This is a slightly more challenging variant of Dovetail Triangle that only opens when held in a certain orientation.

Watch the video for a demonstration:

youtube.com/watch?v=JnMRREjfPyc

Set of planetary gears and arms to hold the planet gears in place.

Based off OpenSCAD code from thing:7390 (after cutting out significant portions of it - because the original thing is much more than a toy).

The gear ratios are very interesting, and (at least at first) non-intuitive, depending on the part that is held stationary.

With a fixed Annulus or Sun, this gives 1:6.
With a fixed Planet carrier, this gives 1:5.

This thing will create a range of metric and imperial tooth profile pulleys, with any number of teeth, specified in the Openscad file.
Tooth profiles currently supported are MXL, 40DP, XL, H, T2.5, T5, T10, AT5, HTD (3mm, 5mm, 8mm) and GT2 (2mm, 3mm 5mm).
There are a range of editable parameters for editing the fit of the tooth (to account for printer variation), the pulley base, captive nut(s) slot for the set screw, motor shaft diameter, pulley height and belt retainers.
The attached stls are reference pulleys, mostly around the size used on repraps.

Details
After creating the parametric pulley thingiverse.com/thing:11256 I realised this way of modelling them was only going to work for square-toothed pulleys, and a way of producing pulleys for belts with better characteristics for linear motion was required. I found dxf drawings of the relevant tooth profiles here oem.cadregister.com/asp/PPOW_Entry.asp?company=915217&elementID=07807803/METRIC/URETH/WV0025/F and modelled pulley diameter from data here sdp-si.com/D265/HTML/D265T016.html
There were a couple of possible approaches to importing the data, I chose to simplify the bezier curve dxf data in Inkscape, producing vertices with a resolution of around 0.05-0.1mm for each tooth. Another advantage is the the pulleys have the tooth ramp for smooth entry and exit of the belt tooth into the pulley. I'm not really sure 3D printers can take full advantage of this yet, but quality is improving all the time!
If other tooth profiles are required, or you model any, please pass them on to me and I will include them.
Not printed yet... I'm away for the weekend! I'll upload some photos when I do, on Monday.

This is the real deal, no derivatives here. These are the real Printrbot in it's current version. I have a bunch of these printing all day, every day.... it works. It is expandable to larger widths and heights easier than any other reprap out there. Period. Its the most inexpensive bot out there being mass produced. And, its now yours to print, build, improve, change.... whatever you like. I can't wait to see what you do with it. I will post pics of all the various forms it takes, news, etc at printrbot.com
-enjoy
Brook

The MK7 is great. But one thing never made it into the design spec: the ability to switch filaments mid-print.

Switching filaments enables multi-colored prints without fusing filament first. It also ensures that if you run out of a given filament, you can load new stock mid-print. This is very helpful for long prints.

The MK7's Stainless Steel Thermal Barrier Tube is not seated close enough to the Knurled Pulley, which makes it nearly impossible for a new filament to chase another into the Tube. However, raising the Tube ~3.5mm brings it close enough so that the new filament will not bend or slip off the old filament as it enters the Tube.

Another benefit is that you gain an additional ~3.5mm in Z-height!

Here's some video of the results youtube.com/watch?v=I25pOHE91xY

UPDATE: Zach posted a solid filament block for the MK7, so you should print this out and modify that instead of your purchased one. thingiverse.com/thing:12147

MakerBot® is offering our first dedicated 1.75mm filament extruder! It's a huge leap forward for personal manufacturing- you will be amazed by the improvement in your print quality, and the reliability of use obtained with the MakerBot® StepStruder MK7.

Designed from scratch, the StepStruder® MK7 contains a number of newly created custom manufactured parts. The MK7 redesign rolls in all the innovations and user experience from the MakerBot® Plastruder MK5, StepStruder® MK6, and StepStruder® MK6 Plus into one cutting edge, pint size device! The StepStruder® MK7 is compatible for use with MakerBot® Generation 4 Electronics and the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic® 3D Printer.

BOLD

Smaller format, lighter, more gumption! The MK7 uses our tried and true NEMA 17 motor to drive it- a lighter extruder with tons of torque and reliable stepper performance. The extruder design has been carefully refined, and the assembly process is faster and requires fewer pieces than ever. The StepStruder® MK7 represents major advances in the design, functionality, reliability, ease of use, and print quality for desktop 3D Printer extruders. We've trimmed as much from the design as we could, and what's left is a tightly functioning device that has only one reason to exist- to extrude endlessly!

