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Update. Peter is still working on his SLS project. He is experimenting with a new fully laser-cuttable x/y stage. He is catching some flack for the ideas in some blog comment sections like hackaday. Obviously there is some refinement needed for accuracy, backlash, etc, but I applaud his efforts. I am sure some of his ideas will find their way into the final design and we will all benefit from it for this and other projects.
If he was just building a device for his own use, it would probably be easier and cheaper to use conventional materials, slides and gears, but he is clearing spending a lot of time to design something the budget conscious maker can afford.
Many people put similar questions to me on the design of the open source “self replicating” laser cutter. I have redesigned and rebuilt constantly to lower the costs, tools and skills required to build it. I swapped out very robust milled aluminum parts with laser cut Acrylic ones to prove they would work.
His most recent changes area aimed at removing the “shearing/binding issues” from the previous iteration. He is using Kapton tape (Polyimide-film) to reduce friction and using a four gear contact point.
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Image may be NSFW.
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