Author: makerbeam

MakerBeam version 2.0

We are proud of MakerBeam version 2.0. To increase corrosion resistance and increase surface hardness the beams are now anodised. As a bonus it also allows dyeing. We went with black. It looks good, but more importantly could work well in fields that use photography. Next to the black anodised beams we also sell clear anodised beams. This clear anodised version resembles the classic starter kit the most.

It was difficult to improve the profile and still completely stay in line with its distinct MakerBeam T-slot profile and width and height of 10mmx10mm. We think we succeeded. The new design has a thicker core. We hope this will strengthen the beams. The thicker core definitely has other bonuses. It gives you the possibility to thread wire on top to fit a M3 bolt. This will make MakerBeam even more versatile.
Changing the core also made the slides a bit wider. This increases the chances that standard, of the shelf, M3 6mm button head screws will fit. Whereas they just did not fit before.

There is a bit more info about the screws in our blog post from June 14th 2012. Here is a link.

Team MakerBeam.eu

MakerBeam used to build quadcopter

From Norway we got the following message and some great pictures.

Just thought I’d send you some photos of a quadcopter I and a friend built recently, using MakerBeam aluminum profiles. We used 4×30 cm long beams to make the arms, and mounted a plexiglas plate and a plastic box on top, to hold the RC receiver and the controller card. Beneath the plate we made a battery mount, and fastened all the wires using zip ties. We also modified the motor mounts so that they could be screwed directly onto the beams.

I all, I find that MakerBeam is very easy to use, and it is also very easy to be creative and modify different designs. Great! However, I have some suggestions for additional features:

– The starter kit could come with a set of longer M3 screws, to make it easier to mount “external elements” (not MakerBeams)

– It would be nice to introduce some kind of “joint”, so that one beam could rotate relative to the other. A combination with some kind of spring would be nice. For example, in our quadcopter this could be used to introduce spring damping on the legs.

Hope you like the pictures, and good luck with further development,

—

Martin

 

We think it looks great! Thank you Martin.

If you have pictures, videos or suggestion for MakerBeam please let us know!!

Team MakerBeam.eu

PCB mounting kit

Electronics and makerbeams work good together. It is possible to slide the PCB into the beams. Unfortunately this not always works well. The boards are filled to the edge with electronics and the beams are conductive. Mounting a printed circuit board on PCB standoffs (or spacers) could be an easy solution.

We are working to get these in our shop right now. Selling them as a small kit including the four standoffs, four bolts, four nuts, four washers.

Here are some pictures.

Team MakerBeam.eu

Shipping 900mm beams

For shipping our 900mm beams we have two options: a tube or a long box. Usually we choose the box. The box offers plenty of room to add more products, like bearings or brackets or beams in other lengths. This box measures 100cmx10cmx10cm and weighs 200 grams.

As you can see with 12 900mm beams there is still room for more. With shipping however there is also weight to think of. Right now shipping 2 to 5kg is roughly 6 euros more expensive than shipping under 2kg.

Team MakerBeam.eu

NEMA 17 bracket problems (& updates)

Update (20121122) It is very hard to make NEMA 17 brackets we find. Here is a link to a new blog post. Good news is we still expect some in by the end of November.

Update (20121113) Currently there are two companies making brackets for us. We hope to have them on stock before the end of November 2012.
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26 October 2012

The long awaited new batch of NEMA 17 brackets arrived today. We were excited to open the package and have a look. What a disappointment!!

At first we were just a bit disappointed. They did not look as smooth and nice as the one we got from B-Electronics. But then you could also say we were a bit spoiled by Joel’s good work. Let’s just try the brackets. We got some screws and … they did not fit!!

Four useless screw holes.  And then it hit us. Four? Only four? We need eight!

If anyone knows a manufacturer who is able to make these brackets for a good price. Let us know! Here are pictures of what it should look like.

Team MakerBeam.eu

Bolts and washers

In our posts ‘buttons to suit makerbeam’ we already made clear finding or making the right bolts for MakerBeam is not that easy. In the end we chose to have our bolts custom made. Now we find there is still room for improvement.

Working with beams and brackets you want to secure a tight grip. To perfection the screws is almost impossible. That is why we now look at a combination of bolts and washers.  Sometimes you want to just really have a tight grip and this will make it possible.

Here are some pictures of the things we are looking at.

Team MakerBeam.eu

Buttons to suit MakerBeam 4

We are proud to introduce MakerBeam version 2.0. The new improved version is anodised in black and has a thicker core.
Remember our blog posts ´Buttons to suit MakerBeam 1, 2 and 3´? In these posts we describe our difficulties finding 12mm length button head screws that fit the MakerBeam profile. We finally had them made especially. This experience also made us reconsider the profile. Would it be possible to make a new and improved MakerBeam profile?
We also wanted the beams anodised. This to increase corrosion resistance and increase surface hardness. As a bonus it also allows dyeing. We immediately thought about black. It looks good, but more importantly could work well in fields that use photography.
It was difficult to improve the profile and still completely stay in line with its distinct MakerBeam T-slot profile and width and height of 10mmx10mm. We think we succeeded.

The design of the MakerBeam profile was changed. The new design has a thicker core. We hope this will strengthen the beams. The thicker core definitely has other bonuses.
It gives you the possibility to thread wire on top to fit a M3 bolt. This will make MakerBeam even more versatile.
Changing the core also made the slides a bit wider. This increases the chances that standard, of the shelf, M3 6mm button head screws will fit. Whereas they just did not fit before.

On the left there is the old profile. A regular button head screw does not fit this profile. The screw does not even get in. On the right is the new profile anodised in black. The regular button head screw does fit. We tried several screws and most of them slided in quite nicely. This is different from the situation with the old profile where we had such a hard time to find some screws that would fit.

We have to add a word of warning here.  We only tested some M3 6mm button head screws that we still had lying around. These screws were already selected to possibly fit the old MakerBeam profile. MakerBeam bolts ofcourse have a perfect fit.

 

Team MakerBeam.eu

3D printer nearly finished

From Bodenmann Electronics we received the good news that the 3D printer Joel is been working on is nearly finished. Pictures of this were already available on our site under News&Projects. Video footage of some test runs are available online.  Here is the video from test #1. In the video the Y-axis is tested.

httpv://youtu.be/k7T9jM97geY

Bodenmann Electronics by the way is a distributor of MakerBeam.

Team MakerBeam.eu

project Hexapod robot

From Dejan Kocbek from SMAKsoft we received pictures of his project hexapod with only 4 legs and 8 servomotors (economic version).  Though it is missing some legs to really be a true hexapod it is a great project! It is a good example of how to use makerbeam for robotics. Thank you Dejan!

SMAKsoft by the way is a distributor of MakerBeam.

Team MakerBeam.eu