After recieving my bits ffrom the postopffics, i opened it up, and to my suprise the precision rods i orderes where a bit loose – they are about 6mm diameter not the 8mm i was expecting. Checked the order list and sadly, it is an error on the makerbot website parts list, so watch out!!!

however i still put the belts on and realised that the tooth belts are 6mm inner diameter, where as the motor shafts are 5mm diameter, therefore they are wobbly. I need to drill another 2 holes on the opposing sides so that i can center it using 2 more grub screws.

This morning i went to the screw shop, and got some screws for the extruder – long m4’s in the end as they didnt have long m3’s…

Went to totem timber and got 3 1metre rods of aluminium, and 50mm washers – for the retainer plate on the extruder.

the aluminium rods i cut to size for the runners, i chose these as they seemed to run free in the plastic bearings. rubed them a little with fine wet&dry paper (wet) and installed.

I then noticed it was rubbing, so loosened the frame for x and y so that it ran smoother.

installed the platforms, and went about glueing the open ended belt into a circle for the z axis – i saw a film on how its made where they spliced a huge belt tog by cutting a layer (a very slowly decreasing slope in one side, and the opposing side to create a much larger surface area to bond the 2 halves tog. I tried it and tested it 30 mins later – the glue had not dried, so tried it again and yay! works… touch wood. tho i did start this l;ast night and left it over night to dry.

Also going to redesign the shell for my additional parts i got from ebay which will bne VERY awsome!!!

Watch this space!!!

pics in my flickr pool