RepRap: Blog

Still working on the print quality because larger prints seem to have more issues, however this is a print of a parallelogram flexure, otherwise known as a pantograph:

 It is 1180μm long (a little over a millimetre). This particular one is 30μm thick because I'm still playing around trying to get "large" structures printing properly and am just testing the base layers. It is scaling movement to 50% just to keep things visible.

Some of the more astute of you will have noticed a faint resemblance of this print to the flexure system in the RepRapMicron Axis Driver module:

 

The flexure part is ~100mm long. 100x smaller. I think you can see where we're going here.

Now nobody makes M0.03 screws, and the kinematics of assembly are fiddly, so I'm not going to build a direct copy. There are very basic details to be sorted out, like getting it off the build plate and anchoring it down.

I took an even worse print and experimented. To anchor it down, I place a tiny speck of "Gel Polish" UV nail art gel ("Jelly") nearby the print before I detach it, and trail a very, very fine trail up to the part. This stuff is much thicker than 'Top Coat" or 3DP resin, so it is less likely to creep and engulf the part. Before it creeps very far I turn on a UV lamp to solidify it. Then you get this:

Getting the part off the Krapton Tape is best done in a droplet of isopropyl alcohol. This seems to ease it off the Krapton and stops the part moving too quickly and flying off. Then you have a mobile mechanism firmly attached to a substrate and the experimentation can begin. Well, once I have a slightly thicker one anyway.