Hey, friends! It’s good to be back. I thought some sunshine would chase my winter blues away, but it looks like what I really need is more robots. Here is what we worked on in the last week, where we are heading next, and how you can join us.

I reviewed Jin’s work on belt tension. He did a great job!

After that, I found I’d set my expectations too high. A shaft collar in the Tuning Fork was slipping. For more on what those words mean, see our youtube channel history. Here’s me opening the wrist to extract the shaft collar.

I found an M2 nut had stripped inside the shaft collar. The shaft collar slipping means power is not transmitted from the motor to the wrist. Attaching a gear to a tube has proven to be a real challenge for us. How would you do it?

Because I wear many hats here, sometimes I have to sit down and make our robots for customers. I make them in batches to save time.

Get it today: Our remix of DaGHizmo’s design. The Thingiverse license for DaGHizmo’s model says “attribution, non-commercial, share-alike”. In the comments on the file we asked and received an exemption permit from DaGHizmo to sell the remix. We’ve also shared our remix for everyone.

Our future Makelangelos will use this design. The older model had a semi-transparent model made of laser cut acrylic parts that were glued together. The glue would break in shipping and just one more reason why I avoid all glue in our robots. This newer model ships much better. Bonus, it holds markers and pens of more sizes than the old model. Right now the color of the parts is random but I believe we are moving towards yellow.

On closer examination I was wrong! The hole through the part shaped like a top hat is a little bit off, which presses the ring shaped piece to one side and binds the arms against the brim of the hat. Maybe someone out there can design a better plotter.

Next

Currently Jin and I are working in two different, parallel directions.

Jin is actively making progress with the gearbox. Today was his third iteration and he spent several hours testing speeds and accelerations to build a motion profile. That motion profile can be used in simulations to program the robot.

I am finishing Makelangelos for paying customers. I’d say half my time is spent in quality control on each machine. I call my nephew to come work assembling robots but he doesn’t check his phone. Too much Fortnite League. If you’re in Vancouver BC and want a couple hours on the weekend putting things together then contact us.

I’ve also been trying to sell a vending machine to make room for a CNC mill/lathe combo. Aluminum parts and faster plastic production would be a huge win for us.

How you can join us

Get the latest Sixi Master Assembly for Fusion360 on Patreon

OR

Buy anything in our store and mention ‘The Fusion link’ in the notes field to get a link by email.

You can use this file to build your own copy of the robot arm. Put that 3D printer you bought to use – Make it your own! Share your creation with others! That’s what open source is about. If you build one we would love to share it with others. I am actively seeking talent… show me what you got.

As always, follow our daily progress on our Instagram or see our older stuff on Youtube.

Lastly, thank you for your likes, subscribes, comments, and purchases. You keep the lights on and the mood high so we can keep working on awesome things for you.

