3D Printing

RepRapPro Mendel Mono

RepRapPro Mendel Mono. Bought in kit form and assembled over a weekend.

I have interfaced it to a Raspberry Pi with a WiFi dongle.

It runs the Linux version of Pronterface (setup instructions here)

... and connects to NAS drive (setup instructions here) ... so becoming a wireless print server.

User TightVNC Viewer to connect to it using IP address 192.168.1.74:1

RepRapPro Huxley

NEMA 14 Stepper Motor: M142618M426, phase current = 0.28 ... so set motor driver reference to 0.22V

NEMA 17 Stepper Motor: JK42HS34-1334A, phase current = 1.33A ... so set motor driver reference to 1.06V

3D Modelling Software

I like the flexability of OpenSCAD. It renders 3D models from a scripting language (very 'C' like) rather than graphically manupulating a model. Whilst scripting can seem more complicated, it does give ultimate control over what is rendered. For example it is easy to 'comment out' parts of the model, to prameterise things and to programatically alter the model and the rendering.

Tips

Add 0.5mm to any hole dimensions.
Add a 2mm hole along the z-axis to improve it's tensile and shear strength (helps fuse the layers where weak infill would be)
Sometimes imported STL files may render with <F5> but will ERROR with <F6>. Try fixing the part here (seems to use netfabb).

Links

Here are some 3D Printing links which may be of interest (with a star rating out of 5);

3D Printers

*****RepRapPro Forum Discussions around my particular make of printer.

3D Models

***** Thingiverse Main library for shared 3D models, run by Makerbot.