Tag Archives: block

Spare parts

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The last week has been a fruitful one for me, at least as far as printing things on my MakerBot is concerned.  I’ve designed, created derivatives, printed upgrades, updated the firmware, installed the latest (super sweet!) RepG, and even performed some maintenance.

One amusing and useful experiment was the serial production of the Z Axis Wobble Reducers by MakiYoshida.  Using my current settings I printed one.  Then I installed it and printed a second.  The second was a visibly better product.  I installed the second and printed a third.  The third was no better than the second.  I installed the third and printed a fourth.  I then installed the fourth… and didn’t bother to print with it.

Right now I have two of these wobble reducers installed on the front right and back left Z axes.  Installing one on the most warped rod (front right, for those of you playing at home) helped significantly.  Installing the second on the back left helped a little more.  Installing the third on the back right didn’t seem to make much of a difference, and may have been worse than the second print.  I didn’t realize why until I tried to install the fourth Z axis wobble reducer.

Once all of the wobble reducers were in place I found that the entire Z stage was too mobile – and would easily shift from left to right and back and forth.  When you have no wobble reducers one or more warped Z axis rods will force the entire stage out of whack.  When you have four wobble reducers, there is nothing keeping the Z stage steady.  Thus, the optimum number is between one and three.  However, I noticed that having two diagonally across from one another gave me enough wobble reduction to improve the print, but not so much flexibility that it could get pushed around in the middle of a print.

Part of the problem is that this particular wobble reducer will allow nearly unimpeded side-to-side motion.  However, these wobble reducers are also fantastic at compensating for a badly warped rod.  I suspect that mixing different kinds of wobble reducers might be my best bet.  I’m not really that interested in installing one of versions that requires precision rods, since it’s just one more thing I have to source for my MakerBot.  Ideally I can mix and match these two types of wobble reducers to improve the overall print.  The Z-axis floating arrester appears to keep the captive nut more … captive than the Z axis wobble reducers I have installed.  This may provide the exact combination of rigidity and flexibility I need to optimize my print quality and minimize layer shift as I print.

The upshot of all of this, and the reason for the post title, is that I now have two Z Axis Wobble Reducers by MakiYoshida that I’m not using.  Do you need one or two of these and feel like saving yourself the print time?  If so, drop me a line.

Beco Block Connections

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I really like the connection mechanism behind the Beco Blocks. 1  It appears to allow a wide range of movement and rotation in the joint.  There’s a lot of applications that come to mind:

  • Beco Block Voltron. ‘Cause, you know, I really really want a printable Voltron.
  • Beco Block Leonardo Robot. ‘Cause my robot’s hips keep breaking! 2
  • Beco connector Z axis crank. There’s a crank for everything, why not a Beco Block?
  • Beco connected printruder. Why not just snap the extruder together and hold it in place with fewer bolts?  Or, if that’s too fragile, why not a printruder that snaps into the printed dinos?
  • Beco connector dalek hinges. All that is stopping my dalek from ruling the universe (and time!) is some freedom of movement.

In furtherance of these possibilities, I’ve taken the smallest male/female Beco Block and sliced it between the male/female connector parts.  My idea is to start grafting these connector parts into other designs.  I need to fix up the files a little – but when I get them usable I’ll post them up to Thingiverse.

  1. Having only printed one block, I suppose I can’t really speak about it intelligently.  Then again, ignorance has never really been an impediment to me talking/typing before… [↩]
  2. I’m not kidding.  It’s pretty sad.  First his left shoulder, then his right hand, then a hip, then both hips. [↩]

New print: Beco Block!

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I printed up my first Beco Block today – and I can’t wait to print up more.  Nate True was kind enough to download the STL files, center, align, save, and zip all of the various pieces. 1

I’d like to see a new STL file out there that has several different types of these Beco Blocks all on one sheet (similar to Spacexula‘s Mendel production STL files).  I could really see myself cranking out these by the dozens.  In fact…  once I had a sheet designed with a good mix of the various parts I could put it through the MakeNBreak script to churn them out.

  1. Nate, if you’re listening – thank you! [↩]