LITTLE

Our most compact extruder yet, the StepStruder® MK7 is less than half the weight of our previous extruder. The MK6 Plus extruder was a sturdy 1.8lbs, and the MK7 is only 0.8 lbs! The inside of your MakerBot® Thing-O-Matic® will feel positively spacious with an MK7 in place- spacious enough you could mount a second MK7 right next to it!

We've also shrunk the filament as well, and the StepStruder® MK7 is exclusively for use with our 1.75mm stock from the MakerBot® plastics selection. No more big 3mm filament here! All MakerBot® ABS colors and PLA are available in 1.75mm- now is the time to switch filament sizes if you haven't. Do you want cleaner prints, with less stringing, finer detail, and faster start-up? Drop in the MK7 extruder and you're off and running with 1.75mm. Really easy!

FAST

We're proud of what we can offer you with the StepStruder® MK7- the shortest build time of any of our extruders. Our assembler Colin, who has built more MK7's than anyone, reports that it takes less than half of the time to build a MK7 than any of our previous extruders.

The MK7 is still fully modular, and any component can be replaced or worked on without replacing the entire unit. We're trading up for easier, faster assembly so you can get back to the business at hand- printing! The lasercut acrylic pieces from previous designs have been removed in favor of precision-milled aluminum and high strength injection-molded plastic components.The extruder heats up faster too- knocking minutes off start up time, and saving hours of your time throughout it's use.

SCIENCE

The MakerBot Stepstruder® MK7 is an all-new extruder which was designed from the ground up exclusively for 1.75 mm filament. We have eliminated all PTFE tube components from the design, allowing the extruder to work with higher-temperature materials, and dissipate heat more effectively than ever. A custom aluminum heat sink and fan keep heat from spreading from the cartridge heater.

It's our most compact and reliable extruder to date, and the simplest to assemble! The stock 0.4 mm nozzle allows printing at a layer height of between 0.32 and 0.27 mm right out of the box, for the most detailed prints you've ever seen from your MakerBot®. Even better, the compact design allows us to stack two complete extruders next to each other for an EXPERIMENTAL dual-extruder setup! The design and software for the MK7 are fully open source, so get involved and become a leader in Dualstrusion™! Keep in mind Dualstrusion™ is strictly experimental and not for the faint of heart! It's an open source challenge to our users to take EXPERIMENTAL dual extrusion to the next level!

Buy it: store.makerbot.com/stepstruder-mk7-complete-stepper.html

Stepstruder MK7 is tracked on Github: github.com/makerbot/Stepstruder-MK7.

I call this thing the N_struder. With this revision being an N = 2struder. The original design intent was to hack thingiverse.com/jag awesome thingiverse.com/thing:7113 for use with my cupcake, but after seeing Makerbot's MK7 I ended up taking it to a whole new level.

Design Concepts:
Cooling Fan: I mostly wanted to use parts and stock I have laying around my shop. The idea with the location of the heatsink is to cool the stepper motor (while still using a MK3 geared DC motor I noticed after long builds the filament would strip). I fixed this with a vacuum pump blowing air right on the hobbed drive, keeping the motor cool to the touch (a terrible solution), but it worked.

With this location it also allows for any cooling fan to be attached. I think it is important to have a large heatsink, like a CPU fan when using multiple extruder heads. I imagine 100W+ possibly which is in the range for a CPU fan (plus they are often found FREE!)

Filament Drive/ Material Change:
The idea here is to only use (1) stepper motor and motor driver because I am too cheap :). But really I think this method may prove useful.
Basically there will be a servo that engages/ disengages each filament through linkages (not in design yet). Then driving the stepper CW for one, then CCW for the latter. When disengaged the filament is pulled away from hobbed drive.
I have found using a 180 degree servo you get a few extra degrees allowing the mechanism to lock (like locking your knee or elbow), enabling the need for no power, with only the small exception of material change.

Added Benefits:
This was designed with extruder head spacing of only 12mm (more build area).
Less cost and more simple. no need for two sets of motors, drivers, housings, ect...
Use of 1.75mm stock
Expandable to many heads (see N = 4struder concept).

