Its about time that I do a video update.

(As a warning the audio is weird, and sometimes loud.) 

Thanks

Tyler McNaney 

3D Printing Book
If you are new to 3D printing we suggest that you get yourself a copy of Fabricated by Hob Lipson. In his book he mostly everything about 3D printing. Plus Filabot is in it!

http://www.amazon.com/Fabricated-The-New-World-Printing/dp/1118350634

Press
Recently, we have noticed a lot of confusion and misconceptions about who we are at Rocknail Specialties. Tyler McNaney, age 20, invented Filabot over a slow winter break from college. Currently a sophomore at Vermont Technical College, Tyler runs business out of his small home town of Milton, Vermont. If you are going to write an article please get this right.

3D/DC
We are excited to announce our presence at the second annual 3D printing conference this April in Washington, DC. Check out this amazing event and opportunity to discuss 3d printing:

http://www.publicknowledge.org/event/3ddc-ii-3d-printing-comes-washington-dc

Updates

I want to apologize for the lack of updates. I have been building instead of updating. I am going to work on sending out more.

Spooled Filament  

I have been searching the internet and I have see a few post where people are wondering if Filabot even spools filament. This update is proof that it does as I have spooled three full spools of 3mm filament. The hardest part was keeping the hopper full. Making this spool of filament took about 3 hours. During this time, I was able to walk away and work on other tasks. I failed to weigh the spool before I started, the whole spool and filament weighs 4lbs 3oz.  

Why did we ask for shipping info?  

The reason we asked for your shipping information is so we could estimate shipping costs. After breaking down the backers, there are some that shipping is way more then the actual system, more then I originally estimated. We will be contacting those individual backers soon. Why couldn't I run a Kickstarter for something lighter?

Moving back to HQ and what it has done

I have moved back home, living at college was too difficult when it came to managing this project. Since I have moved back, I have seen some great progress. I sold the box truck. It was sad to see it go. It went to a good home. Now I am back in my father's workshop turning it into a assembly area. I hope he doesn't have any large projects that he wants to work on. Along with the work shop. Filabot will be getting an office space soon through Vermont Center for Emerging Technology. VCET is a business incubator that provides us with legal counsel, business advice, networking, corporate connections and an office space for administrative work. We will be getting this office space hopefully at the end of this month. I often have meetings at VCET, we are the drifters, moving from room to room depending on what is open. I now have four interns. The background of these interns range from Engineering to English. 

The University of Vermont and The Center for Technology in Essex Vermont, have a Fablab that I have had the opportunity to use. Thanks to both of them for letting me do so. If you are a high school student in the Vermont area, I highly suggest that you check out CTE. They are doing some great things over there from Engineering to Culinary. They also have a First Robotics team.  

What I am still designing

I am still designing the grinder, I have gone through what feels like a million ideas. We have some viable options for the grinder system; however, it is a delicate balance of cost, ease of manufacturing and safety. I think I have come up with the solution that covers all the previous issues. I am designing this grinder to be attached to the outside of the Filabot system so it will not limit our assembly.  

The rest of the Filabot is working great. From the control panel to the spooling system. 

Fun Facts

Filament 

 

As you can see, there are many air bubbles and the diameter is way off. The printrbot uses a 3mm filament. The filament that I was printing with is approximately 2.28mm in diameter. Once the printer was set up to print, I had no problems with making the parts. The part on the left was with printed with the bad, bubbly filament. There were no differences in the quality of the part from using the ugly filament. I suspect this is because when the filament is melted it allows for the bubbles to rise up and out of the extruder leaving the plastic to fill the void. Now for the smaller size filament, I don’t think it causes a problem because when the filament is pushed in it fills the extruder chamber making it act like normal, 3mm size filament. I will be doing some more test on this topic. 

Bases 

We have all of our bases from our plasma cutter. Now we need to grind the metal slag off and sand the metal to prep for paint. We will be painting the bases with primer and a semi-gloss paint. 

Filabot System:

By the end of this year, we are optimistic about having all of our 67 kickstarter systems completed and on their way. Once we are done with our kickstarter backers, we will then proceed with launching to the public. When we ship Filabots, there will be a little surprise.....and of course it involves recycling.

Vote for us:

There is another business funding campaign that is going on. If you click the link it will take you to our voting page. This funding will help us get the word out about Filabot and help to get things going faster. 

Small Business Challenge

Popular Science:

If you get the chance, pick up the November issue of “Popular Science”. There is a great little article about 3D printing and Filabot is also in there! (Page 25)

Champlain Mini Maker Faire:

Part of the Filabot team and the Filabot attended this amazing event. It was great to see so many makers as well as so many members of the 3D printing community.

London 3D Printshow:

Filabot was lucky enough to have been invited the the 3D printshow in London, England. Unfortunately we were unable to make it there in time. Looking at their website (3Dprintshow.com) sure makes us wish we were able to attend such an amazing event.

Thanks

Tyler McNaney and The Filabot Team!