This post is going to self-destruct soon....

Here's absolutely nothing to do with my repstrap. Can you guess what it is?

Yep, I grew a big turd!

(This post will be removed unless I get requests for it to stay...)

Kindness and monkeys

During the bank holiday weekend just gone, I went to B&Q. Among other things, I wanted to see the welding tips, as mentioned in the forum, as potential extruder nozzles - with 0.6 mm nozzle and a 6mm diameter at the other end. Had to ask where they were. When found, each packet had fewer in than the 5 claimed - and one or more holes in the plastic bags. The staff member (the same guy who had helped with my trolley early on (Mark)) muttered "thieving monkeys" and offered to reduce the price. He put the remaining contents of two bags into one, and priced the 4 welding tips at £2. So I've got four welding tips. I also bought three small G-clamps I'm sure will come in useful in this project somewhere. The purchase went on my partner's card, so I don't have the cost breakdown on me.

Meanwhile, I have received offers of practical help from members of the forum. You know who you are, and thank you. I was quite taken aback, and touched, and didn't know what to say, so much so that those involved contacted me again to check it was OK! It is so good to find a(nother- it's my second) forum where everyone offers encouragement and helps each other without the nastiness so endemic in many fora.
So, if you're thinking of starting a repstrap/reprap, do it, and be assured of positive input. And if someone offers you help, reply straight away!

Today I have opened my email to an email from the RRRF store notifying me of the despatch of my order (from the 18th May) yesterday, the 28th May. So that's 10 days already, before the long-haul delay swimming across the ocean......

Soldering kit

I bought a 30W electric soldering iron and some associated kit today.

Maplin sub-total = £20.66

• 30 W electric soldering iron, part number N38AC, £6.99
• set of 3 tips, part number N00FB, £4.49
• soldering iron stand, part number FR20, £5.99 (meant to get BP57M, £4.99, but couldn't see it)
• desoldering braid, 1 mm, 1.5 m length, part number N48FX, £2.29

and my first electronic component:

• 100 k thermistor, part number CR05F , 90 p!

Running total (excluding last set of washers and screws from B&Q, and the PCBs yet to be finally costed) = £171.42

Motor mounts

I had previously fixed just the x-motor, but hadn't given a diagram of the positions of its screwholes on its angle piece (motor mount).

I have cut another piece of threaded rod (12 inches) for the z-stage, because I had stolen that one for the y-stage.

Today I drilled all the motor mounts, so here are the position diagrams.

I've not yet finalised the diagram for the z-stage.

Guesswork

I have cut the upright today, guessing its required dimensions. It is a piece of wood 38 cm tall by 4 by 4.5 cm with a slot cut across the top to accept the furniture leg strut I cut yesterday.

Timber!

Nothing to do with collapse, yet, but I've prised off the black plastic foot from the furniture leg, measured the inside and I've cut a piece of waste timber to fit. This was stuff stored in the loft from when we domolished a false wall ~8 years ago. I am a little concerned to see a couple of woodworm holes in the timber, although not in the section I've used here. I guess we should check the roof timbers now.

The piece I have cut is 2.2 x 3.5 x 18 cm. I sanded off the splinters, and was delighted to find it fitted first time, slotting straight in with very little play, and I hope the fit is tight enough. I don't know yet if this piece is long enough, so here comes some more development work. Ditto with the height of the upright support timber. I may not know until I have my extruder fitted to my z-stage - it depends on the size of the extruder I use, I think.

Phew!

Firstly, the extruder motor I ordered yesterday has already arrived! Wow, that was fast.
Also I have now managed to make my Makerbot order - I had tried removing all the security and privacy and pop-up blocker settings, and I'd tried Firefox instead of IE7, but in the end I did all of the above as well as turning off Norton Personal Firewall. That was really a last resort.
I had watched their stock dropping, down to only 2 motherboards left....

Anyway I have ordered:
motherboard 1.1 kit, extruder controller 2.2 kit, three motor drivers (I so want to say 3.3, but actually they're 2.3) as boards only, and a temperature sensor v2 board only.
The Makerbot charge comes to £58.11 inc postage (so far) with current exchange rate.

I have spent much of the day looking at soldering irons and solder paste. There is a lot of choice out there, only I didn't know what features were important. Thanks to some help from the forum, I now have a much better idea. I'll order it as soon as the first electronics turn up.