Well that was a mouthfull. But I have a question for the thingiverse hivemind. Is there an interest in implementing something like this?
I have no programming knowledge so it's useless to me without help.
I will continue designing the servo driven version if anyone thinks it's a good idea.
Also, other suggestions would be helpful.

This is, I am proud to say, the single greatest upgrade you can possibly print for your MK5 print head. Seriously... download it and start slicing it now while you read this, you're not going to want to lose any time!

This tensioner provides MUCH stronger grip than is possible with the default delrin plunger setup. In addition, it doesn't require the same constant adjustment the delrin plunger does. Just put it on once, and go. It'll eat anything. And it can hold with MUCH more force against the motor shaft than the delrin plunger could ever DREAM of.

This thing is a MONSTER FILAMENT EATER and will take your arm clean off if you get in the way. Well, maybe that's not true. Or maybe it is. Just don't go sticking your arms in any loops of filament while printing; I don't want to be responsible.

This is advertised as "MK5" and it is - I'm not going to make any assumptions about whether YOU are using a stepper extruder or the DC motor ... anything MK5 goes. In fact, I'll give 100 bonus internets to the first person who tries it out with the DC motor and posts some photos. Most of my photos are of a stepper configuration, but it's just because that's what I'm using.

I've intentionally tried to design this using only parts you'll have on hand and can find at the local hardware store.

The design of the tensioner is of course inspired by every variation of Wade's extruder I have seen. The design of the mount is mostly inspired by natetrue's printable MK5 ( thingiverse.com/thing:5169 ). I'd have liked to have made it a proper derivative by starting with his design, but sadly I couldn't get it to render in CGAL via OpenSCAD, even after his recent fix (it did fix the error I had gotten, and replaced it with a nastier one!).

So this is a fresh design 100% by me in OpenSCAD.



Motivation: Now that I have a stepper extruder ( thingiverse.com/thing:5797 ) and I've found a way to make it pull strongly with my weak motors ( thingiverse.com/thing:6362 ) now I need a better tensioner. The bolt-driven delrin plunger on the MK5 doesn't supply constant pressure; just constant position.

The tensioner from the Wade's style extruder seems like a brilliant design to me; a spring-pressure 608 bearing can press against the filament with a good, strong pressure, and the springs ensure it can supply pressure even if your filament isn't 100% consistent, or you have worse problems like a bent bolt or whatever.


Here's a youtube video of my first actual test extrusion with it. I've since gone on to print, and have the most AMAZING consistent filament flow I've /ever/ had. It's beautiful enough to make me weep. The mechanical noise I point out in this video vanished during my first print.

youtube.com/watch?v=54xrG96qoJM

UPDATE: (2011-03-09)
I've been printing great with two of these ever since I put it together in the first place. But I usually print with a fan on - and I think my dual extruder setup bleeds a lot more heat than a single one would, and is more confined.

Long story short, I tried a print without a fan on, and my filament pusher melted down! Well, melted UP, actually. Photo posted.

I may redesign this with a thicker base, but really I think the fundamental issue arose out of my cramped dual-heads, and can be cured with a fan, so it's not such a big deal. If it should happen to anyone else though, I'd like to hear about it - and keep a spare printed just in case!

So let's say that you love the Ultimaker, but you know right now, Makerbot Gen4 electronics have a few advantages such as SD card and the LCD control panel kit. This also lets you run a direct drive MK6 filament feed mechanism and MK6+ hot end. I decided to use what I thought was the "best of the best" components and upgrades around.

Nanode - A Network Application Node.

Nanode is like an Arduino but with ethernet/web connectivity.

It also supports easy to use wireless and wired networks.

It has been developed as a low cost tool to allow simple sensor networks to be developed.

It's the perfect platform for smart sensors, home automation, monitoring and control.

It's through hole construction and the use of socketed DIP ICs makes it easy to build for the home constructor.

It's been competetively priced so that it costs about the same as an Arduino (roughly $30 US, or £18).

Without the ethernet parts it's sub $20 and can be used as a low cost Arduino "work-alike". It's compatible with most Arduino shields.

