/thing:5773 from basic, locally sourced parts, and getting to the point were I need to create a hot end. I realised I needed a lathe for this, but don't have space or cash for a real one and all thingiverse lathes thingiverse.com/tag:lathe require some reprapped parts - but mine isn't built yet! Somehow I stumbled upon Vik's page and feel it deserves a wider audience.

I built mine using a Bosch hand drill with handle adapter clamped in a Black and Decker Workmate for one end, and the chuck from my drill press G-clamped to a small vice for the other. I have only been playing around with this so far, and haven't got this working quite well enough yet to make a hot end, but it has excellent potential.

Vik Olliver: "Why an 'Afghan Lathe'? Because I first saw this kind of technique being used by Afghan gunsmiths to produce counterfeit firearms with remarkable precision."

This printable extruder is intended to work on RepRap Mendel (both standard and Prusa), RepRap Huxley, and virtually any other open-source 3D printer you can find.

It features:

1. 1.75 mm filament
2. Adaptable mounting plate to attach it to virtually any 3D printer
3. Very compact high-torque NEMA 11 motor
4. Active ducted fan cooling for high reliability
5. Wade-style hobbed bolt filament transport
6. Wing-nut drive to spread the torque loading on the plastic gears
7. Push-fit hot-end parts - no thread cutting
8. Easily replaced PTFE liner for the hot end
9. A single M3-threaded rod cut to lengths makes all the fixings
10. Lightweight: 420g
11. Compact design (110 mm x 90 mm x 80 mm)

I based this design (loosely) on Jstkatz's extruder (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7037), in particular, the idea of using a lever to trap the filament against its drive.

Adjustable spool to be able to load 1lb filament from the bag without having to wind on to a fixed spool.

Wade's Geared Extruder modified for dual extrusion.

This extruder is currently untested, but please try it out and post your results.

**In the future I would like to use it for printing dissolvable support structures.**

Never lose your guitar picks again!

This is the latest version of my guitar pick holder.

Clip it to your guitar shoulder strap, then spin the wheel enclosure to open or close the inner compartment.