Braes RepRap Blog

2009-03-31T17:21:00.003+01:00

These pictures are of the buildplane/buildplatform. There is a picture of a template, the MDF(medium density fibreboard) board, the corner mounts attatched and the assembly in place. The step after this is to install the z-posts that will raise and lower the platform.

2009-03-27T12:01:00.003Z

A few more pictures showing how the top and bottom frame are separated with the vertical posts which are also M8 rods. You can also see the base diagonals which are M8 studding (threaded bar) attached with diagonal tie brackets that have been printed fixed with M8 nuts and washers.

2009-03-27T11:51:00.003Z

Here are a selction of pictures where you can see how using M8 rod and M5 nuts, bolts and washers the frame starts to take shape.

The pictures show the top and bottom parts of the frame, the x-axis assembly (the middle carriage is where the extruder will be mounted) and a picture of the x-axis assembly mountd on the top frame.

2009-03-05T17:44:00.004Z

Here are a selection of parts that were built at the university on a commercial rapid prototyper. The parts are created using a CAD package by the people at reprap. The .stl files are available to download and are then fed into a computer connected to the rapid prototyper and a build is set up.

X motor Bracket

X Carriage (holds the extruder)

Y motor Bracket

All printed parts (minus a few I missed off list to build, mistake)

These parts are the main difference between my device and the Braes. These are printed parts where the Braes are laser cut.

Introduction

2009-03-05T17:34:00.004Z

Hi all,
my name is Craig Barbour, I am a 4th (and final woo!) year BTechEd student at Glasgow University. I am also building a reprap machine as part of my final year project. Unlike the Braes project I have sourced the majority of the parts myself and my parts are FDM prototyped instead of laser cut parts. I think Brian said on this blog that sourcing components may be more enjoyable and satisfying, it was but so troublesome I would advise against. (Royal mail owe me circuit boards).
I will post some pictures of my progress so far so you can see how it looks and the similarities and differences between the Braes kit and mine.
Look forward to seeing the Braes progress as well and sharing news, problems and ideas
Feel free to get in touch for any info.

Craig

My visit to the Braes

2008-12-12T13:59:00.002Z

Hi Guys,

Just a quick update on things.

Thoroughly enjoyed my trip through to see you all this Wednesday (10th December). It was great to meet you and to work with you for a little while.

You did some excellent work in putting the individual Reprap subsystems together. There were certainly a lot of bits to organise. I hope that the exercise of matching the drawings to the individual parts gave you all an idea of what the project entails and what we will end up with at the end.

Next thing is to work out what we do with all the spare bits that we couldn't find a home for!!

Anyway, best wishes to all the staff and pupils involved in the project and have a lovely Christmas and New Year.

Brian

The brains behind the operation

2008-11-24T13:41:00.005Z

Hi all,

As promised here's a couple of images of the Arduino board and the breakout board. The boards connects to a computer through a USB connection. This allows the operation programme and part files to be uploaded onto the board and allow the prototyper to operate. So it really is the brains of the machine. The breakout board makes it easier to connect the Arduino board to other devices.

Hector's already run a quick test of the Arduino board using a little test programme and it came through with flying colours.

I'll add some more on the software and what the boards do soon.

Brian

The Arduino Board

The Breakout Board

Reprap.org

2008-11-23T14:46:00.000Z

Here's a link to the main RepRap website so that we can all get our heads around what this project is all about.

http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome

The brains behind the RepRap machine is the Arduino developer board. This allows us to programme the prototyper to build parts. Here's a link to their website.

http://www.arduino.cc/

Bits and pieces

2008-11-23T13:59:00.000Z

Now that we've received the kits that we purchased, we can get about the business of building this thing!

Overall, the kit cost somewhere around £650. The good thing is that we don't have the hassle of sourcing individual parts and lots of ordering to manage. The downside I suppose is that this might have been fun and added to the sense of pioneering work. Anyway, the electronics kit that we're using came from The RepRap Foundation's online store, who are based somewhere around New York, USA. The mechanical kit came from Bits From Bytes, who are based in Somerset, England.

Anyway, Hector, our technician at the Robert Clark Centre has already starting building and testing the electronics system, which comes as a series of printed circuit boards (PCBs) and individual components. It all seems to be going smoothly up til now.

We're looking forward to getting parts of the kit over to you guys at the Braes soon so that you can get up and running too.

Here's some pictures that I took of the various bits and pieces to give you an idea of what they look like.

Electronics Bits

Mechanical Bits

The Stepper Motors
There are three of these in total. They will move the extruder head around in three dimensions (X, Y and Z) when the machine is building parts.

The Extrusion Motor
That's the little cream coloured device in the image below.

I'll post up a photograph of the Arduino board, which is the brains behind the operation when I get one.

Brian

The Braes RepRap Project

2008-11-17T21:11:00.000Z

Well, this is the first post on our RepRap blog. Let's hope that there are many more to come. A big welcome to all the guys from Braes High School who are supporting the building of our own Rep Rap rapid prototyper. We've got a long way to go, but I'm sure that it will be an exciting and interesting journey.

Brian