The Chimera Project - Laser + 3D Printing

[thechoochman528]

I hope that threading the insulator retainer plate resolves the issue of insulator blowout and or leaks.

I blew two PTFE barrels on mine before switching to the makergear hybrid peek/ptfe barrel.

[rEd86]

Excellent! This is why I am building my own laser - rapid prototyping. You've been able to go from concept to an actual part in a matter of days.

Thanks for sharing what you have done so far.

BTW: are you planning on going to the Open Source Hardware symposium in NYC next month? It is the Thursday before Maker Faire. I am trying to arrange my schedule to make it to both. There is a big movement with sharing designs and with equipment like this, people will be able to design and construct kits that were not possible before. Desktop manufacturing is here!

--Ed

[bdring]

Comment From Buildlog Author

No, I would love to attend both the Open Source Hardware symposium and Maker Faire, but can't swing it. I was an early endorser though.

http://www.buildlog.net/blog/2010/07/op ... re-summit/
http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/ ... -hardware/

[rEd86]

Not only are you an endorser but you're living it daily with the things you are contributing here! :)

I am excited to see what everyone is doing in this space - it will be fun to meet many of the pioneers at the summit. I am particularly interested in efforts being made to easily identify sources for parts to various projects. I have heard of efforts from DigiKey, McMaster-Carr and others to where you can click on a "parts list" on a DIY site and get directed to their site with all the items already in your shopping cart. Standardizing on this and making it easy to source parts is the next step in the movement.

--Ed

[bdring]

I think I am going to go the easy route and make a very simple MaketBot adapter PCB. This will allow either a parallel port or a MakerBot motherboard to control the steppers. I guess you could even hook this up so a parallel port controlled standard MakerBot stepper drivers. I choose the most common stepper board parallel port pinout.

I should be able to get about 25 of these for around $100 from Gold Phoenix.
.

Maker/Laser Adapter

MakerLaser.pdf

Schematic

(24.43 KiB) Downloaded 1502 times

[bdring]

I cut my extruder motor parts cut tonight. I am not using the 'dino' parts. I will determine a mounting location and method after I get this assembled.
.

[benwyne]

Hi Bart,

Interesting approach! I'm currently building a mendel aswell as your laser cutter and would like to use a bowden cable approach. What's the mcmaster carr part number for the PTFE tubing you're using?

-B

[bdring]

52365K614 3ft for $3.23. I have not tested it yet.

[bdring]

I have the extruder motor section complete. I mounted it on the inside wall on a short piece of extrusion. I think I am going to move it to the outside. I don't think there is a good way to spool the plastic here. If I mount it to the outside I can build a little reel there too. There will be less to reconfigure when switching to laser mode.
.

[bdring]

I temporarily mount all the reprap parts on a piece of MDF. This will keep them from moving around while I test. I used my Sparkfun "Premium Jumper Wires" to attach them to a 25Pin breakout board.

I got a nice 600W ATX power supply on sale at Fry's.

Unfortunately the RepRap motherboard is not moving the motors yet. I get what appears to be good Step and Direction signals to the G540 when viewed on my scope, but no movement yet. Does anybody have any ideas? I am not worried about things like steps/mm yet, I just want to see some movement.