Pay it Forward 3D print build @ CASA – University College London (UCL)

05 Feb 2011 (UCL, London). After @gklyne did some serious tweaking on the RepMan (mark 1, “Darwin”) over the past 6 months we finally are spitting out parts for the mark 2 “Mendel” RepRap. Our first build of the Mendel is taking place at UCL’s CASA dept where @frogo is inheriting the next #pif3D printer (I believe he is planning to ‘pay it forward’ to Edinburgh University).  The next PIF3D 24 hour build party to be announced soon, watch the PIF3D announcement page and if you’d like to host your own print party sign up on the PIF3D wiki.

We are hoping to complete this build in 24 hours (Sat Noon to Sun Noon) and below are the video blog updates of that build process:

Build start: Saturday at Noon (Graham and Steve did the setup from 10am).

So from the video above it took about an hour and a half to get the main triangle structure built:

In the below video we are building the separate components, primarily the slider for the X axis and Z axis and then the extruder (which sits on the X axis).  Been about 3 hours since the video above.  We started in on the pizza and beer as well (thanks to CASA :).

posted at 18.41

The mandatory midnight post (we are half way through the build with 12 hours elapsed).  We’ve got the main triangle frame structure, the Z and X axis parts built and moving on the frame.  We still have the Y axis board, extruder head (including the hot end nozzle), belts and electronics to do over the next 12 hours.

That’s right, the 5am update post below!  It is now an official PIF3D PRINT PARTY!  What better way to celebrate than going over skeinforge and gcode!  We also had some interesting conversations of the endless possibilities that having multiple people in the UK 3D printing community offers.

Everyone feeling refreshed after a quick nap and we are into the homestretch of the build (side note: I actually found the whirring of the printer quite peaceful as it lulled me off to sleep).  Thanks to Andy for the Pif3D Printer Party Pizzas last night (and beer!), we marked up a quick logo for your printer to show our appreciation 🙂  <– this is what the printer was printing in the above post (shown in the below video).

And if you’d like to see the whole thing in timelapse mode watch this brilliant production by @frogo:

And last but not least the build teams:

We’ve got the electronics to attach, but on the whole the build has been a success!  And great fun at that.  Can’t wait to schedule the next 24 hour weekend build party.  Let us know if you’d like to sponsor your own pif3D build party so you too can have the ultimate geek gadget!

~ by dfflanders on February 5, 2011.