I am not a big fan of the various hybrid machines and repstraps (for people
unfamiliar with the terminology, a reprap is a printer made from printer
parts ("REProducing RApid Prototyper"), and a RepStrap is a printer made
without printed parts (in theory used to make the printed parts for a real
RepRap)). These printers are hard enough to get working reliably with the
base model that has been built by hundreds of other people. Trying to make
your own non-standard bot makes it many times more complicated. My first bot
was a repstrap, and though I got it working for a while, before long I gave
up on it and went with a standard Prusa... And it has still been a
nightmare, but at least the problems I am having now are shared by other
users who can help me debug them.Nylon line seems an ideal filament, but unfortunately it does not work well. Nylon tends to warp severely as it cools, so it is extremely difficult to get good prints. ABS has the same difficulty, but to a much lower degree, so you can get good prints with the simple addition of a heated build platform. PLA is another material choice, and one reason many people (myself included) prefer it is that it does not require a heated build platform. There are a couple of filament suppliers in the UK who can sell you suitable material. It may not seem cheap, until you compare it with the same basic material (ABS) sold for the Stratasys Dimension printers, which is approximately an order of magnitude more money (and sold in non-refillable cartridges to make sure you don't buy yours from someone other than them). As for the notion of recycling material, that is one of the "holy grails" of RepRapping, but it is not as easy as it sounds. http://haveblue.org/?p=841is a short blog article about how commercial filament is produced, and shows that it is not as simple as "feed in the granules, get filament out the other end". If the filament diameter is not consistent going into the extruder, the finished rint won't be accurate on the other end. Unfortunately I suspect that means it will be a while before we see granule printers or recyclebots being usedd widely. On Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 1:13 AM, Ian W. Wright <watchma...@talktalk.net>wrote: > I have been looking at this technology myself and have a > machine half built - I found a design via the reprap page > which incorporates a milling head as well as an extruder so > that, in theory, the parts can be 'finished' in situ after > they are made or maybe even as they are being built. I have > the electronics working fine and am part way through the > mechanics - designing as I go to use parts I already have... > > However, one thing which has relegated the scheme to a > lesser place in the queue of 'things which must be done' is > the high cost of the ABS filament around here. I have > considered redesigning to use something like nylon strimmer > line but haven't decided yet as I'm not sure how useful > parts made from this softer plastic would be. > > I did, however, see a project some time ago which seems to > have since fizzled out, to recycle old plastic drinks > bottles etc. into an extruded filament that could be used > with these machines - it was, in fact, this idea that first > sparked my interest in the technology ( being a Yorkshireman > genetically engineered to be 'careful' in all things - > especially parting with money!! ). > > Has anyone come across any similar project which is still > active? > > Ian > _____________________ > Ian W. Wright > Sheffield UK > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > EditLive Enterprise is the world's most technically advanced content > authoring tool. Experience the power of Track Changes, Inline Image > Editing and ensure content is compliant with Accessibility Checking. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/ephox-dev2dev > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EditLive Enterprise is the world's most technically advanced content authoring tool. Experience the power of Track Changes, Inline Image Editing and ensure content is compliant with Accessibility Checking. http://p.sf.net/sfu/ephox-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
