#MakiBox A6 Update - Lot's o'Springs and Iterations

2021-09-23 17:02 by Jonathan Buford (comments: 0)

#MakiBox A6 Update - Lot's o'Springs and Iterations

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Iterations and design space, this is what this week has been about.

Some problems you can think through, and some you just have to try variations until you hit the working solution. We've been doing a brute force attack on the design space we have mapped for the pellet drive, and are getting some good results. We did want to show you the output going from the drive to filament, but it looks like we will need to make a few more variations tomorrow and should have a nice system to show off.

Aside from that, we are doing more hotbed tests, since some people want to actually print with ABS and hotter materials, unlike the direction it looks like everyone else is going right now. 

We are working on a clean and simple host software that will be open source. Speaking of that, given the direction that Makerbot has taken this week, going towards closing much of what they are doing, we want to re-iterate that we will be making the MakiBox A6 design open when we sell 1000 of them. This will include everything, the new hot end designs, pellet drive, etc. We are working on how to make a sustainable business model that can help support the open software and hardware communities and allow for us to cover the costs of the core R&D required to do so. We are not exactly sure what the model will wind up like, but will be sure to be very simple and open with our direction and will favor open sourcing projects when possible. 

And, the video for the week: 

Thanks for everyone's support this week, we are working towards wrapping up the project as quickly as possible and making sure everyone will have their MakiBox for the holidays.

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Comment

andybox responded:
 
Jon,

When is the heater actually on? I'd think after a few layers, it can be shut off completely. True?

Take a look at black anodizing (you can try other colors if emissivity becomes an issue) the aluminum platen. That will give you what is effectively a hard ceramic surface, making it hard to scratch and may modify your thermal distribution more nicely. Having less weight, "it's a good thing", as Martha would say.

Your use of a spring for the screw is an interesting one. How about cutting the spring (cutoff wheel) so it's driven from the near and and free at the far end?

-andy

andybox responded:
 
I love the idea of higher temps....PEEK would be awesome :-)
 
Jonathan Buford responded:
 

Interesting point about anodizing. I think we will leave that to v2, since we have already done optimization on the stainless layout to get the gradient nice. Having a little more weight on the table will potentially

We've been trying a number of different combinations on the spring usage, including the open and closed end variations. It seems like the flex is good, but the compression is bad. So we are fixing it more to the core, but keeping the screw open.

The heater needs to be on at first to get a good bond, but it is possible with the covers on that it can then be turned off or just cycled infrequently. You will want to keep everything at some critical temp to keep it from warping the part.

Jonathan Buford responded:
 

With this one, we will officially support up to ABS or possibly ABS/PC or others under 270C. That being said the hot end itself can probably take up to close to 400C with proper ventilation and some revisions to the mechanism.

Torleif Ceder responded:
 
Yep stable chamber temp is key. That is my experience with earlier prints. A cool draft made thin prints curl up like really curly stuff.

Both plunger and spring-drive look good, Have you considered extending the end of drive-shaft all the way up to just before the nozzle as a stirring rod?

Best luck this week.

Jonathan Buford responded:
 
Yep, that was my inspiration for doing an enclosed design. In Hong Kong there is either always AC or nothing, since most buildings do not have built in heating. So, the RepRap we built never was able to get up to temp and have a stable ABS print. I even tried putting it in a tent and ended up melting the PLA parts enough to make the frame loosen up.

We've discussed having various arrangements down the barrel, but it looks like for this version we can keep it simple. 

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