This is the extruder used on Aluminum Mendel thingiverse.com/thing:16076. It combines the features of its ancestors that I liked best. It provides more internal filament support than the standard body for less filament buckling. Changeover is very fast.

I found it somewhat difficult to adjust the Makergear belt tension on my Prusa, so I saw Chrille's design and downloaded it. I found that it did not fit the pre-fabricated holes from the Makergear Y-carriage so I had to do a little redesign.

You can use either 6-32 or M3 or anything similar.

have Fun

This is one of the best wire strippers I have ever used. If setup correctly, it can be very precise and give feedback telling when the blades have cut deep enough.

Use:
Sight down the blades.
Align the blades with where the wire should be stripped.
Move the wire into the blades having the blades cut into the insulation.
When the blades cut through the insulation and contact the wire the LED will light.
Spin the wire or the tool to cut the insulation completely around the wire.
Remove the wire from the tool and pull off the insulation.

A set of parts for my Mosaic printer.

This is a spacer that is used to easily dial in the extruder height for the Makergear Mosaic printer.

Or it's a spacer with a mohawk and a spiked collar.

Because the Z endstop switch may be located differently from bot to bot verify and adjust the parameters as needed.

May be useful in other applications. The OpenSCAD file allows setting parameters to suit your needs.

Inspired by the Z rod constraints on the Makergear Prusa.

You can print 2 or 4 of these and use them to eliminate all Z wobble on your Prusa.

I've included some before-and-after photos from cubes but the REAL visual proof will be when I reprint the OH shot glass.


BEFORE! thingiverse.com/image:63205
AFTER! thingiverse.com/image:63204
SAME GCODE!

This will fit the MakerGear and J-Head Hot ends that have the 16mm PEEK with groove mount.

this hot end mount requires
thingiverse.com/thing:4006
though I havent updated this thing since I printed it and put in on my mendel.

The original model from cyclone is totally awesome, but it's only the right hand. So I mirrored the hand in Blender. Now you've got a complete set. A-okay for us lefties.

Grab the left-hand-only version if you've already printed the right hand and want a match.

They make great bookends and a great pairing with Yoda (see the pic... hiding he is.).

I have been working on my 1:1 scale Dalek for a few years now. One thing I never liked was how my hand made energy weapon came out. Now that I have a 3D printer, I decided to do an upgrade.

This design, like the handmade version, used a plasma/lightning tube that I removed from a toy. If you are working on your own Dalek, then you will need to replace that with a plastic tube or render a center rod for the part. Also, I did not add the servo screw holes in the print. I just added them with a drill after I made the part.

Lastly, I used 1/4 plastic tubing for the cage. I decided not to print those because the part would have been too large for my printer. It was easier to use the tubing.

It is by far the largest and most complex print I have done to date on my Mosaic printer.

I really did not like how the extra cooling fan mounted on the Mosaic. The big thing that I hated was that it blocked the view of the build! I like to watch! So here is a design that mounts the secondary fan on the side, and it has a nozzle that moves the air near the extruder.

It may be a bit of overkill just because I am still learning up the tool chain, and I may refractor the nozzle/fan air chamber as one part at a later time.

I will also post just a side mount fan mount without the nozzle on another post(http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:13881). It is far simpler if you are just looking to move the fan out of the way.

This is a cooling fan mount for the MakerGear Mosaic printer. The printer comes with two fans: a small one for cooling the extruder and a large one for cooling parts being printed. The Mosaic instructions explain how to mount the extruder fan, but no provision is provided for mounting the cooling fan.

This is my second try at creating a lm8uu Y-Carriage, it supports the use of 3 or 4 lm8uus, reclaims a bit more printable area, is a lot stiffer and is fully parametric.

I am currently using the 3 legged version.

This is an extruder block designed for the MakerGear Plastruder that allows for quick change of filament and easy clean up after a filament strip.

Mounts for Y-min, X-min, and X-max endstop switches for the Mosaic printer.

This is one of the printers we use at the ProtoParadigm workshop ( protoparadigm.com ) and found this to be an invaluable, but simple upgrade, especially since the switches and electronics for the min endstops were already included in the Mosaic kit.

Some call it an over-center mechanism. The idea is to eliminate fasteners and springs while providing very fast access to change color or clean up after trying to extrude through a cold nozzle. It's also a little more open than the standard extruder, so it's easier to clean, or to just watch the gear turn.

I got rid of the springs because I always tightened the screws of the standard extruder until the springs were fully compressed. They were only acting as spacers. Also, I figured that even if they weren't fully compressed, they would only tend to add variability to the system.

The arched shape of the latch link provides the spring action to hold the latch closed. An early experiment without the arch simply broke. I also experimented with a ramp inside the extruder frame to guide filament into the hot end without opening the extruder, but this just made room for the filament to buckle and jam.

I have maybe a dozen or so hours of printing on this design. It's not perfect, but it might at least give people some ideas.

