Sanjay Mortimer Rep Rap Festival

What if you just cut the LR in half and use it at one of the edges. The cut line would be at a border so it would not seem too odd maybe.

I could make a smaller render but then it looks kinda wired to me.

I’ve been trying to decide exactly how I was going to pack everything and how I’d handle the pre-assembled sections. I think I’m converging on making a protector for the YZ plates that has cardboard on one side, foam around the outline of the YZ plate, and maybe a small plexiglass sheet on top (to make it easier to inspect if security so desires.)

I’m thinking I’ll put the plastic parts that are not pre-assembled in to one checked luggage, and I think the pre-assembled and hardware kit can go into an Apache 5800 carry-on case that I have.
I’ll start fiddling with that maybe tomorrow verifying how to fit stuff in there. Oh, to be as good at packing stuff as Ryan :slight_smile:

Still mulling about what to do to protect a pre-assembled core.
I’m crawling along with pre-assembly, a few last details with the show, and confirmed the one hotel day that was still in question.

So I guess that’s progress.

More questions: @FreneticScribbler - I’d like to make arrangements to donate to the Nottingham maker space an amount equivalent to a months’ membership. I’ll reach out in a DM to chat about that.

For everyone that requested an exhibitor credential- I’m still working details with the show. The badges for most of the exhibitors went to print before I even got serious about confirming my attendance so I’m still working that with the show. Details hopefully in the next day or two.

I realized today that there’s not much assembly to be done on the UK side until I get there unless someone is willing to print up some braces and maybe the Y rail mounts. Is anyone game to do that?

I also have a backup plan for the strut plates of just using the temp struts which I have a full set of. For a pen bot, that would be fine and cutting plates is one thing I’m not sure fits in the just over a day of hacking that I have to put the LR4 together.

Went to grab the case out of storage, got sidetracked by other stuff. There’s always other stuff :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Happy to print braces and Y rail mounts and cut the strut plates for a beam pre assembly :+1:

As before, we need a colour scheme and a name :stuck_out_tongue:

Love a good flight case!

Ryan provided a set of printed parts, black with red accents (V1 colors). I’ve never felt constrained by a theme but recognize that random colors drive some folks batty.

I have no idea what to name it. There’s probably room on the struts to put something like ā€œLowRider4 SMRRFā€ but that sounds a bit boring.

Missed opportunity. Could have printed it blue and white and called it the smurf.

4 Likes

I’ll use black then. Since it’s what I’ve got :stuck_out_tongue:

Yeah I’ll do that at least but a fun name would be, well, fun

1 Like

If only I’d thought of that a couple week back!

1 Like

Are rail fares always this variable? LOL

1 Like

No. They’re normally worse!

Perhaps the ongoing renationalisation of rail operators is paying off at last! :thinking:

Back when it was all private it once worked out substantially cheaper for me to fly from East Midlands to Malta then into London, rather than take a train. Including taxis to and from the airport and three square meals. Fair chance of it being quicker, too! (If I’d have turned around in the airport rather than make a day of it)

So… Free holiday! Remarkably, and almost slightly disappointing, nobody ever questioned the expense report…

1 Like

Not entirely related, other than it’s why I didn’t do much show prep today and I might try to use it for pen plots at the show…

Had a good class at the local makerspace on FreeCAD CAM
I can actually create gcode targeting LinuxCNC, and maybe even FluidNC by close association.

6 Likes

FluidNC should be closer to grbl than LinuxCNC. But for plotting, it’s probably generic enough.

2 Likes

I’ll need to study the Python post processor script but at least I new have an example that works.

2 Likes

It looks like FreeCAD has a whole collection of post processors including GRBL. I was looking at the python scripts out of curiosity.

Indeed, it does.
I’m running a 1.2 Dev weekly FreeCAD build and a custom .py post processor tailored specifically for the ShopBot/LinuxCNC combo described above. It’s about to become the second documented combo after F360 at the local makerspace.

Note- the weekly builds on MacOS are way less stable than the weeklies on Linux.

I’m still working to grok the setup but am slowly making progress.

2 Likes

There’s an interesting effort underway to do away with the traditional post processors, and replace them with ā€œmachine-basedā€ post processing.

Some of the not-yet-funtional settings are showing up in the 1.2 Dev weekly releases.

  • Al
1 Like

You know, for whatever reason that looks pretty slick. I will really have to try it out. The interface looks understandable, and seeing the paths should make it easier for new users. I wish I could put my finger on it but That looks like exactly how I want CAM to look if that makes sense.

I poked through the wiki, it looks full-featured, but I need to poke around see what working with a DXF versus a solid part is like. I guess I have to allocate some time to give it a shot pretty soon.

1 Like

Maybe we should fork another topic of FreeCAD is hard - #99 by jeyeager with FreeCAD CAM is hard. :smiley:

2 Likes

I’m not certain, but I think for CAM you’d need to create a pad from the DXF so the CAM processor has a definition for the part size. For the class I took we started with an imported STEP file.

If I get to it, I was next going to grab the SMRRF LR4 strut plate SVG from Jamie’s generator and pad that, then try to generate a toolpath. Not so much to cut it as to continue my own learning.

That’s a very good idea.

1 Like

New topic. :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like

A shipment from our own @azab2c just arrived, just in time to make it into the packing for my trip to SMRRF. Two shiny android tablets, that run MakerGalaxy Explorer.

Woo hoo!

8 Likes