RepRap: Blog

Back again, been doing a bit of organization behind the scenes. The hand is still a bit wobbly so I increased the size of the hinged squares to 0.8mm on a side and two print lines thick to give me a fighting chance.

The sides are 30 or so layers thick and two print lines wide. Line thickness is dependent on direction of travel of the angled probe, so I'll make one with a vertical tip later.

The lower square is filled in with 2 solid layers. I tried depositing unset resin on the hinges, but didn't get enough on and added some manually with a hypodermic afterwards.

After gently teasing the hollow square off the slide manually under the binocular microscope, I folded it up 90 degrees, and held it in place with a "finger" - the little hinges are capable of pushing the 15g weight aside, so I'll have to make a heavier one:

Then I added resin to the hinges and cured it all with a UV lamp. The square stayed vertical, so I threaded one of my fine greying hairs through it for the top photo.

This is the current microphotography rig:

I have a new ring light that allows me to use the crappy 0.6 Mpixel microscope imager. A new 8 Mpixel one is on order. I have been planning a better gimbal rig for orienting the slides. I hope to get μRepRap under the rig too once I have joystick control software, which will allow more delicate manipulation of finer prints and better imagery.