As the title suggests, I was (unknowingly) attempting to run 1.75mm filament through a 3mm  inside diameter PTFE rod to my hotend. I ordered all of the hardware for my kit from the same location and everything was specified in 1.75mm dimensions for the filament – I made the mistake of assuming that I received what I had ordered. The PTFE rod, when I did measure it, turns out to be 3mm. Due to the pressure required to force filament...

After the original PSU blew up, I went through all of my electronics, wiring and soldering to ensure that it was really just an inadequate PSU, and not my wiring. I am satisfied that everything was built as designed, except the ATX unit that could not meet it’s rated spec. Not surprising for the price, but a bit of a bummer that someone sold me one with the implication it was up to the task. Moving on. I rebuilt the frame to make the...

I spent all my free time for a while assembling the i2 as close as possible to the original design, given the hardware, plastic parts I had and general spare hardware and electronics I had stored up for project parts. After gaining a mechanical idea of how the printer worked, I made a few changes – I put the Y axis motor at the back, and flipped the X-carriage around to place the gears on the belt side. The only wiring in the front...

I ordered my hardware kit, essentially the RepRap “vitamins” from a company by the name of A2APrinter in Toronto. I am writing this post after the fact, but I did make note of my experience with this company so far. The filament I specified on my initial web order was out of stock, however they informed me while processing the order and I was able to choose a different one they had in stock for the same price. It took them...

There is a new wave of technology and manufacturing slowly sweeping across the world, it is under the radar and most people are only starting to realize it exists, let alone understand it. Hopefully this situation improves, because I am very excited by this technology and I think it will in time revolutionize the way we think about manufacturing and supply lines. The technology is rapid-prototyping, specifically what is known as 3D...