On Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 5:46 PM, Mike Payson <m...@dawgdayz.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 1:31 PM, Colin K <cwk....@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > For a long time I was very skeptical of the whole "machine that makes its > > own parts" aspect as I thought, "why bother, aluminum extrusion is > cheap?" > > > > I am actually working on a design that uses the printed parts, but replaces > the threaded rods with aluminum extrusions. It should be considerably more > rigid and allow faster print times without as much of a degradation in > print > quality. The only downside is cost... instead of $15 in threaded rod, it > will require about $45 in al extrusions. I know that raises the price to > high for many, but sometimes you cannot avoid it </sarcasm mode off>. > Not sure where the joke begins or ends there :) But seriously, is rigidity in the frame lacking? Because I was thinking that I could replace the 5/16" threaded rod with something like 3/8" or 1/2" drill rod and just turn an inch or so of 5/16" thread on the ends to attach to the brackets. But not sure what the limiting factors are... I was figuring I'd start stock (or very close to it) and re-engineer parts as experience dictated. Though making aluminum motor mounts was pretty high too... > Will they ever print their own stepper motors? Probably not in > > the next 10 years, but I would not be shocked if in that time we were > > printing PCBs and using the RR as a pick-and-place machine. Even that may > > be enough to significantly alter some of the dynamics of the > macro-economy. > > You cannot print PCBs yet, but you can use the RepRap to apply resist for > home etching boards. Personally, I don't see the point when you can buy 10 > PCBs from China for $13 delivered, but others like it. It is a nice option > to have at least. Yes. But the problem with China is that the minimum spend is $130, while batch services add weeks to the build cycle. That said, drilling holes by hand is a huge PITA and I love soldermask on my boards. So I'm wondering whether the typical RepRap bot could handle, say, a Dremel running PCB drills. And whether you could make a soldermask "stencil" by extruding plastic over the pads to cover them, then spray soldermask, let dry, then knock the plastic bits off to expose the bare pads. If all that works, then keeping an etch tank around doesn't feel like too big a burden. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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
