September 1st, 2010 by bdring
I stumble across this when reading a Machine Design magazine. This is a 2D scanner based on a camera that mounts on CNC mill. It can be used to reverse engineer parts.
It uses a Mach3 plugin to control the position. Knowing the exact position of the camera allows the software to create a very accurate 2D image of the parts. The exact scale of the image is also known.
The interesting thing is that there is a freeware version. There is a video on the web site that takes a $20 eBay pen cam and generates an image accurate to a few thousands of an inch. The software created a 400+ image composite image. The quality can go up quickly with even a cheap USB microscope cam. you can even use the unlicensed version of Mach3 because it does not run any G-Code.
The licensed version will export a DXF.
Image From tormach.com
Image From tormach.com
Image From tormach.com
Link to video
August 28th, 2010 by bdring
I have some projects coming up that will need a fourth axis, so I needed to buy a 4 axis motor controller. I tried a cheap Chinese Toshiba TB6560 based drive a while back and had a bad experience. A good controller is not all about current, voltage or step size. What you really want is smooth running motors. Some controllers have such bad resonance that the motors shake and jump and miss steps. Some are so bad they are vitually unusable at low speeds. Some have horrible inconsistent motor noise even when stopped.
I have had great luck with my Geckodrive G203V Stepper Drivers on my big 1200 oz/in motors for my router and those motors have a reputation of being tough to control. Therefore, I decided to give the G540 4 Axis Drive a try. It retails for $299, but you can usually find a street price of about $250. I found a good price at Kelinginc.com and found they had a “will call” option for delivery. They are in the area so I decided to give them a visit. I met with the owner, John. He was very friendly guy and we chatted for about 30 minutes and he gave me a tour of the place. I have no trouble recommending him to anyone. Tell him I sent you.
The controller is rather small at 6.375 x 2.375 x 1.25. Below it is pictured with a G203V.
Continue reading ‘Geckodrive G540 Review’
August 26th, 2010 by bdring
I saw this while checking up on the progress of his selective laser sintering (SLS) project. Basically his idea was smaller power lasers might be able to cut through thicker material by “sawing” through it. The required power density might only be high enough at the exact focal point of the laser. Therefore, if you move the focal point through the material vertically, you might be able to cut it. He did it using a reciprocating motion, but you could also simply run the same outline at multiple levels, which is what us mill and router people have done for years.
The machine is actually a beautiful work of hacker art. He build it out of CD/DVD drives. He only gets about 1.5″ of travel on each axis, but that is all he needed.
small piece cut from CD case
Continue reading ‘Reciprocating Laser Cutter’
August 24th, 2010 by bdring
James Williamson posted this on his REDTOROPE blog. It sounds like he was looking for an alternative to the really expensive TherMark laser marking ink.
Basically he used some spray paint intended for use on wood stoves. He did a lot of preparation to make sure the paint was perfectly adhered to the matal. He then created an image by laser etching away paint to reveal a negative image. I looks quite good with fine detail. I do not know how well the metal will hold up to corrosion though.
I often wondered what would happen if you painted ceramic glaze on metal and hit it with a laser. Would it cure to the metal.
August 21st, 2010 by bdring
Yesterday, MakerBot announced they are offering the new Plastruder MK5. The extruder is designed for reliability, low maintenance and ease of use.
It features and all stainless steel hot end that is precision machined to tightly screw together to prevent any leaks. It gets rid of the Nichrome wire heater and replaces it with two power resistors. The resistors draw a lot of power an must be used with a relay board.
The feeder uses the MK5 drive gear that has been available for while and gets rid of the idler wheel. Instead, it uses a thumbscrew adjustable Delrin plunger. he feeder uses the same DC motor as the MK4, but there is a NEMA 17 pattern for the planned upgrade to a stepper.
The design is of course on Thingiverse. It is for sale and in stock at the store for $189.
