The olfactory sensation of molten plastic

20100114_testextrusion

After a couple of hours of final construction and correcting all the reversed cables etc., it moved. And heated up. And extruded the first piece of plastic. The room filled with joy, cheers and the olfactory sensation of success.

Of course, due to our noobishness on the controller, we managed two minutes later to block the small nozzle with plastic… Now we’ll have to take apart the extruder, the most complex and difficult piece of the whole bot, and clean it from the inside.

20100114_manufaktur1_group

Too tired to do this after one o’clock in the morning, we called it a night and powered down the machine. But not before we’ve played the Imperial March on our very own machine at least once.

Slow Progress

20091101_slowprogress

We’re slowly progressing. After the quick start two weeks ago, we’re now building the most delicate part of all: The plastic extruder with the heater barrel and the thermic sensor.

We would have loved to show you a video with at least the XY-carriage moving, but unfortunately our serial cable wasn’t up to the job. Theoretically it’s working… :-)