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Vancouver Mini Maker Faire 2016

A project log for OpenPnP - Linear Rails

Open source pick-and-place machine utilizing linear rails with a cartesian X/Y gantry, built around the OpenPnP ecosystem

richard-simRichard Sim 06/17/2016 at 06:110 Comments

During the early stages of planning this project I'd decided to have a booth at our local Maker Faire with a friend Tom, who is also doing an OpenPnP build.

On the left we have Tom's completed and operational build. It's based off of the OpenPnP OpenBuilds reference hardware design, albeit all the custom parts were redesigned. Most parts are laser cut from transparent acrylic, which lets you see the operation of the machine clearly - it looks very cool!

On the right is my in-progress build. :) The setup of the X-axis is completely wrong here, and was just done as a way to temporarily attach the axis for the show (due to the actual mount not being usable as per the last project log).

We had a great time at the show, and got to talk about and show off our builds to many of the over 5000 attendees over the weekend, as we were located very close to the entrance and central. As an added bonus, Jason, the main developer of OpenPnP and our fearless leader, was able to make make the trek to Vancouver and participate on the Sunday - it was very appreciated, and super fun. Apparently Tom's machine was the first machine other than Jason's own that he'd seen in operation in person, which is a huge achievement for both Tom (way to go Tom!) and the OpenPnP project, as it shows it's growing!

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