2011-09-06 » RepRap build has started

All the parts I ordered have arrived and I’ve been able to get started on my RepRap. This is what it looks like currently:

As you can see, I’ve got the frame mostly together. The aluminum plate you see in the picture is not yet attached and that’s what I’m working on currently. That is the lower part of the build platform and attaches to some PLA bushings that snap onto the smooth rods to allow movement on the y axis. I’m still working out the way to get these to move smoothly and get the plate mounted straight. Unfortunately in the process I’ve already broken one of my bushings, hopefully that’s the only one:

The only other thing I’ve had to really figure out so far (there is some pretty good build documentation out there) was what to do with some parts that were not quite as perfect as I’d like. As I mentioned in my last post, I bought my initial RepRap parts from some random dude on Ebay. All of the parts have a number of imperfections which I’m hoping will not ultimately impact the accuracy of my machine. These look like:

and

and really all the parts have looked something like that. I’ve spent a lot of time with an X-acto knife cutting away as much of these as I can. Hopefully my parts will come out looking better eventually!