FoldaRap Buyers Guide
This project was for myself, as I need/want a RepRap that's easy to carry around and for the challenge of making a folding 3d-printer. But I believe in open-source and sharing and all the revolution behind that. Thus I try to well document it, in case others want to make one; to acknowledge all the things we own to those who went before, and to encourage those who come after to do the same.
On a more long-term view, I don't plan to create a company out of it, I'd better hope to see it grow on itself in the wild, just by indicating how to source it. I have more fun in designing stuff than marketing it, nonetheless I may try to sell few beta-test kits (bulk ordering is good for prices), eventually via a crowdsourcing campaign or by request, maybe with the help of my hackerspace. Just for the experience of it and to say I can push a project to that point :D
(almost all the projects I did during my design studies could have done something, but I never found the time for that and they ended sleeping in their drawing books which is sad; while now I have taken the habit to publish everything, even an old one sometimes).
Ideas are like living things and breed happily in an open-source context --Emmanuel 22:36, 5 February 2012 (UTC)
This list is to remember where I got everything (total end cost = probably under 400€, need to check the numbers)
Contents
BOM Datasheet
.odt (open-office equivalent of the following informations, to tick what you already have or need to buy)
Printed parts
- ~30 parts : 12 essentials for the frame + 4 clamp + 4-8 for x-axis and extruder + something to hold the electronic
Frame
- 2,8m of 20x20 beam (5*200mm et 6*300mm) (KJN) - 8.12£
- 25-50 M4 T-nut (KJN) or print equivalent housing for M4 nut. - 0.3£
- and M4x8 bolts - 0.06€
- 4 Core screws (optional) - 0.29£
Hardware
- 4 smooth rods M6 (salvaged from scanners and printers)
- 2 for X-axis : 285mm
- 2 for Y-axis : 300mm min to 340mm max (i.e.: you don't have to cut it perfectly at 300mm)
-
6 LM6UU, three for X-carriage and three for the Y-axis - 2 threaded rods M6 (230-235mm for Z-drive) (Fixnvis in EU, also a good source of M4x8) - 1.75€
- 2 606 bearings for upper z-rod constraint (Paoparts FR; bearingoptions on ebay for EU; thebigbearingstore for US)
-
2 belts and matching pulleys (Paoparts) - M3/M4 bolts
Electronic
This part is somewhat modular
- choose the board you prefer,
- with the kind of endstop that you like, etc. :)
- 5 Nema 14 (SY35ST36-1004 A or B) Zappautomation (we can also replace a motor in favor of a belt-driven Z, like on the GenX-Prusa or the DurbiePrusaMendel) - 10£
- hp_ mentioned on the #irc 12v/30A psu for 17$ from weistek.net
Bowden extruder for 1,75mm filament
- PTFE Tube 2mm Inner 3mm Outer Diameter - 2.70£
- Pneumatic fitting 3mm and M5 thread (like on the eMaker Huxley) - 4.35$
- normal, or direct drive nema17, or geared stepper like Brian did here
- plus active cooling ? http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4881 (with a bowden tube pointing on the x-carriage and the print, we can replace two fan by a little motor, similar to an aquarium pump)