It has some key advantages over the basic Arduino:

1. Built in ethernet controller
2. Unique MAC address ID
3. Supports external EEPROM/FRAM/SRAM/Flash device for increased data storage
4. Supports a simple wireless transceiver shield from Jee Labs.
5. Supports a local multi-drop serial bus for wired networks of Master/Slaves
6. Breadboard friendly I/O connectors bring all I/O out on a 0.1" pitch




This is the productionised version of the Nanode for the London Hackspace.

It's very much updated and includes a whole lot of new features.

1. SPI serial memory either SRAM, FRAM or EE for storing data and web pages,

2. Microchip MAC chip so that it has a unique MAC address.

3. Wireless Connectivity - plug a Jee Labs RFM12B module straight in to give a bi-directional wireless link.

4.Moves the reset switch to where you can get at it - side actuated

5. Moves the LED to where you can see it.

6.Improved connector for local power/comms bus with 4 pin screw terminal block. Makes for simple interconnection with 4 way telephone cable.

7. Adds the London Hackspace Logo, Pachube Logo and Arbour Wood Ltd details.

8. Adds Auto-reset (from FTDI cable).

9. Adds Virtual USB Vusb (Like Metaboard) for programming obdev.at/products/vusb/index.html
metalab.at/wiki/Metaboard

YAPML yet another poor man's library that makes things finding it hard to render and taking its time to compile.

In this case the self-replicating polyhedron is intended to give a mechanical touch to your freshly (or not) designed cylindrical surfaces. Hmmmm... you can also thing that those things all-around the cylinder are diamonds and use it for jewelry.

The examples scad provided uses OpenSCAD MakerBot Font Module by grokbeer licensed under BY-SA-NC license (link in the instructions section)

Photos... aubenc.imgur.com/knurled_finish_surface

UPDATE:
(Just in case you don't read the comments bellow)
Video by sirmakesalot (thank you very much!!)... youtube.com/watch?v=uz8h--NsX7E


Things using this library :-)

Bowden Clamp for Ultimaker by owen
thingiverse.com/thing:11864

Spindle for 5lb spool by mikeq
thingiverse.com/thing:12871

Knurled "topper" for stepper motors by Pazu
thingiverse.com/thing:13978

Ultimaker Hobbed Bolt Release by bkubicek
thingiverse.com/thing:14505

Hobbed bolt holder by coffeeMaker
thingiverse.com/thing:16136

Shane's Coral Frag Plugs by sgraber
thingiverse.com/thing:16982

The south pointing chariot is an ancient mechanical compass invented in China around 200 C.E. Texts mention their use up until around 1300 C.E. and they have descriptions of how they were built. But unfortunately there are no examples of ancient ones still in existence. Thankfully many people over the years have interpreted the ancient texts to come up with a variety of designs. Most of these designs use counter rotating differentials connected to each wheel and a common differential in the center with a pointing device to indicate South. How the differentials are oriented and connected to each other varies greatly though. I found this to be one of the most elegant designs and its attributed to a Mr. Nuttall.

This makes a great Demo showing the capabilities of 3D printing and will impress everyone you show. It only has ONE stationary part and 11-14 moving parts depending on configuration.

Version Information
Spur gear version is made for printing on the average machine.
It uses 15 tooth spur gears generated by Blender
I printed it at 0.28mm layer height with a 0.4mm nozzle at 20mm/s perimeter, 50mm/s infill.

File organization
All the gears have a small support structure that needs to be removed with a pair of needle nose pliers or screwdriver.

100x100_plate 1&2 are made to fit on 100mm x 100mm build surface.
Plate 1 contains all the parts except the wheels. (one spider gear per side)
Plate 2 contains one wheel. (it needs to be printed twice)

200x200_plate is made to fit on a 200mm x 200mm build surface.
It contains all the parts plus the third and fourth spider gears that are not really required but look cool, plus the tux penguin pictured.

Zip file contains all the parts individually.

The Blend file is very large and processor heavy but 99% parametric (minus the gears).
The spur gear version requires the Spiral gear version Blend file for linked parts.

