[ale] ReplicatorG On a Stick!

[Charles Shapiro]

I got a Makerbot kit. You can check out the site ( http://makerbot.com
). Cyndi ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/glantriff/5235386155/ ) works
great. She is Makerbot #2219 and took me around 3-4 weekends of
on-and-off labor ( typically one 1-2 hour session a day) to get
working. She was about as complicated to build as an RC model airplane
kit.  Plan to spend some Quality Debug Time on the project though.
Currently Cupcake CNCs cost around $700 for the base kit, but I'd
recommend spending another $225 or so to get some khewl extras (heated
build platform,Mk5 hot-end).  I did the CupCake Ultimate but haven't
built the Automated Build Platform part of it just yet.    If you want
the really deluxe experience you can build a Thing-O-Matic ( $1225),
which features a larger build chamber and is probably faster. The
quality of the output parts is much the same though.

If you're looking to have a more edumacational robotics experience,
I'd recommend building a RepRap Mendel ( http://reprap.org/wiki/Mendel
).  This will probably cost you close to the price of a base-model
CupCake, but the machine has about twice the build volume.  Printed
Mendel part sets are running around $100-$250 on Ebay right now -- a
search for "reprap mendel" brings up about 6 auctions.  If you're
enterprising you can build your printer and make back its cost by
printing and selling parts kits for new printers. The Cupcake is
capable of producing parts kits for a Mendel, so I haven't completely
closed off this line of projects yet.

Building a part on my Cupcake takes anywhere from 10 minutes to 2-3
hours depending on the size of the object I am creating.  I need to
supervise it, but not necessarily control it -- I kick off a print,
then check back every 10-15 minutes to make sure it's still ok.
Printed objects are ABS plastic (same stuff legos are made out of),
strong enough to throw against the wall without damage. It ain't too
good for mass-production (unless maybes you had a whole gang of them
workin'), but it's phabuloso for prototypes, repairs, and art.
The build chamber is 100x100x200mm, but the practical maximum size of
a part is smaller than that.  The printer is precise enough to create
parts that will fit together, gears that will mesh, and bearings that
will function.

I'm scrambling to learn Blender so's I can start designing and
building my own gizmos.  Meanwhile theres's thingiverse (
http://thingiverse.com ), which is full of innaresting projects.

Of course, my Unstoppable Robot Army is probably still another 6
months or so out.

-- CHS


On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 8:38 AM, Richard Bronosky <Richard at bronosky.com> wrote:
> so much gold here. Please start by telling us more about Cyndi and cupcake.
>
> On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 7:19 AM, Charles Shapiro <hooterpincher at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Heh!  You can run ReplicatorG on a stick!
>>
>> I've been experimenting with 3d printing lately.  The software which
>> controls Cyndi, my "cupcake" CNC machine, requires very up-to-date
>> versions of python and java.  The developers test it solely on Ubuntu
>> Maverick Meerkat ( 10.10), the very latest 'n' greatest.  But I have
>> found that it will run just fine on Puppy Linux 5.11, which is based
>> on Lucid Lynx ( Ubuntu's LTS version 10.4) .  This lets you run the
>> software without installing or updating anything -- just boot your USB
>> media and start printin'!
>>
>> I've contributed a write-up (
>> http://wiki.makerbot.com/run-repg-from-a-stick ).  The next step is
>> obviously to make a Puppy 3d printing sub-distro.  That might make a
>> fun ALE talk.
>>
>> -- CHS
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>
> --
> .!# RichardBronosky #!.
>
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