Thanks to some great work by some of the TVRRUG cohort, we now have our very own website tvrrug.org.uk. Shiny!

I was surprised to realise that I have not yet blogged about my latest project – building a Reprap 3D Printer.
I have been following the Reprap project for some time, but it always seemed to me to require hardware hacking skills that were that little bit beyond me.

Well, our Prusa and Huxley are
Cool Stuff Collective is ITV’s “Gadget Show for Kids”, and we were lucky enough to be asked to demonstrate 3D Printing technology for the “Future Tech” slot of today’s episode.

We met Martin Franklin, Digital Media Manager for South Hill Park Arts Centre, at Reading Geek Night and he expressed an interested in hosting our Build Party.

Last Tuesday, 27th September saw us descending on Copa with our RepRap yet again for the first ever meeting of the Thames Valley RepRap User Group or TVRRUG for short. The focus of the agenda – planning the first Thames Valley Build Party!

Image courtesy of Rain Ashford

… a free two-day unconference (unscheduled conference) for anyone who loves anything related to technology, data, culture, community, open source…and more!
OGGcamp.org
AUGUST 13 & 14, FARNHAM MALTINGS

On a whim I decided to push our 0.5mm nozzle and see exactly what the biggest layer height it could achieve whilst retaining print quality is. The idea was to speed up printing large objects that do not require high resolution, but the results were an interesting textured effect that I rather like.

Having the right spring tension on your Wade’s extruder can be the difference between a useful part and a broken part.
Troubleshooting print quality issues can be a difficult problem, with a large number of variables to consider. In printing the X axis parts for an LM8UU linear bearing Prusa I stumbled across a significant factor – the spring tension on the idler block in a Wade’s extruder.