Attribution
Gro_tux by Le_Garage thingiverse.com/thing:4745
The math behind it can be seen odts.de/southptr/math/santander.htm
Gear ratio calculator for Nuttall type SPC odts.de/southptr/gears/nuttall.htm

Tools
Needle nose pliers or flat head screw driver. (to remove support)
M6 die (or 1/4" die)
Hex keys (allen keys)
Wrench for M6 nut (or 1/4" nut)
Drill with 4mm and 6mm drill bits (or 11/64" and 1/4")
CA glue (instant glue)

BOM
115mm of 6mm smooth rod (brass is preferred) (I used 1/4" and drilled the holes)
2 * M6 nuts (or 1/4" if using 1/4" smooth rod)
3-5 * M4 x 12 cap screws (I used no8 x 1/2" and drilled the holes)
2 * 5/16 nuts (sorry M8 will not work) threads pitch does not matter
3-10 * M4 or M5 washers. (no8 or no10)
3-5 * M4 nuts (or no8)
2 * 3-15/16" x 3-3/4" x3/32" O-ring (3.9375 x 3.75 x 0.094) (100mm x 95.25mm x 2.4mm)

While I was waiting the 4 weeks for my Thing-O-Matic to arrive, I was thinking of all sorts of improvements for it before I even built it. One thing I knew I wanted to do was to integrate the Gen4 Interface directly into the machine. So I designed a new mounting for it so it is on a hinged panel that swings out the front when needed....and closes back up into the bot when not used. There is plenty of space in the electronics area for the interface parts to fit, even with the 2 stepper drivers mounted right behind it.

I used the original Gen4 Interface PCBA and LCD panel, and just remounted them on parts I printed with the Thing-O-Matic. I designed the hinge to have detents so it holds the panel in place when pushed all the way in or pulled out. I am using blue tape a pull handle until I decide what kind of permanent handle to print and mount.

I think it just gives the bot a more finished look, but does not change any actual functionality.

I picked a crater from this moonbump data via LOLA and ran it through Marius Watz's mb_04_gui_heightfield.pde via workshop.evolutionzone.com/

MendelMax is a new RepRap 3d printer designed by Maxbots. It is a true reprap, using printed brackets, but instead of using threaded rod for the structural elements it uses inexpensive aluminum extrusions. This gives a huge increase in rigidity for a minimal extra cost (Self sourcing will cost about $50 more than a standard Prusa when purchased from the recommended suppliers). The required extrusions are available world wide from a variety of suppliers.

In addition to greatly increased rigidity, this design is faster to assemble (probably 4 hours for most users), easier to print, has a larger build volume (~215x235x190 if built at the standard dimensions), and is easier to hack on.

Update 2/7/2012: MendelMax full kits and hardware only kits are now available from Maxbots (aka Kludgineer on Thingiverse) @ store.mendelmax.com!

Resized Rhys-Jones large herringbone gear to fit Gregs Accessible while maintaining the original nut and shaft size.

Resized Rhys-Jones small herringbone gear to fit Gregs Accessible and added Gregs small gears hub.

You will need to recalculate your E steps per mm if changing from Gregs originals

New gears are 43:13 (3.3:1)
Gregs originals are 37:11 (3.36:1)

Version 2 has a Countersunk face as suggested by Greg Frost

Version 2_m3 requested by Jolijar ( m3 hex in center of version 2 )

A robot hand, printable ready to use. No assembly required! To make this happen, I designed a special joint: no overhangs exceeding 45°

Modeled in Rhino.

Simply split apart their drawings into separate files, one for each material. Haven't tried cutting it yet -- their site lacks a bit of details on the full construction of the ultimaker, they don't sell individual parts, etc. It's a shame, since I have a laser cutter, I'd be more than willing to buy a complete kit from them minus the frame. I assume this would save me a bit on shipping (right now it's a couple hundred dollars to ship the entire kit).

This is a human brain I extracted from a public domain MRI dataset from Slicer3.4.

This is a new set of gears I made for my EMC-RepStrap that i am building at the moment.
I use a Wade Extruder with a DC Motor. The speed of my cnc mill is limited to 5mm/s so I have to run the extruder at a very slow speed. The problem is that i can not decrease the PWM value of the motor any further because the motor stops moving then.

The small gear has 10 teeth and the big one has 70 teeth. It is quite difficult to mount them because the big gear is a lot bigger than the Extruder so you maybe have to modify the mounting of the Extruder.

These are low tec (like the rest of my machine) but they work for me :)

Shown here is a study of the basic design for the PrintrBot. After analyzing the PrintrBot flicker stream, it was apparent that several versions were present. I picked and chose several design elements from multiple models and created an amalgamation shown here. Do not expect this to be an exact copy.

