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DIY Gigahacking: 4 Knob Bed Leveling Kit

The printed parts can be found HERE. Pieces must be printed using ABS except for the knobs which can be PLA or ABS, The arms should use 3 perimeters and 40% infill. The rest of the parts can have 2 perimeters and 30 percent infill.

Let’s walk through the steps to retrofit your Gigabot to use the new knob system. Note: the knobs will be installed in the 4 corners of your Gigabot. The picture shows one centered knob in the back but this is for an early revision of Open GB.

4 Knob Leveling Install

Hardware

1/2 inch-20 bolt (4)
1/2 inch-20 nut (4)
Arm (4)

Bed Pad (4)

Bolt Cap (4)

Knob (4)

Additional Materials used

Loctite GO2 glue works in high-temp environments

GE Silicone II used to affix pads to the bed

Building the assembly

Put a dab of GO2 glue on the sides of a ½ inch nut
Drop the nut into the leveling arm so that the hole lines up with the hole for the nut.
Add some more glue into the recess just for good measure.
Put some glue under the head of the ½ inch bolt and insert the bolt into the knob so that the head hides in the hex hole; make sure it’s pushed in all the way.
Add a little more glue on the other side along the sides of the cutout.
Glue the cap on the other end of the bolt.
Glue sets in 30 min, cures in 24 hours

Preparing for installation

Loosen the bolts holding the bed rails. Lower all bed rails to the bottom of the slotted holes and re-tighten the bolts.
Remove the adjustment bolts/springs in all 4 corners.

Lower the locknuts on all 4 L-bracket spring assemblies. This will provide the bed with the travel it needs. It’s easier to perform this step before putting on the build surface so that you have access to the head of the bolts.
Make sure that the rails are generally level with the bottom motors. The one that I installed these on was a decent amount off.

IMPORTANT: Adjust the Z height so that the natural state of the bed is about ½ cm or a little less than ¼ inch from the nozzle. Apply another nut to the underside of the Z limit switch bolt as this adjustment will no longer be used and should remain in place.

Installing the leveling assemblies

Insert 4 magic t-nuts (or regular t-nuts if you’re building it from scratch) along the top recess of the front bed rail. Make sure the nuts are inserted in between the L bracket/springs. Note: The locknut needs to be lower than the one in the image; ignore that.
Insert 2 t-nuts into each corner of the top recess of the back bed rail. Make sure they go into the side that is front facing. All leveling arms point towards the front of the machine.
Use M5 x 10 screws to bolt the arm assemblies into the t-nuts in the top rail.
Push the left arm snug against the left L-bracket and the Right snug against the right L bracket. The back arm will sit just left of the cable tray. Give it about a half inch clearance on the right.
Put a line of silicone on the flat side of each of the 3 bed pads.
Lower all knobs so that the nubs are almost touching the top of the arms, manually lift the bed and slip the bed pads over the nubs trying not to make a mess with the silicone in the process.
Raise the knobs and straighten out the pads. The pads should self-align to the nubs but just make sure the pads look visually straight to the edge of the bed and the rail.
Put a bead of silicone around each pad and then removed any excess by smearing it with my finger.

Leveling the bed

Position the nozzle above the left knob and turn clockwise to raise the bed in that corner. Raise so that it’s almost touching. Do the same for the right side.
Raise the back knob so that the nozzle is almost touching the bed.
Go back to the front left and use a sheet of paper to keep between the bed and the nozzle. Turn the knob clockwise until you can feel slight friction on the paper. Do the same for the right side, and then do the same in the back 2 knobs.
Move the nozzle around the bed and try the paper trick to make sure all is flat. If it sticks anywhere, recheck your 4 points.

COMPLETE!!!

Happy Printing!

Mike Battaglia

Blog Post Author

@mikebattaglia

Made in America: 3D Printing Prototypes for Stump Armour Molds

Meet Travis: A Texan, father, entrepreneur, warrior, and inventor.

re:3D first met Travis in Austin last winter as he was prototyping his second version of Stump Armour: an affordable, accessible device he pioneered in order to expand mobility options for bilateral amputees.

As a combat-wounded Marine, Travis is uniquely qualified to inspire solutions to increase maneuverability for other double amputees while reducing back strain that traditional prosthetics can create. By using himself as the test subject and leveraging business insights he acquired in the 100 Entrepreneurs Project and the Entrepreneurial Bootcamp for Veterans (EBV), Travis launched Stump Armour on indiegogo this week.

