Tuesday 6 May 2008

Swiss cheese

HydraRaptor made a Darwin corner bracket in 50% filled ABS this evening: -



It took 2 hours 35 minutes. It feels pretty sturdy but there is some delamination through the thin section of the corner facing the camera. A bit of a weak spot in the design I think. Also the base is a bit warped as I didn't use a raft. I don't know if these matter as I haven't worked out what all the holes are for yet. I need to make seven more for a Darwin. I will probably do a 100% version for comparison.

3 comments:

  1. This is so cool!

    For the record, what software components are you using? From the RepRap forums, I'm guessing Enrique's standalone STL->Gcode slicer/dicer, and then your own Python script that takes the gcode, parses it, and then controls the machine directly (as opposed to using the RepRap host software and firmware). Is this correct?

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  2. Kyle,
    Yes this item and anything not 100% is sliced by Enrique's Skeinforge from some weeks ago. I have not caught up to his latest yet. The cradle was sliced by the RepRap host. It is much faster but has some bugs.

    I parse the gcode with my own Python script. Optimise the order of the paths a bit and then use it to control my machine with UDP packets over Ethernet.

    The firmware and electronics are all my own stuff.

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  3. Wow, looks really solid! Of course it's only 50% solid :)

    I'm impressed with the results you get with ABS each time. No wonder it's default for commercial FDM machines (at least the Dimension that Adrian uses).

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