3D Printing Metal Structures With A 6-axis Robot

February 24, 2014 by James Hobson 23 Comments

robot printer

[Joris Laarman] is working on a project called the MX3D-Metal which uses an ABB industrial robot arm and a welding machine to create strong metal structures on any working surface and in any direction.

He started last year with the MX3D Resin printer, which is the exact same concept, but instead of metal, it uses a two-part epoxy that bonds instantly upon mixing. Their lab is located in Amsterdam, and they work closely with IAAC (the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia) — Autodesk provides funding for the research.

[Joris] has successfully printed complex structures using steel, stainless steel, bronze, copper, and even aluminum. Poking around their website you can find many examples of different things they have printed, including intricate matrices of multiple curved lines which end up looking more organic than mechanical. It uses mostly the same concept as the Rostock Welding robot we covered a few months ago, which is open source and fairly cheap to make at home!

Stick around for a video of both the MX3D-Metal and Resin robot printers in action!

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A Cheap Honeycomb Table Replacement For Your Laser

February 22, 2014 by James Hobson 36 Comments

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CO2 lasers make use of a honeycomb table which allows you to support parts you are cutting — without cutting into the bed too much. Unfortunately they are a consumable part, so they will eventually wear out, and they aren’t that cheap. [Claptrap] came up with an excellent alternative.

A few months ago, his radiator blew in his station wagon, and it had to be replaced. He was about to throw it out when he realized the similarity of the radiators cooling fins, to that of his honeycomb table… He cut it down to size, pressure washed it (though he notes you should probably wash it first before cutting) and put it in place. It works great!

The only caveat we have is that you should probably flush the radiator with a water pump first — you don’t want to be heating up any residual radiator fluid inside the radiator channels!

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Ketchup Bottle… Flexible Hose?

February 17, 2014 by James Hobson 62 Comments

ketchup pipe

Need a corrugated flexible hose for your CNC machine? You could buy one… or you could make your own using tape and ketchup bottles!

One of our tipsters stumbled upon a very interesting hack on a Russian 3D Modeling website that sells 3D models ready to be CNC machined. They have a few articles on CNC machines, and this is one of them. An ingenious way of making your own flexible hose — in this case, used as a vacuum return on the CNC machine.

It’s pretty simple, although we would expect the labor involved quickly outweighs the cost of some cheap hose — but this is recycling so hey! You start by finding a source of cylindrical plastic containers, like ketchup bottles. You then cut a never-ending ribbon from said bottles, and then using a cylindrical template (like a can of spray paint), wrap packing tape, sticky side out, around the template. Now wrap your ribbon around the template, slightly spaced, and then cover the outside in tape as well. A one liter bottle of ketchup will make approximately a half meter of corrugated hosing. It’s not hard to continue doing this by sliding the hose off the can, and wrapping more ribbon and tape in place.

Now that’s a hack.

[Thanks Michael!]

Chinese 3020 CNC Machine Gets Some Upgrades

February 15, 2014 by Rich Bremer 54 Comments

If you frequent any CNC Forums out on the ‘web you’ll find that these Chinese 3020 CNC routers are generally well received. It is also common opinion that the control electronics leave something to be desired. [Peter]’s feelings were no different. He set out to make some improvements to his machine’s electronics such as fixing a failed power supply and adding PWM spindle control and limit switches.

[Peter] determined that the transformer used in the power supply was putting out more voltage from the secondary coil than the rest of the components could handle. Instead of replacing the transformer with another transformer, two switch mode power supplies were purchased. One powers the spindle and the other is for the stepper motors. So he wasn’t guessing at the required amperage output of the power supplies, [Peter] measured the in-operation current draw for both the steppers and spindle motor.

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4 Axis Delta Router Says Hello World

February 12, 2014 by Adam Fabio 15 Comments

deltaRouter

[Bart] stood upon the shoulders of the delta 3D printer giants and created this 4 axis delta router. The router was originally created for ORD Camp, an invite only hackers gathering. Each year he creates a new thing with one main purpose: to spark conversation. In his own words “Practicality and suitability are way down the list, so go ahead and snark away. If you do, you are missing the point.”

[Bart] did things a bit differently with his delta. For motors, he went with non captive steppers. “Non captive” means that rather than a shaft, the motor has a hollow threaded nut which rotates. A lead screw (usually with an acme thread) is passed through this nut. As the motor’s nut turns, the screw is pushed or pulled through the motor, creating a linear actuator. The only major downside is that a non captive stepper motor can’t be adjusted by hand. The screw doesn’t turn and neither do any external parts of the motor. For structure, the router uses MakerSlide and v-grove wheels. The spindle is a simple brushless hobby motor and 30 amp speed control. Rather than the outrunner motors we’ve seen lately, [Bart] wisely chose an inrunner motor normally used on R/C cars. Inrunners generally have less torque than their outrunner counterparts, but they make up for this in RPM. [Bart’s] motor is capable of 30,000 RPM, which is plenty for spindle duty. We think the motor bearings will probably need an upgrade, as the original motor bearings weren’t designed for side loads. For a controller, [Bart] utilized an Azteeg X3 running Repetier.

The router made a great showing at camp, and [Bart] decided it needed a 4th axis. He sourced a rotary axis from eBay. To keep the software simple, he connected the rotary axis to the extruder outputs on his controller. He was then able to hack the mach3 wrapped rotary post processor to output extruder commands. The results look great. [Bart] says the system definitely needs a tailstock, and we agree. We’re looking forward to the next update on this machine!

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Cheap, Resourceful DIY Mini CNC Router/Mill Contraption

February 12, 2014 by Rich Bremer 10 Comments

Few Hackaday Readers would disagree with the classic phrase: Necessity is the mother of invention. That statement is certainly no exaggeration when it comes to this mini 3-axis CNC Machine. The builder, [Jonathan], needed a way to prototype circuit boards that he designed. And although he admittedly doesn’t use it as much as he intended, the journey is one of invention and problem solving.

[Jonathan] started from the ground up with his own design. His first machine was a moving gantry style (work piece doesn’t move) and ended up not performing to his expectations. The main problem was alignment of the axis rails. Not becoming discouraged, [Jonathan] started on version 2. This time around the work piece would move in the X and Y directions like a conventional vertical milling machine. The Porter-Cable laminate trimmer would move up and down for the Z axis. It is clear that the frame is built specifically for this project. Although not the prettiest, the frame is completely functional and satisfactorily stiff for what it needs to do.

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Adding An RPM Readout For A Home Made CNC Mill

February 8, 2014 by James Hobson 5 Comments

rpm_lcd

[Rui] recently put the finishing touches on his homemade CNC mill, which utilizes a dremel-like rotary tool. The problem with using rotary tools for this kind of application is you don’t really have an accurate speed readout… so he designed his own RPM gauge.

The sensor is in itself very simple. He’s using a TLE4935L hall effect sensor, a spare 16FE88 microcontroller, a Nokia LCD, and one tiny neodymium magnet. The magnet has been carefully epoxied onto the motor fan, with the hall effect sensor close by. He’s also built a guard around it, just in case the magnet decides to fly off at high speeds.

During testing he hooked up the hall effect sensor to both his home-made circuit, and an oscilloscope to confirm his findings. Once he was assured everything was working properly he sealed it off and mounted the LCD above the spindle as a nice digital readout.

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