Added a top hinge so that i can use a this thingiverse.com/thing:11731 Bird-Nose with it, beefed-up the idler and fixed an error with mounting hole spacing.

updated with a stronger idler.

Allows two 4cm fans to be mounted on a MakerGear Prusa Mendel X stage.

The mount holder had to updated (v.2) as it bumped the X idler, limiting X travel range.

Keep the air off of your part and on your PTFE/PEEK where it belongs!

Well, sometimes I suppose you want to keep the part cool too, but that can lead to brittle pieces. This fan duct keeps nearly all of the air on the extruder parts, while leaking just enough out the bottom to cool the part a little, without leading to brittle pieces.

I combined the Natetruder MK5 drive(http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5169) with a MatthewLaberge quick change groovemount(http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5077). Now you can mount a MakerGear V3 Groove Mount(http://www.makergear.com/products/groovemounts) to an MK5 style drive. The filament feed tunnel has been expanded to 5mm to allow more room.

Post with working links on my blog: eclecti.cc/bytes/reprap-controlled-time-lapse-photography

YouTube example videos:
youtube.com/watch?v=T3j5oXpqWCk
youtube.com/watch?v=GFZXgxcfdHQ

While capturing the time-lapse last week, John and I ran into two irritating issues. The first is that the moving platform causes the object being printed to come in and out of the focal plane of the camera and makes for a jarring video. The second is that because the interval between photos is constant, some large and slow layers will have multiple shots taken while several consecutive quick layers can be skipped entirely. The solution to both of these is to dynamically remote trigger the camera from the printer.

I wrote a Skeinforge photograph plugin that inserts a new G-code command, M240, which tells the printer to trigger a photograph. The module offers three modes. End of Layer, as demonstrated by Yoda below, is the simplest. It takes one picture at the start of the first layer and then another at the end of each layer of the print, resolving only the second of the aforementioned issues. Corner of Layer takes a picture at the minimum Y,X of each layer. Least Change between Layers tries to take shots that are as close as possible to each other from layer to layer. I had the most visually interesting results with the last setting, as shown in the Flower print above. The module can be downloaded from github, and installation instructions are included within its text.

The other half of the control scheme is triggering the camera from the RepRap. Since I didn’t want to risk coupling my T2i directly to the printer, I went for emulating a Canon RC-1 Remote, which has been thoroughly reverse engineered. The hardware is simply an 850nm infrared LED in series with a 180 ohm resistor connected to one of the I/O pins on the Arduino Mega. I chose pin 23 because I could solder to it without pulling my RAMPS board off. The software side is equally simple. For this, I forked the excellent Sprinter firmware to respond to M240 and send the correct pulse over the IR LED. My fork is on github, but the diff that adds M240 support is the interesting bit.

A three pieces support for a 40 mm fan, designed for my prusa mendel from makergear, because I was thinking the fan I mount before was to far from the printing piece and the hot end I made a cone for it to blow closer, it use 8 M3 bolt, I use 6 M3x25 and 2 M3x10.

The different pieces are, the support that go on the x carriage, and the support for the fan that you can rotate. See picture for better understanding.

I wanted to make an automated thing for my cat, one that actually worked without clogging up, and one that could deliver small amounts of food multiple times during a day.

The motor used for the extruding auger is a 10rpm 12V geared motor which can be found here: dealextreme.com/p/high-torque-10rpm-12v-dc-geared-motor-91624?r=23893206

The gear motor inside the bowl is a 60rpm 6V motor that can be found here seeedstudio.com/depot/gear-reduction-motor-p12-6v-60rpm-p-236.html?cPath=170_171 but this seeedstudio.com/depot/gear-motor-6v-60rpm-dustproof-p-714.html?cPath=170_171 might be better as it is dust proof, but I had a few of the others laying around, might update the thing later to take the dust proof motors instead, if my current breaks down.

Notice, the 10rpm gear motor is VERY strong, and got an hilarious amount of torque. This is both good and bad. It is good because it won't stop if a pellet is getting caught, instead it will be crushed and the machine continuing to extrude the food. But it is bad because if the cat get's something stuck in there, it won't stop either, so be sure to secure it so the cat can't get anything near the moving parts!

Video: youtube.com/watch?v=6-M002CrqmQ

This thing is a support for the z-axis smooth rods of the Prusa Mendel. Supporting the bottom side of the z-axis reduces the side-to-side wobble of the machine and produces surprisingly improved prints. In the image of the large print (part of thingiverse.com/thing:10526), I placed supports under the smooth rods about 3/4 of the way through the print, you can see the dramatic improvement.

The design uses M6 nuts and bolts to make the support adjustable. Using M6 x 18mm bolts, the feet are adjustable from 24mm - 36+mm. They require 3mm of smooth rod exposed on the bottom of the machine.

