Hi everyone! We’ve put together a prototype and it looks pretty, but there’s a couple of things we want to touch up to get the best performance out of our machines, so we’re going into the second full round of design. Our new 3D printer is due to come in the next week or two, and so are all the extra parts we ordered, including couplers, leadscrews, bearings, and more.

We learned a bunch of new things from our first design, and what we plan to do with our second design iteration will make Sienci 1 even better. We plan to give more support to all of the v wheels, lower the y axis gantry and raise the corner supports, and experiment with thicker or wider rail materials.  We also plan to make the X axis calibration much easier by allowing it to split, as well as making all of the fasteners easier to access and tighten.

Here’s a CAD rendering of what the Y axis gantry might look like:

There’s definitely quite a few things to do to really perfect the design, but every day is a (micro) step towards achieving our goal.

 

Tim and I needed a new 3D printer, so we ordered one online last night. Can’t wait to make some new prototypes and new machines!

It’s a cheap one we got online for about $310 CAD. 3D printers have gone down in price a lot over the last few years. I’m excited to see what this one can do and if it’s worth the money.

We’re going to be going into another design iteration to improve the performance on all axis with some new gantries, and this printer should help us make those parts. Also, we’re planning to take some of the parts off this guy later on and throw it on the Sienci 1 to make a GIANT 3D PRINTER.

 

 

The rotary tool came in the mail today, and so Chris and I printed a mount for it. We did a pretty good job of it because the tool is super snug and there’s absolutely no play. We’re just gonna have to work on wire management, perhaps put an outlet at the top of the Z axis or something.

We haven’t tested out cutting yet except with a bit of acrylic. I suspect we’re gonna have to throw on a router or a spindle to cut metal, so stay tuned in for that!

So we’re still waiting on our aluminum shaft couplers and lead screws to come in the mail, so in the meantime, I hooked up a shaft coupler that I made at the machine shop and a 1/4″ threaded rod to the Z axis to see how things are working.

Things look pretty good! Since I didn’t do a very good job in making the coupler straight, the threaded rod is bent, and I need to tighten the v-wheels a bit more, there’s a lot of wobble in the Z axis. Once the lead screws come in however, I’m expecting way better linear movement on this thing.

Here’s a video for you guys to watch:

Hey guys, we’ve had a bunch of hitches with parts coming up late and 3D printing issues, but we’re back on schedule and have finished building our X and Y axis.

As I write this, we have our second Y axis gantry on the 3D printer.

Once we know everything works, we can start looking for quotes on injection molding or looking for other mass production methods.