Tag Archives: buser

Playing with OpenSCAD / CloudSCAD

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Inspired by MaskedRetriever‘s last few Thingiverse blog posts on OpenSCAD I tried it out again.  Well, to be fair, I’ve been trying Tony Buser’s CloudSCAD.  I’ll get around to actually installing OpenSCAD, but playing with CloudSCAD is so dang easy.  It is limited by the power1 of my netbook.

I have always enjoyed the ease and immediacy of Sketchup.  Complex objects and forms are easy.  Amusingly, sometimes the smaller simpler bits can be more difficult to tame. 2  But, CloudSCAD does appeal to my programmer/hacker nature.

In any case, I’ve managed to conjure simple forms – spheres, cubes, boxes, cylinders, and cones.  I can assemble and subtract forms from one another.  But, it appears that more complex or irregular polygons are more difficult.

What CAD program do you use and why?

  1. Or, lack thereof [↩]
  2. Wouldn’t you agree Chris? [↩]

Alternate alternate extruder controller mounting

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Tony Buser’s post about his Alternative Extruder Controller Mounting reminded me that I’ve been meaning to show a better picture of my own setup.  I had blogged about it earlier, but not shown a good picture.

Side mounted extruder board, rotated motherboard

Side mounted extruder board, rotated motherboard

Here you can see where I’ve mounted the extruder board at the top left and how I’ve rotated the motherboard 90 degrees counter clockwise.  This gives me better access to the SD card slot.   If you don’t rotate the motherboard, the SD card slot is blocked by the extruder board.

Totally clear plastruder

Totally clear plastruder

Here you can see Leonardo Robot’s arm and how I’ve run the wires from the extruder motor and heater up to the board.

“Tea” – a retrospective

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Tony Buser has posted a set of pictures on his blog showing MakerBot #481 “Tea” from box to building to printing to Mendel parts.

It has a high school graduation montage feel to it – in a good way – like watching your little robot grow up.  When I saw the cracked insulating retainer, cracked idler wheel, and busted extruder I could almost hear the auditorium around me going “oooooohhhh” that that special pain only another RepRap/MakerBot operator has known.

I’m still continually amazed that a box of plastic, metal, and electronic bits has been assembled by my own clumsy fingers to build all of the crazy amazing things I can dream up.

And I’ll form the head!

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I remember buying saving up to buy a Voltron toy as a kid.  It was a very small model with plastic lion limbs that did not transform or detach.  It was basically a toy robot with lion slippers and mittens.

Still, I thought it was the greatest freaking thing ever.  Unfortunately, I have no idea where the heck it could be.  Anyhow, I can’t wait to try modeling and printing a replacement.  I really like Tony Buser’s idea of modifying the Leonardo Robot as a starting point.