Stepped Extruder Upgrade
Sunday, May 29, 2011 at 09:17AM 
I've finally had some spare time to sit down and order all of the parts required to upgrade my Thing-o-Matic's extruder to be stepper driven. I was originally going to get the StepStruder MK6 upgrade from MakerBot but decided that £100+ after shipping and customs clearance fees to get it to the UK it wasn't worth it. With so many alternatives on Thingiverse I though I'd be silly not to give it a go myself. It also seems that MakerBot's StepStruder upgrade has problems of its own, most notable is the delerin plunger used to tension the filament working loose after making use of reversal. This problem is easily fixed by printing one of the many Wade-inspired filament tensioner mechanisms though. The design I've decided on is TheRuttmeister's Improved Stepper Upgrade for MK5 for the motor and gear mechanism and ScribbleJ's MK5 Wade's-Style Tensioner for the filament drive.
I've ordered a NEMA 17 hybrid stepper motor from Technobots which is labelled as SY42STH47-1206A and also sold by Zapp Automation and Pololu. It's a 6-wire unipolor which I will be wiring as a bipolar to a Pololu A4983 driver. I looks like it should be up to the job, I'll find out as soon as I finish building it. I will be building a board to hook up the Pololu driver to the v2.4 ToM motherboard, I'm not sure if anyone else has done this as all the designs I've seen use Gen3 or RepRap electronics. The last piece in the puzzle is all of the hardware and fasteners, I placed an order on Sunday 22nd for various M3 bolts, bearings and other bits for the extruder assembly. Unfortunately they have not yet arrived, they were posted on Monday 23rd but the supplier is trying to find out where the order is. I can at least work on the electronics whilst I wait for the remaining hardware.
I'll be posting updates as I make progress with the extruder upgrade as well as other project I'm working on.
Reader Comments (5)
Choose a life of action, not one of ostentation.
great hopes make great man.
The good seaman is known in bad weather.
-Piaget Limelight Swiss made watches
I really like your tag heuer carrera replica
style and taste. I shall read your blog more often in the future.most of your fashion buy replica breitling free shipping
picks will also be on my wish list, for sure. I don’t know whether you like (this), either.swiss franck muller conquistador
If you replica breitling Bentley watch the picture is from the manufacturer's website or photos, very wary of the seller.
This guide will aim to improve your general understanding of the current understanding of the market for replica breitling Navitimer watches.
However, it also suggested that research and learning authentic replica Breitling Windrider watch, as you can before buying.
In addition, there are many online resources to help you evaluate a particular replica Breitling Aeromarine watch, its features and functions.
This is a great blog, usually i don't post comments on blogs but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so!Free articles
I follow you VIA GFC and I love your blog! wkeatr wkeatr - moncler coats outlet.