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[Raxx]

Yep, that one can be printed no problem. Is that all you wanted done?

[Maximilianibus]

jup, thats all thanks

[Raxx]

Maximilianibus: ok then. I'll print it then!

So I've begun working on $imon's buggy model so that it'll be printworthy, and figured I'd start with the wheels since they are easy enough and won't waste a ton of filament if something goes bad in these early stages.

I intend on making the wheels capable of rotating in the final print, so I had to make space to fit a 608 bearing in it (I have a few extra laying around from building the printer). The piece at the top of the image is the cap, the piece on bottom is the backside where the bearing will be placed. The two pieces will be attached back-to-back to back to form one wheel.

If you see an image below, that means the printer is running and you can click on the image to go to the live webcam of it in action. I'll post a timelapse later if it's successful.

(do me a favor and don't mess with the controls--just watch )

[edit]Ok, round #2

[Raxx]

Ok, today I couldn't do much since I had to finish a paper for school, but I almost succeeded in printing out the wheels.

As you can see in the image below, they printed to the proper proportions but there is a messy blobbing effect caused by irregular extrusion of the plastic. My first observation related to this is that for some reason the hotend is fluctuating in temperature about 10-15 degrees constantly, likely because of an issue with the firmware. The hotter it's melted the more there will be extruded (blobbing up if it's too hot).

Also, it didn't help that eventually one of the motors overheated and started pausing every so often, which totally messed up some of the prints (frustrating to deal with). I've since placed a fan on it and it seems to be maintaining a lower temperature, so hopefully that issue is resolved.

So I'll probably be spending most of Saturday re-calibrating everything until the blobbing goes away. With my luck, when I'm finished with that something else will go wrong Also, I'm working on a better webcam solution. I've been using my android phone, and it works great when it works, but seems to close itself out after a little while for no apparent reason (probably overusing the phone's resources since there's so much processing involved).

So these are the current issues I'm working on, I'll keep you guys updated.

[headwax]

Hey Hey Raxx, they look good enough to eat

Thanks for the update, it's so cool to watch something coming from a pile of verticies and turning into a real object/ Bloddy amazing

[Raxx]

Hey headwax, thanks You've still got a spot reserved in case you want something printed (though at this rate, it'll be a few months before your turn comes -_-)

It seems that for every print I complete, I have to spend 4 hours fixing something. This time after fixing most of the blobbing issues and printing the below piece (much better quality!), the filament got jammed in the extruder and I had to take it apart, and it's stripping the filament every time I try a print now. I think I have the solution for that, we'll see

By the time I'm done with all of your prints, I'll be one of those wise old men in the reprap IRC channel

[Modeler_in_the_Myst]

Aye, what ye would'na give fer a good replicator?

[Raxx]

Modeler_in_the_Myst: What I wouldn't give for a good reprap and a good webcam solution This time instead of the camera dying, the laptop quit recording from it. Grr!

Anyways, the second wheel is finally printed. Below is what the parts look like with the 608 bearing inside it. Boring, I know. Don't worry, once these wheels are done I'll be starting on the main chassis

Starting on the front wheel. Nothing complicated, will have a bearing inside it as well. The hard part will be building the caps that hold the wheel to the chassis and still allow it to rotate.

[Raxx]

Ok, the front wheel printed with no problems (would show a picture but I'm moving on)

It took a few hours, but the front chassis is ready to print! Supposed to take around 22 hours according to the estimate. I'm going to hope that's a very pessimistic estimate

I'll try to have the webcam working but I don't know if it'll stay running the entire time. Click on the image below to go to the video feed.

(do me a favor and don't mess with the controls--just watch )

[$imon]

Nice work Raxx! Seems like you are having a lot of fun with it Im glad you can use the model!
It's amazing how many layers it prints. It must go through a lot of material! I'm sorry to hear that there are so many hiccups in the system though. I guess that's part of the 'fun' of building your own printer I guess

I'm curious to see how the front wheel will be attached to the chassis..
(the webcam links are not really working - maybe I am looking at the wrong times.

[ENSONIQ5]

I was able to watch the webcam feed (mesmerising!).  Brilliant job embedding the bearings in the wheels!

[cooldude234]

I was able to watch the webcam feed (mesmerising!).  Brilliant job embedding the bearings in the wheels!

How did you get the webcam feed? I don't see no link

[dwsel]

How did you get the webcam feed? I don't see no link

It was available yesterday. It was fun to watch

@Raxx
I wasn't expecting that the model that was printed was filled inside. Have you tried to print out thin shell and fill it later with some other material? It might speed printing such model a lot, and make the model more solid and durable.

[Raxx]

Yeah, my webcam's a little finicky so it had a lot of random up- and down-times. I'm glad at least a few people got to watch it.

So, I have some good and bad news regarding the last print. The bad news is that about two-thirds the way through I was trying to adjust it for height clearance while it was printing and the usb cord popped out, halting the print. There is no "resume" option (not really), but the good thing about this kind of printing is that you can just make a new object starting from approximately where it left off, print it, then piece it together. Below is the good news:

The part that printed before it got interrupted

The end piece

What it'll look like glued together

You can see a few darker blemishes caused by burned plastic (probably just some "self-cleaning" that eventually happened). It might prompt me to just go ahead and plaster, sand, paint, and finish the entire thing. Depends

I'm extremely satisfied with these results. This was the largest print I've ever attempted, and it was running for practically 24 hours non-stop. The detail is excellent for what it's doing, and it's pretty solid and heavy, even at 60% infill density.

I managed to capture the last bit of the print, and I'll post a link to the timelapse as soon as it's up and running.

Dwsel: As you can see in the third image, I did hollow it out a bit to speed it up. Due to time constraints and worries about the 45 degree rule, it wasn't completely optimal. I'll definitely be experimenting with a more "shelled" version with the back chassis part since it's going to take even longer to print.

Ok, future plans: I'll print the rest of the front wheel pieces, and then I may need to wait until the weekend before I will print the back piece, since I don't like leaving the printer unattended and there's a lot of prep work to do for it.

$imon, you wanted to know how I intend to attach the front wheel to the chassis, hopefully this picture will clear that up:

All of the pieces will be glued together into a rigid structure, then glued to the shaft that'll run through the 608 bearing. The shaft will also be glued to the inside of the bearing, with the wheel spinning freely. Unfortunately that means it can only roll in a straight line, but I didn't have enough time to design anything more complex that'd work when printed

[$imon]

Oh really nice Raxx! I like how the detail turned out on that front part! I'm glad it's working properly and that your work has paid off so far..

I hope the front wheel attachment will be rigid enough to carry the weight? I guess the load is not that heavy..

Really awesome looking so far + I can't wait to see what's next!