Live C-Beam Build @ MRRF2018

*** L*I*V*E *** Build March 24-25, 2018
OpenBuilds C-beam Machine at MRRF 2018

Come visit us live in person at MRRF2018 (Midwest Reprap Festival 2018) in Goshen, IN on March 23-25, 2018. We will be assembling the fully sponsored OpenBuilds C-beam Machine at the OpenBuilds booth. The build will also be streamed on our YouTube channel and updated on Twitter as well.

We will be adding a few enclosure STL's for the xPRO v3 controller and USB/power plug to help finish out our kit.

Link to YouTube channel... OBMill LiveBuild
Link to YouTube live stream... LiveBuild on YouTube

Link to Twitter account... OBMillLiveBuild (@OBMillLiveBuild) | Twitter

Also check out our Facebook maker society page and group...
Northwest Ohio Maker Society
NWOhio Makers Group

Pre-Build Prep:

So, to be sure everything would go together and I understood the bundle, required software, and to add a couple personal touches, I temporarily assembled the kit before MRRF2018. Below are some pictures of the prep work.





and finally, back apart, packed up and ready for a roadtrip...


Live Build Status:

*** U * P * D * A * T * E ***
So, the build on March 24th was a success! We started setting out the components a little after 9AM Eastern Time and live-streamed the entire build. If you want to sit through the entire thing (it's over 5.5 hours long) you will see that we made good progress, even while stopping to talk with booth visitors and whatnot.
About 3 hours, 10 minutes in, all of the hardware is assembled and we started to work on the electronics and wiring. This step seemed to take so long because we had quite a few visitors asking questions and our focus got lost a little. But, we finished the wiring and fired up the machine. We knew a router head would be unreasonably loud in the convention space, so we attached our trusty pen mount and started to get a feel for the GRBL jog movements. Once homed, we decided to try a pen trace of @OpenBuilds word logo. After a couple of almost successes, we managed to drive our only sharpie at the time into the build plate. So, we had some downtime while we reprinted the pen holder for a different pen. We didn't get a complete logo during the build, but it was mostly due to a slight unevenness of the MDF build plate. Once we have a chance to mill this flat, there shouldn't be any more problems there.

Here are some final images from the build. The first one is a rear view of the machine fully assembled. The next two show our logo drawing attempts and the last two are of the custom electronics and electrical enclosures. I fitted an always on 30mm x 30mm fan to the electronics enclosure to ensure adequate cooling. The fan blows into the board currently, but could be reversed if I find it is pulling in too much dust. I still need to post the STL's of the electronics enclosure, but the USB/power enclosure already posted is finalized and worked as planned.


A short video of the pen attempting to draw the logo (and a closer view of the paper) will be added below...