Hello,
The previous post discussed our second attempt to produce a movable joint Bucky. While we were technically successful meeting all of our design goals, we weren’t quite satisfied with the end result. The joints in the arms were too loose, and the assembly felt a little fragile. This post will now describe how we made Bucky more structurally sound and removed the slack in the joints at the same time.
Third Bucky Prototype (Bucky V3)
Printing Parameters (Ultimaker 3):
Print Material – PLA
Support Material – PVA
Layer Height – 0.1 mm
Infill Density – 25%
Number of Shells – 2
Joint Gap – 0.2 mm
For this version we made two significant changes. First, we removed the priming tower setting in Cura. We were having problems with the tower being knocked off of the build plate and the nozzles oozing material over the build plate during printing. The function of the priming tower is to remove the excess material from the current extruder and prime the next extruder with fresh material.
Second, we added a short “neck” from the ball joint on the right arm of 1.25 mm. For the left arm, we shortened the neck slightly.
Both of these changes are shown in the image from Cura below.
Figure 1: Bucky V3 as seen from Cura
These settings produced the best Bucky yet. All of the joints were significantly improved from V2. Still, the right arm as pictured above was too loose.
Figure 2: Bucky V3
We are close to the PERFECT joints, but have a little work left. Check our future posts to learn more about our progress.
Team Bucky