Tony Buser did a great job documenting the build of his heated platform.

It sure looks like the effort is paying off.

Since I still use a raft when printing, Tony is taking it to the next level with raftless printing on kapton film.

Thanks and good luck Tony!!

I took these PLA Glasstruder photos a while ago but forgot to post them. I also have a short (not so good) video of the same – just need to figure out where to post it.

You’ll find the whole set (six photos) in higher rez on the MakerGear Flickr site.

The ring mounted thermistor packs are about ready and they’ve come together very nicely. The packs include a high-temp ring terminal connector, high-temp PTFE sleeves, Duralco high-temp thermally conductive epoxy, crimp pins and a 100k thermistor.

The PTFE sleeves fit the thermistor leads perfectly. The glass thermistor bead and a portion of PTFE sleeve get epoxied to the ring terminal connector. The crimp pins are soldered to the thermistor leads but mechanically attached to the PTFE sleeves. The result is a strong, sleek, and flexible method of attaching your temperature sensor to your plastruder where you want it. Using a heat source, like one of our HeatCores, you can have a fully assembled, ready-to-use, cured, thermistor-ring in minutes.

I get a lot of questions…why did I did it this way or why did I choose to use that. I figured I’d eventually get around to setting up a forum to discuss this stuff. But, while researching forum choices I decided to just go with a Google Group.

If you have questions about a products, this vs. that, 3d printing in general, etc. this is the place to ask it.

The MakerGear Google Group was established yesterday. Join the discussion.

That, of course, means that your bot will turn one within the next six months!!

Replacement Y carriage – early Bots have a Y carriage made of 1/8" birch plywood with mounting screws for the build platform that are ~30mm apart. Later Bot batches (starting with batch 5) use 5mm birch plywood and the build platform mounting screws are ~40mm apart. Additionally, early Bots used 8mm ground rods/shafts whereas later batches (starting with batch 5) use 1/4" (0.2497") precision rods/shafts. There are also some early Bots that have 5mm plywood but 30mm spacing. Oh my…

What does this mean? It means that you if you want to get a new build platform…say something in a nice cocobolo…then you are SOOL.

The new Y carriage matches the screw alignment and magnet positions of post-batch 5 bots but will fit the 8mm shafts in earlier bots. It is available on the Platforms page.

Wait. Stop. Reverse That!!

So, we got the first batch of heated platform kits out today. We put together a nice packing list…went through and carefully checked off each item…it went great…almost. In a moment of truly uncompromising brilliance we left the nichrome off the packing list and shipped the heated platform kits without it! The nichrome!! This was brought to my attention as I was sitting down for dinner. That turned into a very quick meal and shortly thereafter I was on my way downtown to the main post office with several little Priorty Mail boxes in hand. Hopefully the nichrome will arrive with the kits.

As soon as the Heated Platform instructions are posted I will get back to the Modular plastruder parts. Cool new stuff to hack your plastruder will be available soon…