Makerbot #000284 - part 2

"Keep your bot close, but your parts closer..."

During the build of my bot i repeatedly dropped bolts, nuts, bits and bobs everywhere. Use cups to keep your parts from falling and sorted by dimension. Eggholders are good, or the cut-outs from the plywood come in handy aswell.

When assembling the Plastruder (MK4), pay attention when you bolt the 'Heater Barrel' on to the 'Filament Drive Mechanism'. Two washers need to be used in that connection, and when you don't use them there's a chance that one of the inner parts might break in the Filament Drive Mechanism.

As soon as you get the hang of printing with your bot, a good idea is to start printing parts for a printeable head. There are several (Printruder II, Printed Extruder, Really Strong Filament Drive) that are worth having a look at.


By employing a printed head you can save yourself money from having to buy continuous spare parts (because it will break - just a matter of when). The linked printeable heads also have MAJOR improvements towards the filament drive and some of them are basicaly a total redesign of the drive. That's the beauty of open-source, everyone can contribute and thus improve the whole design.

Note that when you print large objects, warping will rear it's head. Warping is the effect that your extrusion (molten plastic), starts to cool down and curve upwards towards the still 'warm' plastic layers. This means your object will start to come off the raft and curl up. You can get lucky that it doesn't interfere with the build, but in 99% of the case the print head will eventualy end up outside the object and bump into it - which could even lead to damage to your print head.

One way to prevent warping from happening is to use a 'Heated Build Platform' (Makerbot HBP v2.0, Makergear Ceramic HBP). (I'm writing a post about how i'm building and configuring my makerbot HBP 2.0, search the archive if you're interested).

Another way to prevent warping, or better said 'reduce' warping is by using PLA. I can't however present you with facts as i haven't yet finished my PLA plastruder yet (I have a heater barrel for ABS, and now another with a Makergear Heatercore attached to it i plan on using for PLA). Warping is a big issue so there will be more posts about it, stay tuned.

I read from an operator that he was able to reduce warping by building a case with heat lamps to increase the ambient temperature. This is how industrial prototyping machines work, but in my opinion working with a heated build platform is far sufficient. It's not only space reducing vs the case with lamps, it's also far more easy to build, maintain, and cost effective.

to be continued...