Included is the SCAD file for manipulation. Pay attention to the notes and comments when making changes.

I make no guarantee about the functionality or printablilty of parts. In order to make a functioning PrintrBot clone, you will also need the following parts:

8mm threaded rod
8mm rail
lmu88 (a bunch)
extruder, steppers, controller,etc...

and here are some additional printed parts you will need:

Idler Pulley for XAxis :
thingiverse.com/thing:3970 - whosiswhatsis

Timing Belt Pulley for X / Y Axis:
thingiverse.com/thing:1362 - Erik
thingiverse.com/thing:2079 - NopHead
thingiverse.com/thing:6604 - makeme

5mm to 8mm shaft couplers:
thingiverse.com/thing:11708 - Petehagoras
thingiverse.com/thing:10906 - raldrich

Additionally, The Y-pulley idlers need to be designed to provide tension of the y-belt to the Y-Motor.

Feel free to provide some constructive criticisms. If you make changes to a part, please send them to me.
-PMF

Here's a simple molecular modeling program written in OPENscad. It's a derivative of the OPENscad program in "Protein Models". It contains two modules, "atom" and "bond". A call to atom makes a sphere and a call to bond makes a cylinder. Atom requires a radius and a set of atomic coordinates; bond requires two sets of atomic coordinates. For example to make a water molecule we could write:

atom (.3, 0, 0, 0); // an Oxygen at the origin, .3 for its radius
atom (.25, -.96, 0, 0); // for the first H atom, .25 for its radius
atom (.25, .24, .93, 0); // for the second H atom
bond (0,0,0,-.96,0,0); // for the first O-H bond
bond (0,0,0,.24,.93.0); // for the second o-H bond

To render it all together the above commands are included within a union statement. More details in makewater.scad.

Once I had this program I began looking for coordinates of interesting molecules to print. I found a collection of fullerenes at ccl.net/cca/data/fullerenes/index.shtml Better known as "Buckyballs" you can read about the fullerenes on Wikipedia. The buckyball most discussed contains 60 carbon atoms but the coordinate collection has a range of sizes, from 20 to 540 atms.

By request of Syvwlch ( thingiverse.com/syvwlch ) and WilliamAAdams ( thingiverse.com/WilliamAAdams ), here is a stand-alone public-domain OpenSCAD cycloidal speed reducer. As with the Wankel Engine and Roots Blower I recently posted, this is intended more as an example of an interesting mechanism than as a practical device. If you want a practical printable speed reducer, you might consider one of the other alternatives like

the worm drives on this Tank thingiverse.com/thing:8080 or
differential planetary gears thingiverse.com/thing:7390 or
cascaded spur gears thingiverse.com/thing:7379 or
this planetary gear reducer thingiverse.com/thing:8460

There are several cycloidal-type mechanisms already on Thingiverse, such as
thingiverse.com/thing:3617 and thingiverse.com/thing:3736

There are also several interesting external sites like:
zincland.com/hypocycloid/
fabricationsofthemind.com/2010/07/09/extruder-design-1-printable-1001-hypocycloidal-gearbox/
github.com/triffid/Differential_Hypocycloid
reprap.org/wiki/Differential_Hypocycloid
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerotor
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gear_pump

and many many interesting youtube videos such as
youtube.com/watch?v=bRn1K2XeWVE
youtube.com/watch?v=3WvPF6uGCq4
youtube.com/watch?v=CG2sPuqEXBg
youtube.com/watch?v=AMtyFwMDL7w
youtube.com/watch?v=h236SP86nnQ

This present script is based on a design by M.F. Hill described in his 1928 patent "Internal Rotor", number 1,682,563:

google.com/patents/about?id=mdF5AAAAEBAJ&dq=1682563

Note that this design is based on an offset hypocycloid, similar to Figure I in Hill's patent. Most of the contemporary designs appear to be based on an offset epicycloid, more closely resembling Figure V in the patent.

The motivated student can modify the code so it generates epicycloidal-based profiles. Hint: start by making a module ``epitrochoidBandFast(n, r, thickness, r_off)". The motivated student could also probably clean up my train-wreck of code and/or figure out how to do arrays in OpenSCAD.