I'm open to design improvement suggestions, don't hold back! :)

UPDATE: Added SAE version for 1/4 inch nuts/bolts. A 3/4 inch long bolt is slightly longer than 18mm, so it will produce an adjustment range similar to the 18mm bolt described above. The .stl files for the SAE version have "SAE" in the file name, the metric versions have no designation.

After recently putting together a MakerGear Prusa Mendel and having to unscrew 4 bolts countless times to clear jams, I decided one of the first parts I would design would be a quick-release mechanism for the filament drive. It's very similar to the current MakerGear extruder design with the exception that the bearing block is on a hinge with two bolts to hold it in. Now, when I need to clear a jam or change filament, I pull the screws close and unscrew the nut by hand, lift them over the top, and then swing the hinge open :-)

This is designed to be a drop-in replacement - the only additional parts you will need are some screws for the hinge and the top retainer. Since I'm in the US, I sized the hinge screw as a #6; 1.5" should do the trick. The top screws were loosely sized for a #6 but could probably fit many other sizes; I'd recommend at least 2.25" or 2.5" length on those ones. The rest of the screws use the MakerGear hardware (M4 with M4 nuts on the block mount at the base, M3 on the extruder stepper mount, 5/16" for the bearing hole.

As requested, I made two versions: one with a bigger filament hole for 3mm (oversized @ 4mm) and one for 1.75mm (oversized @ 2.5mm). If you would like any small variations (like different screw hole sizes) please let me know!

Thank you, all of you who've made cube gears and posted pictures. Since tbuser made these lovely pin connectors, thingiverse.com/thing:10288, I figured it was high time to make a fully printable cube gear set. Now you needn't bother buying any more screws: this one snaps together.

UPDATE: For anyone without access to a 3D printer, you can now buy these from caesia on her Etsy store: etsy.com/shop/PlasticFusion

UPDATE: New version uses tbuser's new pin connectors V2: thingiverse.com/thing:10541, is much stronger, and prints right-side-up. This is practice for making a heart-gear version.

This design also incorporates a couple of tricks that others may find useful. The center block has two very narrow slices through it, which cause interior walls to form, which help keep the tops of the holes from sagging during printing. Likewise, a cylinder is cut out of the interior of the gears, which serves two purposes. First, it makes a strong internal support for the pin. Second, it makes for less stringing between parts when you print four gears at once, because Skeinforge makes the head go from the center of one to the center of the other, so that the perimeters wipe off the nozzle.

UPDATE: By popular demand, a new version of the center block has been uploaded (BcenterFlat.stl), which doesn't have any internal slits and is oriented to print on a large face. This one is significantly easier to print, though the top and bottom holes do end up a touch tighter than the rest.

A bracelet for everyone who likes it...!

Print and give away as a present!


see also facebook.com/europerminutedesign

This is a simple way to cool your filament post-extrusion making tricky prints a little easier.

Yes, it's a bit ugly... I'd bet yours could be cleaner, I'm just always in a hurry.

It works - although I had a bit of a struggle to get great comparison photos, since things printed pretty well with it on and off. Definitely better on, though!

BE CAREFUL! I haven't used this long-term and I don't know if the silicone tubing will stand up to heat over time. I might put a layer of actual insulation between the tube and hot end (ZOLTEK! PYRON!)...

I do know the tubing deformed on the first print, but it just made it fit the hot end better, it didn't melt or burn... so might be OK even without the insulation.

BEFORE/AFTER PHOTO NOTES:

* Printed on my Prusa, using a Makergear .35mm hot end.
* Using 25-50mm/sec acceleration in Sprinter firmware.

Couples a 5mm motor shaft to an 8mm threaded rod, ensuring they are coaxial, but allowing some angular movement if the rod is not straight. See hydraraptor.blogspot.com/2011/06/yet-another-prusa-z-coupling.html.

I've been using a Makergear hotend (http://www.makergear.com/products/groovemounts) with my old-fashioned MK4 plastruder. The hotend was the only thing that let my MK4 plastruder become a no-fail plastruder. However, there are always things to improve with a Makerbot. One of these things is what I call "Nozzle Wobble". Nozzle Wobble is when the end of a nozzle has the ability to move some fraction of a millimeter because it is not well anchored to the plastruder. On the MK4, which had two screw anchor points on the body, there can be lots of wobble. Additionally, these screws put lots of downward force against the acrylic, and can crack the acrylic. I've made a small kit of 4 pieces that lets you use a MakerGear GrooveMount hotend with the MK4 plastruder and have no wobble.

I am sure that the later plastruders (MK5, MK6) don't have as big of issues as the MK4 did. However, I am cheap and don't want to upgrade my whole plastruder. This project isn't the most practical, as you cannot easily remove your hotend with it and it is only applicable to people with both GrooveMounts and MK4 plastruders.

The major thing is, if you can secure your hotend tip so that it has no ability for independent movement from the MK4 or platform, your prints will definitely improve.

I've posted prints from thing 1140 (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1140), before and after securing my hot end. The quality is improved, with thin walls lining up on each layer much better.