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.