Note also that these rotors can be used for pumps - see the gifs in the comments for an example.

This part uses geometry identical to the original. I provide a SolidWorks model and a drawing you can use to model this part in your favorite software. I will add new parts to this thing as they are designed.

I've created a base module that will bolt onto the shaft cover of your Thing-O-Matic. This can be used for mounting an adjustable light on your MakerBot.

If you would like to request anything in this series, please leave a comment below. I'll try to get it done for you.

Linear Bearing Carriage X Axis LMB6UU NOT LM8UU as I originally put here
I found some LMB6UU (SW06UU in US) linear bearings for £4.50 each, so tried them as a direct replacement for the bushes on the Y Axis based on thing thingiverse.com/thing:9114 by splod, they worked so well that I created an X Axis carriage for them and here it is if anyone would like to try it.

People in the UK can get them from worldofcnc.com/products.asp?recnumber=167 or get them from eBay ALOT cheaper

Update:
I printed the ABP version and found a miscalculation in the end bolt holes; these are corrected in the _FIXED versions of the STL and SCAD files

This project now has a home: code.google.com/p/smt-pick-n-place-system/

This is part of my efforts to automate assembly of PCBs, using an existing 3D printer with a pick-and-place toolhead instead of acquiring a 40K euro machine. This is a parametric design that can be easily adjusted for various sizes of SMD tape. The gear will also be adjusted depending on the pitch of the tape and components.

A tape feeder like this can cost about 1 euro instead of 200 euro's.

Like most of my design, it was designed in OpenSCAD, openSCAD.org a wonderful tool, especially if you're more of a TUI person than a GUI person.

Personally, I really like the recursion that you can print and cut these parts on open source machines and that they will allow you to automatically assemble the PCBs for 3D printers and laser cutters. Also, the laser cutter can be open source, which is what our friends in Utrecht are working on: see laoslaser.org/

Video: youtube.com/watch?v=fsWpC6L91qo

Derivatives, additions, improvements and suggestions may also be prized as part of the Ultimaker challenge:
Ultimaker.com/Challenge !

This time convex...

A first pass attempt at printing the frame of a small, toy, rubber-band powered flapping flying machine. This small ornithopter is based on the tutorials I've seen for wooden ornithopters on Instructables, most particularly on the tutorial by Captain Molo

instructables.com/id/Ornithopter/


Known Issues
Please note, this is WIP - mostly because I couldn't get it to reliably fly. It prints - it assembles - it flaps in your hands. But when I try to fly it, it manages only a few flaps before stalling.

I suspect that wobbly axles are losing me most of the rubber-band power, but it could be anything at this point.

I also suspect that massive weight savings could be made on future iterations of this ornithopter - the one I've uploaded here is SOLID. There is no flex, even when it's crashing nose first into the grass. There's fat to be trimmed here, for certain.

milled oakwood and filled with lead

a lot more pictures on...

cncprinter.blogspot.com/2011/03/eichenschale.html

This is a 3D printed proof of concept and display model for the USFIRST robotics team "The Tigertons 222" Ball Lock transmission printed by me. The original three speed version we used in 2004 was inspired by the 1970's five speed Hodaka motorcycle transmission Since 2004 we have been changing up the design a bit.

This year/season we located the shifting relief springs to the outside of the transmission rather than inside the shifting shaft.

The transmission works by forcing four steel balls into the gears by a plunger inside the shifting shaft. To shift gears the plunger slides out from under one gear to underneath the next gear. This retracts the balls down into the shifting shaft which allows that gear to spin freely on the shaft. Once the plunger goes to the next gear it forces the balls underneath that gear to lock into that gear.

Please see the following for more information:

Here is a video I made of this prototype transmission:
youtube.com/watch?v=rj6naPPiQOw

Here is a video I made many years ago:
youtube.com/watch?v=D7ng4OWilUY

Here is an animation I made many years ago:
youtube.com/watch?v=jZc3npI1Mdk

Feel free to check out:
tigertrons.net
usfirst.org

The pictures show the 3D printed transmission in white ABS.

The completed CNC machined transmission with some actual end use 3D printed parts.

The original 2004 transmission. As you can see we have improved the design greatly!

The five speed Hodaka shifting shaft and gears.

The complete Tigertrons robot.