About Stump Armour

Stump Armour is a round design that connects to traditional sockets to allow for constant surface contact from any angle. Pressure can be directly applied to a terrain without changing position, allowing amputees to roll themselves up independently when preforming activities close to the ground. Since the round shape can grab from nearly any position, it works great on uneven/irregular surfaces, so the amputee doesn’t need to focus as much concentration on limb placement when compared to other devices. Travis doesn’t feel Stump Armour is intended to replace full leg or knee prosthetics. Rather, it’s meant to increase functionality with specific tasks.

Keeping Costs Low

A key tenant of the Stump Armor’s mission is to make devices as affordable as possible worldwide. For this reason, Travis contracted Mike Battaglia & I last January to see if we could 3D print his vision for a Stump Armour’s Modification. Using Simplify3D we were able to generate a raft & support that could easily break off. The completed PLA prototypes printed great and we were excited to give them to Travis, who planned to use the prints to create a mold to scale Stump Armor globally.

Prints in hand, Travis partnered with local foundries who guided him through the process of making his own custom mold to cast multiple sets of Stump Armour. This week we interviewed Travis to learn more about the process he used to create a mold from a print by working with Stevens Art. Below are the steps that he described:

From a 3d printed prototype made on Gigabot, a silicone rubber mold was created.
The print was covered in an releasing agent that was then covered in silicone, leaving an inlet for wax to be poured in later.
After the silicone cured, a 2 piece plaster shell was made.
Once completed, the silicone was carefully cut with a razor along where the plaster shells come together so it would come apart into 2 pieces.

The shells were clamped together and hot wax was then poured into the inlet.
When the wax hardened, the wax casting of the original print was removed.

The wax cast was then dipped in a a ceramic slurry and power coat until a hard shell formed.
This shell was fired in an oven to harden the cast melt the wax out.
Metal was poured in and the ceramic shell was broken off after it cooled.
A metal replica of the original 3d print was then ready for finishing!

Using lost wax casting, Travis was able to do his first production run of Stump Armour, which is now available to other amputees on the Stump Armour indiegogo campaign. You can support Stump Armour’s next production run and Stump Armour donations at: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/stump-armour#/ until July 1st.

Want to learn more?

Email: info@stumparmour.com
Web: http://www.stumparmour.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsObkfi6W6x2B6dpZ89_CGg/videos?sort=dd&view=0&shelf_id=0
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Greens-Machines-LLC-716439551739895/
Google: https://plus.google.com/u/2/b/106145756742784523319/106145756742784523319/posts
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/10602419trk=tyah&trkInfo=clickedVertical%3Acompany%2CclickedEntityId%3A10602419%2Cidx%3A2-1-2%2CtarId%3A1464716547152%2Ctas%3Agreens%20machines

Samantha snabes

Blog Post Author

3d printing america Austin crowdfunding customers Design engineering gigabot indiegogo prosthetics R&D

April Puzzler Solution Revealed!

Below is the solution to the Monthly Puzzler Chief Hacker presented in our April Newsletter. Want to play? You can sign up to receive our monthly publication by submitting your email address in the sign up at the bottom of re:3D.org. Proposed answers are presented on our forum at: https://re3d.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/206262336-April-Puzzler

The Question

The April puzzler is another print quality mystery. Take a look at the below pictures of an oversized auger screw originally designed for an automated pet feeder. On one side of the auger there is a blemish in the print yet from another view the print shows an excellent surface finish. What is causing the poor print quality on one spot only?

The Solution

The winning answer was presented by whosawhatsis who stated both reasons for the problem.

Uneven cooling
Steep overhang with no support

Great job to everyone and keep an eye out for an improved 360 degree cooling feature for the GB3 hot end to give even better printing capabilities!

Happy Printing!

Matthew Fiedler

Blog Post Author

3d printing 3dprinting america Design engineering gigabot puzzler

Additive Value for Your Subtractive Manufacturing

by Steve Johnson

You may be thinking: “Why would a machine shop need a 3d printer?”

Turns out there are a lot of uses! In my case, we needed to make new fixtures to take advantage of the capabilities of our new 4th axis and the full travel of our machine. When making fixtures, cost is always a main concern, and making a bad fixture can be expensive in terms of both material and man hours.

By using re:3D’s Gigabot 3D printer, we were able to design our fixture in Solidworks, export the model, and print a full size model of the fixture overnight on Gigabot (no time wasted).

This morning, we tapped the holes for our cam clamps, put the printed fixture into the machine, and checked for clearance and travel issues. In the process we found two issues that we corrected in the solid model, and we are now printing the revised test fixture.

Without the benefit of Gigabot, we may have wasted a 4in diameter by 20in long piece of material, as well as hours of labor. Right now, our only cost has been a few dollars worth of plastic.

This experience has been a great opportunity for me to learn Solidworks and I’m looking forward to using Gigabot again to cut costs, create efficiencies, and to have fun in the shop!

