I’ve been working on an Acme upgrade for the Prusa for a little while. Previously I threadmilled the nuts out of derlin. Today I turned down the 3/8 Acme rod on both ends. One end fits into the 608zz bearing in the MG lower end and the other fits into a coupler. Tomorrow I’ll be making a set of couplers to mount up to the motors. Venom is almost ready!
Got the new batteries in for the toy quad and wanted to run a test. You can see the result below 
I saw this image image on ladyada that I thought would make a cool laser cut acrylic piece. Dan decided to turn it into a vector image and I cut it this evening. I think it came out really sharp …
I also took a close up to demonstrate the smoothness of cut close up.
Tonight I got the wiring and configuration done for the WidgitMaster/grblShield combo. You can see a video of it running a square gcode pattern below. Next I’ll be making an enclosure for the electronics and setting up the necessary fixtures.
For my PCB Mill, I wanted to use something more portable than the SDTR-4C that I use for my Taig Mill and Sherline Lathe. I was originally planning to use a RAMPS setup, but for a few reasons I went a different way. I won’t go into it here, but may later. Below is a picture of the grblShield mounted on an Arduino Duemilanove. Its running the latest grbl firmware. I’m driving a nema17 taken off my old cupcake. I’m using a laptop power supply to make it lighter and more portable.
Because this Dell power supply uses a strange connector, I’ve rigged the remote wires to power up and and connected the wires manually. I’ll find a molex connector that I can make work soon.
Lastly, here is a video of one stepper running.
I’m putting the finishing touches on the widgitmaster router that I bought long ago. I started by turning down an acme screw to replace one that was missing in the package. Then I had to make 2″ couplers because the nema 23 steppers had short shafts. Finally, I needed to mount my Wolfgang spindle to it. Unfortunately the wolfgang adapter had holes for 3/16 screws which wouldn’t work with the small t-slots on the widget master mini. I thought about making a new mount plate, but decided against it because I’d like one mount plate that works with any of my mills. My solution was to make spacers with a rim so that it could take 6-32 screws. If I decide to mount that spindle on my Taig, I can just remove the spacers and use a different pair of screws. Below are the fruits of my labor.
Last night I finished the design and tonight I finished cutting the first prototype. I’ll add more details later, but this mounts to the back of the prusa and holds all of the electronics. With a laptop power supply, this should make portability much better.
I haven’t posted the article about my anodizing setup, but I have been working on building a line in my garage. I built the line bench a few weeks back. I’ll back post that at some later point. The line consists of cleaning, anodizing, dyeing, and sealant tanks. All but the anodizing tank are need to be heated in order to work properly. Below is one of three tanks built for that purpose. You can see a 2 gallon bucket inside of a 5 gallon bucket. The heater is a 2000 watt heater made for this purpose. The aluminum angle bracket on top is made to suspend the piece. It may look a little strange that I’m using a 2 gallon bucket inside a 5 gallon bucket, but this is for a few reasons. I only have enough chemical mixture for 2 gallon buckets and the heater is designed for a 5 gallon bucket. This setup allows me to move up when I am ready to. Below is the picture:
A goal of mine for a long time has been to create Acme nuts for my prusa reprap. Creating them is actually easy, but figuring out how to do it is not. I used a threadmill on my Taig to create these out of Derlin. These will drop into the x-ends of the prusa and allow me to use a 3/8-12 acme rod. I expect them to significantly improve the smoothness of the z-axis and reduce the torque on the motors. Without further delay, here are the pictures.
I’ve begun working on a second Prusa build. There are a few reasons why, which I’ll cover in a later post. I ran out of 5/16 nuts, so I can’t complete the build this weekend. Take a look at the new color scheme. She has been dubbed “Viper”.
