First ORD Bot ExposureJust for community interest... I first saw an ORD Bot when a guy came by
Make Lehigh Valley, a hackerspace in which I'm a member. His name was Jeremy and he was checking out engineering schools near hackerspaces and planned to make the hackerspaces an important part of his decision. Brilliant! I assume he didn't end up near us as I haven't seen him since. (Where are you Jeremy?) Anyway, I was impressed and have had it in the back of my mind for awhile. I deviated for awhile looking fondly at the
SeeMeCNC RostockMax, but I have returned and now invested in parts.
ObjectivesQuality and appearance are probably the top two priorities I have for this printer. Ease of assembly and flexibility for future improvements are secondary priorities (as I'd like to get printing before very long and I'd like to be able to improve it). Then price is the third priority.
PartsI've updated this since writing some of the other things here so there are some minor inconsistencies. The list is the most up-to-date. I've made links to where you can purchase each item on the item name and where applicable the reprap.org wiki page as that seems to be the best location for technical data on each part. Also, I don't recommend getting extra bits from Panucatt. They may not make it into the box.
I chose Panucatt for their reputation on the forums, my personal interaction with Roy (the owner) and the nice finished look of the board.
I chose ATI because of their reputation on the forums and because I wanted the experience of assembling the mechanical platform, but not confident in machining it.
Extruder is still TBD - I'll probably try to scavange a stepper, springs, bolts, etc. and arrange prints for much of this. I'm considering the purchase the
J-Head hotend I might try to put Steve's Bowden onto the bot and machine a custom carriage for it, hiding the stepper and gears back with the controller. I'd also like to mount the tip of the hotend as high as possible to give me lots of height for my prints. I'm very open to thoughts on this so feel free to
add your ideas and opinions in the forum post I started on this.
In the end, indecision will probably force me to duct tape a sharpie to the extruder carriage for initial tests of the controller board.