Tag Archives: cool

Patience

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As MakerBots and RepRaps proliferate, so do the websites and content concerning them.  Gian Pablo Villamil had a really great post about his adventures with Skeinforge.  As with BotHacker’s excellent post about the Skeinforge Cool setting and analysis about the benefits of cooling fans, Gian’s post takes us through each of his Skeinforge changes as well as documenting it’s effect on the print quality.

I wish I had more patience for that.  I tried for a while documenting each change…  but quickly became enamored with the idea of spinning dials and flipping switches in Skeinforge in the (sadly badly) mistaken belief I could make it better.

New Print: Leonardo Robot

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Jrombousky designed his Leonardo Robot based upon the ratios in Leonardo DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man.  He mentioned that it was based on these very cool papercraft Paper Robot.  I just used his gcodes and they turned out just fine.  This just supports my belief that a good set of Skeinforge settings may be nearly universal.  In any case, here it is!

Ddomo arigato, Mr. Roboto

Ddomo arigato, Mr. Roboto

Ball bearings

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A standard MakerBot Cupcake CNC requires:

  • 8x 608 bearings for the four X axis threaded rods
  • 2x 608 bearings for the two Z axis pulleys
  • 1x 608 bearing for the X axis pulley
  • 1x 606 bearing for the Y axis pulley

With all the cool things that could be built with the addition of bearings to a MakerBot toolkit I wanted to pick up some additional bearings.  I figure I could print an improved version of my retractable spring loaded tape measure, the microlathe, and other cool things.

But, where to find these things?  My local hardware store didn’t carry them.  I went to a hobby shop nearby which had exactly two bearings for $5.  It sounded expensive, but I’d never priced bearings before and I really just wanted the two at the time.

A few weeks later I had a brainstorm.  Where could I find cheap skate ball bearings?  Well, why not a place that sells cheap skates!  I called my local used sporting goods store and they had a 16 pack of bearings for $5.  Right on.

Ball bearings

Ball bearings