Hollow Mini-Mendel

thingiverse

This is a Mini-Mendel (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1745) with many parts shelled to 1mm, some at 1.5 or 2mm for improved printability. This allows for reduced material use and applying material only where it's structurally necessary (2-3 shell layers, very sparse infill). Appropriate supports and teardrops were added where needed to ensure successful printing of shelled parts. The concept behind this design is to mass produce hollow Mini-Mendels quickly using minimal material. These can then be given to people for filling with epoxy, enabling them to print full Mendel-parts and sell the Mini-Mendels or use them as is. A complete Mini-Mendel takes 35,977 seconds (9 hours, 59 minutes, and 37 seconds) to print, using approximately 101.97 cubic centimeters of material, equivalent to 110 grams of ABS (a third of a solid Mini-Mendel and one-tenth of a regular Mendel). Printing was conducted with Skeinforge at a 0.4mm layer thickness and 32mm/s speed. The actual print weighed 152g, including rafts. Build documentation can be found at http://objects.reprap.org/wiki/Mini-Mendel. Unfortunately, the license is GPL 2 due to the Mini Mendel's GPL2 status. Version 1.2 improvements include more parts shelled, bug fixes, additional supports for part strength and printability, STL, Solidworks, ACIS R19 (.sat), and STEP exports. In version 1.2.2, all STL files were properly oriented for printing, and each file was repaired using Netfabb auto-repair (no issues found). Version 1.3 fixed missing holes on teardrops, thicker shells on wide horizontal holes, and incorrect parts in the STL files. TODO items include centering the z-bar-top-clamp_2 STL on the print bed, opening original files in Alibre Design (trial version), and providing exports for various solid modelers like Step, SolidWorks, and Acis. Instructions for assembly include printing (at appropriate temperature for overhangs), filling fragile parts with epoxy-resin, adding electronics, extruder, stepper-motors, screws, bearings, and a print plate. For parts information and sources, visit http://objects.reprap.org/wiki/Mini-Mendel. Discussion can be found in the RepRap Forum (http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?151,43636) and the BfB Forum (http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/fora/user/index.php?topic=697.0).