New delrin V wheels to improve performance

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Previously we were using steel 624vv v wheel bearings (and the family of 6–vv bearings) that were low cost and worked well with our machine, but we found that the small amount “wobble” in the bearings  was translated into good-but-not-as-good-as-it-could-be performance.

So we started testing out Delrin V wheels you can find on a lot of other machines. They look like this DSC04034__50579.1425747043.1280.1280.jpg

and with the two bearings sandwiched together, eliminates that “wobble” we were finding in the other bearings.

These wheels will also come with eccentric nuts which means you can adjust the tension (or preload) on the wheels against the rails.

Previously we were hesitant on using these types of wheels because of their higher cost, but we’re excited to share that we have found a supplier who is offering them at a very affordable price. There is a small increase in our BOM, but we believe that it is worth the extra cost to bring you higher performing machines.

Expect to see faster milling rates on harder materials like aluminum, as well as better finishes on the milled parts in the time to come!

Botfeeder drops off 3D printer filament at Sienci Labs

Daniel from Botfeeder came by today and dropped a couple of rolls of 3D printer filament for us to give away. Want a chance to win a 1kg roll of premium filament? Subscribe to our mailing list (http://eepurl.com/b7DMhH), like us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/siencilabs) and follow us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/siencilabs) to get a chance to win.

Botfeeder makes high quality, premium PLA, ABS, Filastic (flexible), and Filaglow (glowing) filament in Taiwan.

We’ll be drawing our winner at the beginning of August, so make sure to sign up soon!

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Milling a lunar crater and other things

We put together the machine using the new frames and started carving a couple of things.

Here’s a picture of our progress with a 3D carving of a crater on the lunar surface:

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According to our tests, we can achieve precision of about +/- 0.03mm in wood, which is slightly less than the thickness of a human hair. We’re still making a couple of adjustments to the machine, so hopefully that number will go down.

Due to some bearing wobble and flex in the XZ gantry, milling aluminum has been a bit tricky and the finish is not great. We’ll be milling the XZ gantry from steel or aluminum (it’s currently acrylic) as planned in the design which should help stiffen up the machine.

Chris has also been putting together a new 3D printer using the angle aluminum rail systems, and so far things look awesome. The design for the Y and Z axis is more or less complete and all that is left is to make the X axis, mount the printing bed, wire it up, and start printing!

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CNC milled frames

I went to go pick up a set of frames milled by a CNC machine in Brampton, ON from Sawdust and Noise today as I was heading back from the Maker Festival Launch Party.

Why do we mill our frames using a $90,000 CNC machine? These CNC machines can achieve extremely high levels of precision (+/- 0.001″) that is needed to make our desktop CNC machines precise as well.

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We’re attending Toronto Maker Festival!

Hey guys, we just got confirmation that we will have a booth at the Toronto Maker Festival. Feel free to come by to check out our machine and chat!

The Toronto Maker Festival is happening on July 9th and 10th. It’s a free event open to everyone at the Reference Library. More details are coming out soon, and we’ll make sure to update you as time goes by.

I also wanted to mention that we will also have a booth at the Startup Showcase hosted by the Entrepreneurship Society at UWaterloo at the University of Waterloo’s Student Life Centre. The event is on Thursday, from 11am to 3pm, so if you are in the area, come by to say hi as well!

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Updates on testing

Since we have the prototype up and running, we’ve had a bunch of fun testing it out by making some cool things.

The wood router bits came in so we were able to try doing some engravings with them. The carbide endmills and ballmills just arrived today so keep an eye out for milled metal.

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Milling wood with the rotary tool

So I printed out a mount for our 20 dollar rotary tool and stuck it onto the machine to test. We haven’t gotten any router bits for the Makita spindle yet, but we did have the rotary tool on hand so I thought we might as well try carving stuff out.

 

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We carved out “Hello world” using G-code generated from Makercam and a diamond cone burr bit. Looks pretty good!