Here's a picture of a cheap linear slide that uses some printed parts. Thanks to Bryan and Betty!

more design info at http://diylab.atwebpages.com/linslide.htm

--John H.

linslide.jpg

Cool! What project are you using this for?

Nice write up on your page! This looked great at hack night.

Hi John--
I got your message about the bearing idea, and tried to send you a pm back on this site--but I'm getting some kind of a php error and the message is just sitting in my pm outbox. Here's my reply:

Hi John,
The big danger in any bearing scheme is binding--totally screws up the accuracy of a job by causing stepper motors to skip, and that double bearing scheme worries me because it is going to be very dependent on lead screw accuracy between the threads. This is one place it does not pay to go cheap I think--after learning what I have on my conversion, I would get the ballscrew setup. Can you point me to a link for yours?

I'd be happy to help you through this process but I'm an EE, not a mechanical engineer. Most of my machining so far has been on the marginal side, although I'm getting better with practice. I now see why good machinists really earn their pay. I do thing that fitting a spindle device, even a dremel, to a 3D stepper motor setup shouldn't be that hard. I got some makerslides and bearings fairly cheap and will attach a rotozip to it. That thing is designed to be handheld but I think it's way too powerful for that, so making a CNC with it seems like a good idea.

Bob

and here's the error I get:

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare user_get_id_name() (previously declared in /home/openlabidaho/forums.openlabidaho.org/includes/functions_user.php:27) in /home/openlabidaho/forums.openlabidaho.org/includes/functions_user.php on line 82

Bob - that error is a known error, its a bad field in the database. In order to fix it we need to track it down, but PM's are still sent.

I'm not sure this is the right place to post this, and I can't send PM yet, but I ran across this today.



It relates to the question you had last Hack Night about spreading out the heat while ironing toner. You may already know this, but I didn't.

Another idea I had was to try a . They're flexible and can withstand pretty high heats.

Kielbasa, what a great concept! I my search for squishy materials that hold heat, I completely forgot meat! Bacon, London broil, even pizza: circuit boards in choice of flavor.

The rolling pin would improve my current process, but I seek repeatability more than increase of pressure. I already sometimes get toner spread from high pressure, which narrows spaces, and is one limits to the achievable density with the method.

I'm excited to try the silicone mat. thanks!

--John Hodges

I've had good success with the silicone baking mat. Thanks, Jimmus! Writeup with photo here: http://diylab.atwebpages.com/homemadePCBa.htm

Excellent!

I had no idea such a simple suggestion would be such a smashing success. Good for you!

I enjoyed reading your DIY pages as well. You have done some great stuff.

I would like to get into making SMT boards, but I know I don't have either the skill or the equipment to solder them by hand yet. I know I'll get to it, I just don't know when.