FoldaRap Buyers Guide
This project was for myself, as I need/want a RepRap that's easy to carry around and for the challenge of making a folding 3d-printer. But I believe in open-source and sharing and all the revolution behind that. Thus I try to well document it, in case others want to make one; to acknowledge all the things we own to those who went before, and to encourage those who come after to do the same.
On a more long-term view, I don't plan to create a company out of it, I'd better hope to see it grow on itself in the wild, just by indicating how to source it. I have more fun in designing stuff than marketing it, nonetheless I may try to sell few beta-test kits (bulk ordering is good for prices), eventually via a crowdsourcing campaign or by request, maybe with the help of my hackerspace. Just for the experience of it and to say I can push a project to that point :D
(almost all the projects I did during my design studies could have done something, but I never found the time for that and they ended sleeping in their drawing books which is sad; while now I have taken the habit to publish everything, even an old one sometimes).
"Ideas are like living things and breed happily in an open-source context" as I like to think ^^
Contents
Bill Of Material (BOM)
Total end cost for 1 machine : 300-400€ but closer to 500-600€ when you include all taxes and shipping costs.
(not absolutely sure of my calculation, but if it's right I suggest you to make group orders with friends and always try to source locally)
A draft BOM is available on Kitbom
- My spreadsheet is more detailed, but beware that it's still a little experimental :)
Hardware
1 handle 5 20x20mm beam 6mm slot 200mm - See Aluminium_profile_Suppliers 6 20x20mm beam 6mm slot 300mm 44-50 M4 T-nut for 6mm slot 44-50 M4x8 round head bolt 16 M3x8 bolt / Z-motors (8), Y-motor (4), psu (4) 16 M3x16 bolt / X-motor (4), Couplings (8), Hotend-alu-heater (2), Y-endstop (1-2), X-end-idler (for the belt-bearing, need a 12mm shaft, an M3x12 or cut an M3x16 4mm shorter) 4 M3x20 bolt / X-carriage (4) 2 M3x25 bolt / hinges axis 4 M3x30 bolt / extruder spring (1-2), bed leveling (3) 2 countersunk M3x6 bolt / hotend-heat-spacer 6 countersunk M3x12-14 bolt / bed assembly (4), hotend-heat-spacer (2) 18 M3 nut 1 M5 nut 4 M6 nut 20 M3 washer 6 LM6UU - See Bearing 4 300mm smooth rod 6mm - (can be salvaged from usual scanners and printers) or see Smooth-rod 2 230-235mm threaded rod M6 4 623 bearings (= 3mm inner diam.) - See Bearing 2 570mm T2.5 belt 5-6mm wide and according pulleys - See Belts_and_Pulleys 1 PTFE Tubing for bowden extruder (2mm inner diam. and 3mm outer), 300mm long - See Bowden 2 Pneumatic fittings for 3mm tubing, with M5 thread - See also Bowden / I'm using the MA12-03-M5 but others can work 1 direct drive gear (mini-hyena or makerbot or other) 1-2 extruder spring and 1 M3 or M4 long bolt +1 according auto-locking nut 1 140x140mm heatbed alu plate 3-5mm thick 3 bed springs - See Springs (e.g. : 3,3 id ; 4,1 od ; 25 mm long ; 0,4mm filament diam ; 15 coils) some springs from pencil can work too 1 roll of kapton - See Kapton#Suppliers
Electronic
4 nema14 stepper motors - [1] 1 extruder motor - nema14 or geared stepper like the PGL35-048 [2] 1 Azteeg_X1 board 1 usb to mini-usb cable - [3] 4 stepper drivers and 4 little heatsink if not already supplied with them 3 miniature microswitch endstop 20mm 1 power supply - RS 7066316 Txh 240-112 (100*150*35mm) 1 standard male plug IEC C13 C14 1 standard female cable EU/C13 1 big blue switch (optional but much cooler with it) 1 RepRappro Hotend 1-2 small fan (40 x 40 x 10 mm), for the hotend (can be bought with one) and the extruder motor - Fan 2 100k thermistors 1 peltier element 12708 (40x40mm is enough) some heavy current wires for the heaters and the switch/plug (for everything else the leftover from the motors should be enough)
Printed parts (total : 21-30)
foot front left foot front right foot rear left foot rear right hinge-inner left hinge-inner right hinge-outer left hinge-outer right z-motor-bracket left z-motor-bracket right z-top left z-top right y-motor y-idler y-carriage y-belt clamp x-end-motor x-end-idler x-carriage extruder-idler 2 board mount 2 printed couplings
Laser cut parts
1 electronic underplate 4mm thick (you can and another one on the top of the bed as a protection when traveling) 1 reprap.org plate 4mm thick (+2 T-nut and M4x8) - optional but make a nice reference to the wiki :)
Partial or complete kit
When the first prototype will be operational, I'll list all the parts on Kitify for those who prefer to order a kit rather than source all the parts.
Fully assembled machines
After extensive tests, the FoldaRap will be probably also available via a known French supplier of robotics :)
These time they will be sold as plug-n-play machine (assembled, tested, and ready to run).