Almost there..

Been a while since I've worked on the machine but it's nearly there. All the software and firmware is setup and just a few final touches to the mechanics of the machine to go. I've had it dry-running a complete job and seems to work fine. 

The heating elements for the nozzle have just arrived from the UK so I have machined a copper heating block for heating the nozzle. 

Heating block with element.

Underside of Assy.

PEEK insulator / PTFE Liner / PEEK Insulator / 464 (Lead Free) Brass Nozzle /  110 (High Conductivity) CU Heating Block

Nearly there..

Haven't updated this for a while, a lot of work has been done. Nearly all of the mechanics of the machine are completed. Limit switches on all axes, stepper drivers for all axes wired up, belt tensioners and drive systems completed. All that's remaining is to mount the heated bed and manufacture the nozzle heater assembly. 

I have the control side of the machine to sort out. I have an IBM Thinkpad laptop to use with it, but am struggling with the software side of things at the moment.

Here's a short video of a test program running on the machine.

It Lives!!

A lot of work has been done over the Xmas break and I've finally got the Z-Axis working using a test program which cycles all axes.

I've used an Audrino Mega 1280 with RAMPS 1.4 Sheild and wired from this to external Gecko G251 Stepper Drives. Only one stepper driver is fitted so far as I wanted to test that it would actually work before purchasing all four.

A few things still to do;

Limit switches on all axes
X belt idler
Waiting for 2x more stepper motors to arrive
Waiting for 3x gecko drives to arrive
Machine heated bed
Belt tensioners for extruder
Extruder nozzle heater and thermistor