Community Blog

We have re organized the Launchpad into a project group. There are now separate projects for the Model 1 code, the FabInterpreter, FabStudio and other Fab@Home related projects. This will allow us to organize better as we develop more code. You can access each subproject from the fabathome project group or from their individual Launchpad pages
- Jeff
Project group: https://launchpad.net/fabathome
Model 1 : https://launchpad.net/fabathome-model1
FabInterpreter: https://launchpad.net/fabinterpreter
FabStudio: https://launchpad.net/fabstudio

My research is winding down and the Cornell Computational Synthesis Lab, home of the Fab@Home project has turned its collective effort to dealing with the mess.

As we are constantly experimenting with hardware design and new tools for the Fab@Home, we tend to have a number of them lying around sticking in draws and so on.

I designed a wall mounted rack for them, taking advantage of the Model II's universal quick mount feature. Initially the plan was to have sliding mounts placed in wall mounted rails to allow for a wide range of tools. With the addition of drill holes into the tabs on the sliders, the simpler option of just screwing them into the wall presented itself.

So I did:

And chaos was pushed back once more:

Instructions on the wiki, CAD files, and Ponoko templates pending.

Its amazing what you can do with a Fab@Home's multiple material printing capabilities. I printed a perferated sphere using a model made by Evan Malone. Latex painters caulk is a great support material for regular silicone. The painters acrylic latex softens when heated, while the silicone cures. Heat the model up, run it under water and bam the part is done.

I have been printing lots of things with the plastic tool system for a while now and I have noticed some areas that will need improvement down the road.

Printing Calibration
Path planning is critical. Based on empirical calibration of the plastic tool, in terms of suck back and push out, you can only go so far. The new Fab Studio features a modular pather, so you can create and select different pathers during the planning process. I am still tweaking the paths to get a perfect part surface finish.

Heated Bases
After many days of printing, my heated build base burned out and smelt terrible. The cause? the entire bottom of the plate is heavily insulated. including over the heater. Over time the heater itself was surpassing its maximum operating temperature. This caused an air bubble to form between the heater and the plate, which expanded then causing the wires within the heater to short. So the solution is to use a large 10"x10" heater with no insulation. This actually costs the same because the cost of the larger heater is offset by not having to buy the ceramic insulation.

Burned out heater                                               New fix

EMI
For awhile now we have been stumped as to why our software keeps freezing in the middle of plastic prints. Turns out it is not a software issue but an electromagnetic interference (EMI) issue. The EMI is coming form the relays in the temperature controllers which are constantly turning on and off. The SNAP hub is located right next to these temperature controllers. So the fix for now, until we find a shielding solution, is to put the snap hub as far away from the machine as possible. Aluminum foil does not really do much, as you can see I was testing an inexpensive solution here.

Next up: 3D printing kittens

Jeff and I were at the Bay Area Maker Faire this year and it was quite a success. We had three Model 2.0's running all day Saturday and Sunday each demonstrating a different tool. The SteamPunk machine was milling, the Blue used the dual syringe tool to print silicone and the white machine was printing out plastic parts. We both completely lost our voices speaking to thousands of excited people over the two day event.

PC world did a nice little video about 3d printers at the Bay area makerfair. Check it out.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/197111/3d_printers_at_the_maker_faire.html

Jonas Neubert, a fellow grad student at the Cornell Computational Synthesis Lab. Helped organize and Ignite talk for ithaca(http://igniteithaca.com/) and I volunteered to give a talk on personal fabrication.

Check it out on youtube

Thanks to Josh from SolidSmack.com for this article

http://www.solidsmack.com/fabrication/fabhome-multi-material-sizzle-for-...

We noticed a while ago that printing onto cellophane produced exceptionally smooth bottoms of parts. When the parts were made of silicone, they ended up sticking to any glass or acrylic surface. Since the Fab@Home is mostly smooth acrylic, this provides a nice way of making decorations for your unit. Simply print them out, let them dry and stick them on. Don’t forget to stick Fab@Home logos on your windows so people know that there are fabbers inside! John Amend form the CCSL decided to take this one step further and use a printed silicone sticker to hold up items around the lab and house.

Check out more on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fabathome/sets/72157623847887626/)

While Building the blue Fab@Home unit, Jim smith and myself realized We had a slight problem. We had run out of idle pulleys for the X axis. SDP-SI had them on back order for about a month, and we really wanted to finish the construction. Luckily, SDP-SI had the CAD files for the part online, and we have an Objet 3d printer. The Object made quick work of the part and 15 minutes later we had 2 pulleys ready to go! Is this the first case of 3d printing piracy? Not quite, not too long ago a man 3d printed a police handcuff key.