X-Y carriage

James Hardiman made a x-y carriage using MakerBeam and the bearings we sell through our webshop. It is the world’s first MakerBeam x-y carriage. Or so we think. Let us know if we are wrong.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asl5LT2QF_U

The design looks good. We do have some comments though.  Here the bearings are on the inside of the frame. If you put them on the outside there is more space for the frame to move. Also if you use three bearings in one dimension it is stable. Then a single beam would be stable  and you do not need a frame to realise stability.

James Hardiman is working on a book about 3d printers. He is also looking into the power of making. What is happening with 3d printing, homemade cnc machines, sites like etsy.com and makerfaires in various places is sometimes referred to as the industrial revolution 2.0 or micromanufacturing.

Johan and James met each other in the Netherland at ProtoSpace, the fablab in Utrecht. There Johan handed James a MakerBeam starter kit. The x-y carriage is James his first serious MakerBeam project in connection with his book on 3d printers. We love the initiative. Thank you James!!

Team MakerBeam.eu

2 thoughts on “X-Y carriage”

  1. Thanks for the feedback and ideas, Johan. Watch for version two just as soon as I can get off of this cross-channel ferry, currently wallowing outside Dover docks, in a Force 8 gale, waiting for a queue of ships to get under way.

    I wish I hadn’t left the MakerBeam in the car; I could have been having fun!

    I am going straight from Dover Docks to a UK supplier of extremely reasonably-priced NEMA motors (4 for £20: < €23). When I get home I will begin to experiment with how to mount them on Makerframe. It may take the longer M3 bolts we are using for the bearings.

    I am aiming to design a series of very simple models, getting increasingly more complex. My short-term goal is a "technological overkill" version of Etch-a-Sketch.

  2. Hey guys,

    I am building a little CNC with MakerBeam right now. Please tell me if anyone of you got some pictures to show, I’ll do the same 😉

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