Continue reading ‘MakerBot Plastruder MK5′
August 21st, 2010 by bdring
Full Spectrum Engineering is about to release it’s new Retna Engrave laser engraving controller. It is initially targeted at the hobby and DIY market. There are Chinese controllers available, but most people are quickly underwhelmed by the software that comes with them. The Moshisoft and Newlydraw interfaces are quite quirky. Note: The image above is probably an old version.
Henry Liu, the head of Full Spectrum, and I have been chatting back and forth since the beginning of my laser project. He is very sharp and seems to have good pulse on the low end laser and DIY laser community. We hashed out most of the controller options out there from DSP to FPGA and both decided that the XMOS chip might be the perfect device for the job. Once he decided to go full force with the XMOS, I stopped working on mine, knowing that he could do a better job. He is sending me one of his controllers to try out next week.
Currently the controller runs as a printer driver for Windows. This means that basically any program can use it to cut or engrave. He also has a Mach3 plug-in coming soon and eventually an open API where others can create new applications for it. It falls short of full open source, but it is a good option for many of us. The controller hangs off an existing DB25 parallel connector, so it is an easy upgrade for anyone currently using Mach3 or EMC2. The firmware is also upgradeable over the USB connection.
Continue reading ‘New Laser Engraver Controller’
August 20th, 2010 by bdring
I have seen this printer various places and it has been mentioned on the forum. It is from UltiMaker.com. They are calling it the Elserbot. It was not clear from the website or other blogs if this was an open source project, so I emailed Martijn Elserman. He responded.
Hello Bart,
The design will be open source when we have finished the complete package hardware, electronics and software.
We will offer DIY kits.
Best regards,
Martijn Elserman
It looks like an interesting design. The two obvious thing that jump out are the large build area and the use of the Bowden Cable style extruder. The Bowden cable idea offers some benefits like reducing the size and weight of the print head and removing vibration. Here are other versions of the Bowden cable.
http://reprap.org/wiki/Erik’s_Bowden_Extruder
http://blog.reprap.org/2009/04/bowden-extruder-concept.html
There are a few videos of it doing pen plots after the jump. Continue reading ‘New 3D Printer’
August 17th, 2010 by bdring
I play a lot of sand volleyball in the summer. I used to have a plastic winder for my volleyball boundary lines. It was in really bad shape because I tried to use it as a water ski rope and handle a while back. Anyway, someone was sort of laughing at the condition of it a few weeks back. On my bike ride home I decided it would be fun to make an over the top complicated one out of wood.
The next week I displayed my new creation and someone said, “Wow, look at Bart’s cool hand crafted line winder”. I accepted the compliment, but wondered about that term: hand crafted. I, of course designed it in CAD, cut it out on my CNC router and cleaned it up with a bunch of other power tools. Was it really hand crafted? What does that term mean these days? Continue reading ‘Hand Made?’
August 13th, 2010 by bdring
I saw this on the Mach3 forum. CNC-Steuerung has a new Industrial version of the Smoothstepper. It adds a lot of I/O filtering and safety circuits. The Smoothstepper is a USB motion controller that runs as a Mach3 plug-in.
I use one on my router. In general, it works quite well, but beware that their support is basically non-existent. You are on your own to figure out problem and updates are on a slow schedule. Pretty soon the parallel port is going to go away so we will all be using this type of thing. Continue reading ‘Smoothstepper Pro OEM’
August 11th, 2010 by bdring
Engineer Andy Barry has created a new budget open source 3D scanner. He calls it the MakerScanner and hopes to sell it through the MakerBot web site for around $200. It uses the same laser line, offset webcam than many other systems use. He does a good job of explaining on the MakerScanner.com web site. There are even more details on his web site and Thingiverse.
The system uses galvanometers to move a mirror which moves the laser line. A sine wave is output to one galvanometer so it creates a line from the laser diode. The other scans it across the model. All of the parts appear to be printed with a Makerbot.
Galvanometers
Continue reading ‘MakerScanner’
