After Bertha printed, I realized that her rigidity was sub-standard - so I dismantled her, and started adding braces. The first to go on are these aluminum angles - preventing the triangles themselves from rotating during printing.
I slotted some 2x3s for the base, carving out where the aluminum angle intersected. And yes, 2x3s, not 2x4s - I dismantled a fireplace surround and it was just full of 2x3s. It's a little bit of nostalgia baked into the machine.
Ah yes, carbon fiber arms. I actually had added these previously, since the shipment finally came in. Much stiffer than basswood!
Full bot coming together. I spent a lot of extra time sheathing cables. This machine looks too good to leave wires hanging about.
The vertical panels are laminated wood shelves - very flat and stiff, but kind of heavy. Bertha actually got her name somewhere around here, because it was becoming increasingly difficult to move her about.
Yeah, my printer's a stud. My wife Ruby does the painting and staining for all of my projects, including Bertha. I asked her to paint this stud half blue and half red - thinking of course to make the whole printer have a red half and a blue half. Instead, the back and bottom sides of this board are red.. which is OK I guess.
Mounted the bowden. Here I've switched from 3mm filament to 1.75mm, and am using Airtripper's bowden. Not a bad setup.
Noodle! Electronics mounted inside as well, keeping everything easy access whilst I'm playing with it. Also notice the red strap - that's what's holding on my janky computer power supply.
First print! I think. Still using my astonishingly uninspired bed. This is the first iteration of the printer that built big things - large klein bottle, giant skull with an owl, my first attempts at wind turbines. It's a bit rough with the poorly designed bed, but functional enough. It had sat idle for a couple of weeks, so I wanted to get some functionality back - this thing's too big to just sit in the corner and mock me. So yes, enjoy some videos!
Another reason it sat so long is because I was building my print cave... you may notice that the floor is different, and that there are walls - it's still in the basement, but in a nicely insulated room. Having a posh workspace is pretty key.
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