~Happy Printing!

Steve Johnson

Blog Post Author

3dprinting america Design engineering factory gigabot houston internal process re: Tech solidworks

Drones & Open Source: Partnering with Local Motors

LMDRONES: re:3D Gigabot

As part of the LMDRONES projects that you can find on Local Motors, we want to welcome re:3D and their Gigabot 3D printer as they join our LM Drone efforts!

May 7th was International Drone Day and the Local Motors Teams, from both Vegas and Chandler, paired up with Matthew Fiedler, Co-Founder and Chief Engineer at re:3D, to bring their Gigabot 3D printer to the world’s first drone port, the Eldorado Droneport, in Boulder City, NV.

The all day event included open tuning, demonstrations, races, and freestyle flying. Matt Jackson, Alaric Egli, and Alex Palmer of Local Motors brought a variety of different drones to take part in the event. Matthew began printing with the re:3D Gigabot as soon as it arrived, showing it’s potential and usability for creating parts, wings, and even a full size Wing FPV.

Stayed tuned for what’s next with the re:3D Gigabot which just made its successful journey from Nevada to Chandler, AZ at the Local Motors Headquarters!

Gigabot arrives at Local Motors Phoenix facility after participating in the International Drone day festivities at Aerodrome near Las Vegas, Nevada. Engineers at Local Motors are excited to train on the Gigabot and start running their first prints!

re:3D Gigabot can now be found at the Local Motors’ headquarters in Chandler AZ!

3d printing 3dprinting america drone engineering Events gigabot lmdrone local motors Open Source R&D

Testing MakeShaper PLA

Material Tested: MakeShaper PLA

Manufacturer: MakeShaper PLA

Filament Diameter: 3.00 mm

Color Tested: Orange

Date Tested: 4/01/2016

OBSERVATIONS

Ease of use: Working with this filament was very enjoyable. It printed easily, was consistent and predictable. No breakage was noticed. The PLA appeared to be of a high quality.

Appearance: The filament exhibited a pleasing orange tone that even the greatest orange pantone haters on our team found appealing. A slight sheen presented when printed.

Size consistency: Awesome, less than 0.1mm within the roll, however the filament measured 2.87mm, not 3mm

Color consistency: Great, consistent throughout the coil.

SETTINGS

Print temperature: 190-215 C (suggested)/202C was used: nozzle / 60C : bed

Printer Used: Gigabot

Speed: 60 mm/s

Layer Height: 0.3mm

Infill: 15%

Type(s) of print surface used: PRINTnZ

List of test files printed: re:3D’s test files 1, 2, and 3 (logo, vase, and Benchy Torture Test). After April’s UX meeting, it was decided to also print a Moai as a 4^th print.

You view watch a video summarizing our testing here:

FINDINGS

Odor: None

Bed adhesion (1: terrible – 5: fabulous!)

5- Great adhesion was achieved with no temperature manipulation.

Stringing (1: lots – 5: none!)

5 –No stringing was observed with our settings.

Shrinkage (1: lots – 5: none!)

5- The filament extruded and cooled with no shrinkage.

Interlayer adhesion (1: terrible – 5: fabulous!)

5- Perfect!

NOTES:

The community is fortunate to have several PLA vendors to select from, however we’ve heard cautionary tales from many of our customers that all PLA is not created equal. MakeShaper PLA boasts that it is a high quality and dependable PLA.
Seeing that we offer a limited color selection in our store, we are always eager to test additional PLA sources in order refer customers to other reputable consumer retailers.
This material appears to yield consistent, quality prints.
Filament size consistency was excellent and no breakage was evident in the 1 kg roll we examined, suggesting it was well mixed.
No curling was observed in any of the 4 prints created.
We used the mid point of the temperature range that the manufacture provided (190-225C). No guidance was given for settings aside from temperature, so we used the standard Simplify3D profile on wiki.re3d.org.
The unboxing experience was well done and the recommendation sheet was professional.
- A batch number was provided for traceability.
- Manufacturer recommended settings were easily referenced on the enclosed documentation.

RECCOMENDATIONS:

After printing 4 objects in our protocol, I support MakeShaper’s claims that they produce high quality PLA and would recommend it to our customers.
Upon review, we would also recommend that we include this filament in our ASTM test sample research.

Want to chat? Join our forum where we have initiated a thread about our experience!

https://re3d.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/206511376-Testing-MakeShaper-PLA

~Happy Printing!

Samantha snabes

Blog Post Author

3d printing 3dprinting america Austin engineering filament gigabot makeshaper Open Source PLA

Filament Testing – Scorpion Flexible Nylon by Black Magic 3D