Open sesame...

...using a reprapped door handle.

This was printed on top of the latest mod to my Darwin, which I recommend as it

1. Is simple to add, and
2. Saves lots of messing about with the Z-axis screw drives and zeroing.

It is a Z Bed. It consists of a piece of MDF held down by three (not four) screws and nuts. Between it and the bottom bed round each screw are some stiffish springs. With this, it becomes trivial to set up the Z=0 position so that it's exactly the same distance under the extrude head just by eye. You move the head about, adjusting the Z Bed's pitch and roll until it comes out right.

The trick, of course, is not to raise the Z Bed too high; then the head doesn't collide with it when you're moving the head about. Being cleverer than I, you should be able to manage that...

This is just a little test one. I shall replace it with a piece almost as big as the base below it. It'll have two screws in the front corners, and one in the middle at the back.

Oh. And now we can go out to the scullery:


Reprapped door handle from Adrian Bowyer on Vimeo.

(Well. We could before. But not using a cool reprapped door handle...)

To get the door handle design, see the RepRap objects library here.