RepRap: Blog

I bought a couple of C-clamps this morning and began to jig the frame parts together. There is still quite a bit of cutting to do but the device is beginning to take shape. The big question now is whether I should just buy a half dozen smaller C-clamps and weld everything together save the extruder or stick to the Gingery design and use both bolts and welds. I suppose that if I want to tear it down and salvage the steel later the bolts plus welding would be the best bet.

Sawing off the extruder block proved to be less of a challenge than I had originally thought. I am going to drill it out this weekend. The drill press I have has no positioning vice so I have cobbled together a frame from some 3/16x2-1/2x2-1/2 angle iron and my C-clamps which should stabilise it on the drilling table quite nicely. I was worried that selecting a 1/2 inch diameter cartridge heater would cause me to have to realign the injector chamber. That has not proved to have been a problem, however.