Build a Cubely & Start Printing In A Weekend

You are already less than 30 hours and less than $1,000.00 from successfully printing your first object. Your first step is to get your parts on order. While your at it clear a single weekend for your build and you can start printing your way to fame, riches and adoration.

Parts

There are four types of parts needed for a cubely version 1.0, those are the electronics, the motors, the extruder parts and the frame hardware.

Electronics

Cubely version 1.0 use the same electronics as the MakerBot CupCake and RepRap Mendell. Unfortunately Makerbot is currently the only manufacturer for the package but very soon we hope to have SparkFun join the party.

The electronics consist of the motherboard, 3 axis stepper motor driver boards, and the extruder controller board. The design files for all these are under open licenses.

Buy Electronics Kit From MakerBot $199.00

Motors

Stepper motors provide the mechanical force to move the X, Y, and Z planes as well as feed plastic filament into the extruder. These motors have precision control magnets that permit very fine movements, steps, each consisting of just 1.8 degrees of rotation.

Cubely recommends purchasing your motors from Interinar because we have tested those first hand however any vendor providing steppers with the following specs will do just fine.

• Nema 17 frame format. This just means the motor frame has a 1.7" x 1.7" face with mounting holes in specific locations.
• 1.8 degrees per step. This is the amount of travel a single electronic step single will turn the motor shaft. 0.9 degree motors will also work however you tend to loose a little bit of torque and they tend to cost more. Motors with a large degree step will NOT work.
• Bi-polar wiring, this means the motor has either 4, 6 or 8 lead wires. A motor with 5 lead wires cannot be used in a cubely.
• The plane driving motors (3) need at least 22 ounces of holding torque
• The extruder filament driving motor needs at least 40 ounces of holding torque

Buy 4 Stepper Motors From Interinar $72

Extruder

The extruder forces plastic filament (ABS) through a nozzle which is heated to around 400F. This causes the plastic to melt and extrude out of the small nozzle exit (0.5mm) like icing from a pastry bag. The extruder is mounted so that it can move in on the vertical access while the planes (X & Y) move the printing area while plastic is being extruded. This combination of extruding plastic and movement is what prints your object. You can think of it almost like an inkjet printer with much thicker ink.

The extruder consists of the following parts:

• Nozzle, this is a small brass fitting which screws onto the end of the barrel with a 0.5mm hole through which the molten plastic exists and is deposited onto the build surface.
• Barrel, this is a brass barrel which has exterior threads. Nichrome heating wire is wrapped around the outside along with a temperature sensor (thermisistor), both of these get connected to the extruder electronics board. The nozzle screws on one end and the other end screws into a PTFE (Teflon) plastic insulator which sits between the extruder body and barrel to keep the heat isolated into barrel and not in the frame. (McMaster Part #4568K136)
• 10ft Insulated Nichrome Heater Wire. Only about 6 inches is wrapped around the barrel, the extra is in case you make mistakes or to replace the original wire as it wears out (it lasts generally 400-500 printing hours).
• PTFE Teflon Insulating Mount, this is a small cylindrical PTFE plastic block with a small hole in one end that receives the filament and a slightly larger threaded hole at the other end into which the barrel is threaded. PTFE is a durable plastic that can withstand high temperatures without conducting heat very well. This keeps the extruder body and frame cool while the barrel reaches termperatures up to 400F.
• Ceramic insulating felt, this is wrapped around the outside of the barrel, temperature sensor and nichrome heating wire to make the heating faster, safer and with less volatility.

Frame

The cubely frame is made from the awesomely versatile 8020 extruded aluminum t-slot channel.

The cut lengths and accessories needed for the frame are detailed as follows.

18 - 2' Lengths of 8020 1010 1" Solid Extruded Aluminum . These 2ft lengths make up edges of the cube frame as well as the rails along which the moving planes traverse.



* 2X 2'2" Lengths of 8020 1010 1" Solid Extruded Aluminum
* 4X 3-Way 8020 Corner Adapters
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