Here's what I've been up to lately :)

[Alex Franke]

Sorry I haven't been around for a while. I've been focusing on a project with my kids. It started like this...



...and before long we were doing stuff like this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BP_hN8U-Fc

...and now it's even starting to reproduce So far it's been a great family project. We're learning how to design and print lots of cool things. One of the first things we did was model and print a Beyblade (basically a spinning top that's popular with kids these days) that my 7-year-old designed.

It was an awful print, but we put it up on thingiverse anyway: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:18694

-Alex

[chopnhack]

That's awesome Alex, was wondering where you have been! What was the contraption your daughter was working on?

as for Yoda: interesting, that one is

[Stytooner]

Heh heh.
Umm....me too.

[Alex Franke]

That's awesome Alex, was wondering where you have been! What was the contraption your daughter was working on?

as for Yoda: interesting, that one is

It's a 3D printer. There are some details on the one I built here: http://reprap.org/wiki/Prusa_Mendel

I'd set a pretty low price target as 3D printers go -- less than $300 -- and we actually hit it by carefully self-sourcing almost all the parts. Lately we've been upgrading a bit here and there, though.

Heh heh.
Umm....me too.

Awesome! Nice work!

[Alex Franke]

Stytooner, btw mine's a first iteration Prusa Mendel in PLA with Sanguinololu, J-head 0.5mm, sprinter, slic3r, and pronterface. I've been printing with 3mm PLA. I'm codecreations in #reprap.

When did you get started?

[Stytooner]

I don't have the most recent version even though I bought it the first week in Feb. People update designs for these every day.

I didn't have the benefit of a helper with mine.
I bet you didn't have to do alot yourself.


The print looks good.

I started a thread on here somewhere a couple weeks back. Just haven't updated.
I can print well in pla now, but I have had to order a few more supplies to get better results in ABS.
I eventually want to use some Polycarbonate and design one of these things myself.
A little bigger and a bit beefier using Unistrut and Mach 3. The plan is so far to have a stationary table. That makes a little more sense not to be whipping around a hot plasic part when you are trying to lay material precisely on it.

Won't happen anytime soon. Just something down the pipe.
Keep us updated on the Family printings.