10 Comments so far

• MakerBlock

  March 16, 2009 at 10:56 pm

   

  I’ve been a subscriber of Make since the start and have been following the RepRap project for a while now. I’m really looking forward to more RepRap developments and (one day) building my own. Congratulations on the launch of your new website/business!

   

• Steve-o

  March 17, 2009 at 8:46 pm

   

  Can we see a demo/result of the largest possible stable build structure? A wireframe cube sitting next to a ruler would help establish the real-world specs.

   

• Owen

  March 26, 2009 at 10:04 am

   

  As a really basic question, what are the files you output to this? DXF something else? What OS do you need to drive this thing/ send files to print? is XP? OSX? Linux? As someone who is totally excited for this and is saving up the money but is not an expert solderer, how is the documentation?

  Thanks,
  O.

   

  • hoeken

    March 26, 2009 at 12:38 pm

     

    Hey Owen,

    The raw file format is STL, which most 3D modeling programs output. You run that through Skeinforge which generates you a toolpath which you then open and run with ReplicatorG. All of these programs run on the Big 3 (Win/Mac/Linux)

    The documentation is pretty good. Soldering is probably the hardest part, as the kits use SMT parts. You may want to find a friend to help you with that part. Its actually really easy with the method we show you how to use. Here’s an example of the stepper driver documentation, and the level of quality you can expect from our documentation: http://www.reprap.org/bin/view/Main/Stepper_Motor_Driver_2_3

    Cheers,
    Zach

     

• MakerBlock

  March 31, 2009 at 10:35 am

   

  I had an idea for the Cupcake CNC that might be really helpful. If the Cupcake CNC has all of the non-plastic parts for a full RepRap machine, perhaps you could include/make available plans for how to turn a Cupcake CNC machine into a full fledged Darwin/Mendel RepRap?

   

  • hoeken

    March 31, 2009 at 11:10 am

     

    Rule #1: Never Disassemble a working machine.

    Directly converting a CupCake to a RepRap would be a bad idea. You’d be left without a working 3D printer, and if you needed to print a part, you’d be screwed.

    However, what you *could* do is print out all the parts for a RepRap with your cupcake, and then build a separate machine. That way, you’d have two fully functional machines, ready to rock. If one breaks, you can use the other one to repair it. Nice, huh?

     

• joshua w

  March 31, 2009 at 12:15 pm

   

  if you can make a 10 sided shape stamp numbers into it or make a 20 sided one and sell it to role playing game players. Or RPG coins…

   

• MakerBlock

  April 2, 2009 at 7:12 pm

   

  Question: Which of the boards does the Cupcake CNC come with? Arduino, Sanguino, Arduino MEGA? Which generation electronics does it use? Thank you.

   

  • hoeken

    April 8, 2009 at 2:15 pm

     

    The Cupcake CNC comes with the 3rd generation boards which includes a Sanguino based motherboard: http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/Generation3Electronics

    The Arduino MEGA is really awesome most likely it will be the basis for the RepRap MotherBoard v2.0. No timeline yet on when that will happen though.

    Cheers,
    Zach

     

• Brian Forbes

  October 21, 2009 at 11:43 am

   

  Now that the RepRap ‘Mendel’ is being released: can a Cupcake CNC machine print all of the plastic Mendel parts? From the CAD drawings the Mendel parts are fairly complex.

  Selling Mendel parts could be another business opportunity for MakerBot owners.

  Brian