If you got a totally different set of lasercut body panels and larger threaded/precision rods it would be a snap.
But how would you get more build space out of your MakerBot without a big structural change?
I’m not sure how I would go about it – but I suspect I would start by fiddling with the Y stage. As the smallest stage I suspect it may be the bottleneck.
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.
Don’t get me wrong – I like the acrylic dinos I have. But what if you want to replace yours with a printed set? Or what if you want to print up a full extruder kit for a friend? Well, now you can! I just uploaded some designs for a printed set of dinos. Depending upon your batch you may have Big/Little dinos or Weird/Big dinos. These should work in place of either, assuming that the placement of the bolt holes in the Z stage haven’t changed. 1
I’ve uploaded the sketchup files to make it easy to play with the designs. As I was mocking these up I was tempted to turn them into bunnies instead of dinos. Or to give the dinos some more features. Since I was so torn about which route to take I decided to upload the bland models and let others embellish if they want.
So, print up printstruder and a few dinos for an authentic fully printed printruder.
Update: Try out Zaggo’s printed dinos instead. His is a much cleaner more elegant design.