Day: July 14, 2010

I don’t know what I’m doing

Not that this has ever stopped me from doing stuff before.

My MakerBot kit was my first foray into robotics.  Or electronics, for that matter.  Frankly, if I can do it you can too.  Even so, talk about blowing out a MOFSET1 is enough to make me very cautious about how I upgrade my bot’s electronics.  All I know about this MOFSET thing is that it is bad if it burns out – and it can burn out with enough (or not enough???) power.

In any case, I need to make sure I pick up a whatchamacallit Relay Board Kit when I grab a heated build platform kit.

  1. Whatever that is! [↩]

Why do I care what you think about awesome robots?

Actually, it’s pretty simple.  I really enjoy blogging about my MakerBot, stuff I make, how I make it, what I see other people do with their Makerbots, and awesome robots in general.  It helps me get ideas for things to write, things to design, and things to make – and hopefully things you like to read.

Heck, some of my favorite things only came about because someone e-mailed me or commented on one of these posts.  (I mean, a soft-pawed albino stoat of Southern Wales???  WTF?  That was so much fun!)

Mysteries of the tall print

There’s a new Tall Print record holder in town.  Brian J. Pierce aka Chooch printed a 154mm tall Chicago’s Willis Tower.  Brian reveals the secret: “My bot is hacked, but using mostly original parts that came with the kit and printed parts to achieve the new record.”

What’s the hack?  Well, Brian says in the comments, “I’ll be releasing the Pfierce Z-axis extender kit in a couple of weeks.  It comes with 6 spacers and a new and improved z axis crank.”  Below is a crop of picture of Brian’s setup.

Chooch's Vertical Hack
Chooch's Vertical Hack

I think there’s a lot of interesting stuff in this setup:

  1. It looks like Brian’s got a Z axis wobble arrester.  I can’t tell if it is NateTrue’s Wobble Arresting Z bracket or TwoTimes’ Wobble Arrester.  If I had to guess, I’d think it’s NateTrue’s – since there are no visible straight rods.
  2. Check out the build quality on the Z axis wobble arrester – it’s terrible!!!
  3. Now, check out the build quality on the print – it’s pretty good!  Nice job!  I guess that arrester is working.
  4. If you look at the place where the top panel meets the sides, you can see printed bits.  It looks like he’s used a series of “spacers” (perhaps 6?) to raise the top panel above the sides.
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