DIY Portable Railgun With 3D Printable Casing

Someone created portable working railgun that shoots metal and carbon projectiles. The railgun uses 6 300J, 350V, 5500uF capacitors which combined weigh 20lbs and can deliver >1050V and 1.8kJ of energy to the projectile. Most of the structural parts are 3d printed. The gun is huge but it works.

Here is video of it firing (bad word) a small carbon cylinder. The power is simillar to an airgun pellet.




It is an impressive engineering and design project but it doesnt have any real.-world applications :-) Yet.


Full photo gallery with all the parts:

http://imgur.com/a/w4OgF


Reddit thread about it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/comments/3p2g5k/portable_3dprinted_railgun/

Interview with the creator:

http://makezine.com/2015/10/21/we-talk-to-the-mysterious-maker-of-the-3d-printed-railgun/

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UberBlox construction modules for your home manufacturing machines

UberBlox are modular building blocks for any type of machine ranging from wheeled robot to CNC mill. You can create anything you want.

Pick and Place delta robot made with UberBlox

UberBlox description from the company page:

UberBlox is a new high-quality metal construction set and prototyping system for makers to build rigid structures and automated machines.

At the heart of the system is a new single-connector locking mechanism which uses a common small tool to quickly and precisely lock each block to the next. The firmly connected blocks provide accurate, strong and rigid frames for a wide variety of structures and complex machines such as robots, CNC machines and 3D printers.

In addition to the basic blocks, the system includes a growing catalog of compatible and reconfigurable parts, including moving components, sub-assemblies, motors, electronics and controllers based on popular boards such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi, for a complete solution to the building needs of today's sophisticated maker.

Here is short video overview of UberBlox:



UberBlox homepage: https://uberblox.com/

They will be on KickStarter soon ...

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Cre8tor Industries Inventor's Positioning Axis

Here is a new movement module in form of a Cre8tor Industries 13" or 21" linear rail guided positioning axis with only 2.5 microns backlash. It could be used in machine development and very likely in functional digital fabrication unit (CNC or 3d printer).


Technical specifications:

• 13” or 21” travel
• 2.5”x3”x22” outer dimension (as is, without motor)
• ¼-20 threaded holes on a 1.5”x2” hole pattern, which matches three mounting locations along the axis
• Can be used with Nema 17 or Nema 23 motor
• Complementary hole pattern in three spots along the rail that can bolt to the puck
• Inspected to be within 10 micron accuracy and 5 micron backlash
• Compatible with Mach 3, Grbl, Sprinter, Marlin, and most all 3D printing software. (Anything exporting step and direction signals).
• Price: current pricing options on Kickstarter range from $150 for the 13” and $205 for the 21” version

It is on Kickstarter now:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/721103934/inventors-positioning-axis-8-micron-accuracy

Company homepage (they are based in Portland, Oregon):

http://www.cre8torindustries.com/inventors-axis

This powered linear rail axis can be used in all dimensional configurations:

Schematics of the Inventor's Axis:

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Rat Rig produces first European aluminum V-slot linear rail

Rat Rig is Portuguese company that targets DIY, hobby and prosumer hardware market. They just announced that they are now first manufacturer of aluminum linear v-slot rails. They are priced in 6 euro per meter price range.

I don't have much experience in using v-slots, but it is good to know that they are now more available in my part of the world, Europe.

http://ratrig.com/

V-slot product page: http://ratrig.com/hardware/vslot.html

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