1st assembly

Yesterday we started assembling our printer. We worked for 10 hours and I would say we are approx. 75% done. It was a surprisingly easy build, although there were a few mistakes in the assembly manual that we had to figure out for ourselves. I can't wait to finish it and start printing.

Finally, something happened!

So, a few weeks ago we got the printer after a few delays due to a faulty pcb. Today we finally got around to setting up our workspace and unpacking the printer for the first time. It was fun:)
We made a video of the unpacking process. Pictures of the process will also be uploaded at a later time.

The printer was very neatly packed, but the packing list and the build manual didn't really correspond to what was actually in the box, so we are still trying to figure out if everything's there or if we miss something.

Changes

So, there have been some changes. Instead of a Makerbot Cupcake, we will build a RapMan 3.1 from BitsFromBytes. It's bigger, badder and, as far as we've heard, a bit more reliable and precise. It's been ordered, and now we'll have to wait a few weeks for the machine to arrive, before we can start playing. 
One of the drawbacks of the RapMan is that it doesn't have a heated build platform (unless we make it ourselves), so warping could become a problem for us. Some research into potential solutions lead us to some special PLA material from a german company called Orbi-Tech, that is said to be warp-free, so we also ordered a load of that to test it.
Until we get all our stuff, here's a picture of the Rapman from their website.

Second Post

Last week we went to visit Labitat, a hackerspace in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen. They are doing some awesome stuff down there, but we came especially to see their Mendel 3D printer. The Mendel is a lot more DIY than the Cupcake we are going to build, but we thought it would be nice to learn a bit from their experiences with 3D printing before we start our own project.

The nice guys there showed us the printer in action, and some of the pieces they have printed. They are doing a lot of reprap'ing, i.e. using a printer to print parts for a new printer.

It was great seeing the printer and hearing them tell about their build processes and challenges, and it will definitely help us in our process.

Thanks to Labitat for the demo.

First Post

This is the first post for our build project. We will be building a Makerbot Cupcake CNC FDM machine and testing it for different purposes.

The site will be documenting our process. We hope that when we start testing the cupcake this can provide inspiration for other people using these kind of simple FDM-machines.