RepRap: Blog

This is just a thought. If you've used a Technical Pen you'll get the idea. If I can fit a probe wire inside a blunted hypodermic needle, I might be able to get a capillary gap between the roughened wall of the probe and the needle. This would allow a reservoir of resin in or above the needle to continuously resupply the probe tip with resin, eliminating the need to continuously dip it - but it would still need to seek safety from UV during curing:

In theory surface tension stops the resin from leaking out. Obviously there are issues with potential blockage, though there isn't a single channel to be blocked as the resin flow wraps around the probe. The probe shouldn't be any more unstable than it is at the moment. Dimensions in the drawing are a bit notional and will very probably vary in practice. I might even put a bend in the probe so I can bring it in at an angle, but that's for future experiment.

For now though I'll stick with a plain probe and muck with the Technical Pen idea once I have a repeatable probe tip scheme worked out. I've printed a bunch of spare probe arms, and the glue on the next tip assembly is currently curing.