Hey all! THE BUILD-UP IS DONE! Here's the latest pics, including my first print ever! Below is the last of the Rostock MAX building pics... hopefully soon I will be posting InMoov android pics in it's place.

Above, wrapping the resistors with aluminum foil to make for a tight fit when mounting. Failure to do this will keep the hotend from conducting heat away from each resistor, and they will surely burn up! The tiny 100K Thermistor that tells the computer exactly what temp the hotend is lies below.

Below, both resistors wrapped and installed in their holes. Yup, you purposely overheat resistors to heat this hotend, and it works well. The wires are twisted on each end, making a parallel circuit. ABS extrudes at around 230C.

Hotend finished and ready to mount. I added good plugs to both the Thermistor and the hot end resistors to make it easier to remove and repair or replace. 

Here's the almost finished extruder. Wires still need to be extended, but it's looking good.

My first print ever... First time ya just pray that the nozzle doesn't come crashing into the build surface. BTW, my build surface is Lexan, heated to 75C for ABS...AND BOY DOES IT STICK! A small fan mounted on the left can blow over the insulator on the hotend to keep it cool.

The finished Calibration cube... It might be ugly to you, but it's a beauty to me! Whooooo  Hooooo!

Below, IT"S DONE! Or at least done as a cutting edge printer ever gets... I'm already planning to add a few things... New spool shaft, etc. There is a real learning curve to this technology, but it's a lot of fun when things go right.

 UPDATE: 3/11/13

Pictured above is the platform U-joints being test fit. You must sand or file away at the joint until it's just a snug fit. Below is the platform with delta arms snapped on. Pretty! The Hotend will mount here.

Below: Building the acetal bearings. You must deburr and smooth the edges. The contact area is perfect out of the mold.

Finally! The Rostock MAX with arms and platform. Now we're getting somewhere!

Our last pic is the "Cheapskate" (SeeMe CNC name, not mine!) assembly. You would be suprised at how nice this rolls up and down the aluminum extrusion. It's adjusted by eccentric cams, or by an eccentric me...

3/7/13:

ShownAbove is the Hot bed, after soldering the LED and it's dropping resistor. This lets you know power is applied to the bed and it is heating. Normal bed temp. is between 60 -100C. Also visable are the large pads provided to solder the bed heat wires, both top and bottom.

Here the Thermistor has been soldered to it's pads at the center of the bed. Teflon tubing insulates against shorts.

A dab of black RTV secures the Thermistor. The bed support has a hole to allow the bed to be mounted without interfering with this sensor.

There are large pads to solder the bed power wires, both top and bottom. I chose to wire two 18ga. to each pad, for a total of 4 18ga. wires to each positive and negative side. This helps conduct the needed current for the large bed. The small white wires at left are the leads from the Thermistor mounted at board center.

Here we see the Rostock MAX with it's extrusions mounted for the first time. They are easily secured by four T-nuts top and bottom. The Hot bed has been permanently mounted. Things are coming along!

I have opened the electronics bay to show the RAMBO board, and some of the wiring that leads into this area. Soon connectors will be installed and plugged it. The design allows for easy access to almost everything, and seems to be very well thought out...

3/4/13:

Here is the base, ready to install the nuts that secure the top, followed by the top.

The base has two swing out doors in order to install and access electronics and internal wiring.

Here's the base with top installed. Visible is the power supply which powers the unit and bed heater.

Here you can see the custom heated build platform, currently just laying on base top. Diameter is 280mm!

2/28/13:

Pictured are the Stepper motor crimped connectors, and the base with the supports and motor mounts. As the pictures show, the pieces are connected by installing Nylok nuts in each upright, then through bolting with small flat headed screws. Everything so far is extremely high quality, and basically snaps together. One of the Stepper motor's wires must be extended with the included wiring, then the connectors are crimped on. I chose to solder and heat shrink, but you could use small (red) butt splices too. More to follow..

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