We're back after an extended outage brought on by a double whammy caused by travel and extended downtime on the 3D printer. 

The 3D printer is still only back to 90%, but I'm hoping a new leadscrew will fix the last of the issues. 

Despite all that, work has progressed. The base mechanism now reliably dispenses food. The crossbracing, wheel guides, and other design tweaks have resolved all the structural problems that doomed the previous effort. 

At this point, I'm going to call the base mechanism complete and move on to designing the steampunk-esque piping that will snake around the unit giving it its unique "Aetherpunk" style. 

Here are some shots of the completed unit. 

Above: closeup of the wheel guides. The outer sleeve is printed separately and then attached to facility easier printing of the housing. The hot glue was insufficient so I will probably use super glue. After the outer sleeve is installed, the wheel is inserted into the housing, and then lastly the inner piece is slid into the sleeve to lock the wheel in its channel. 

In this shot of the bottom of the mechanism, you can see both the interior wheel guides and the two cross-braces that I added for structural support. You can also see the dovetail join necessary to allow the motor to be installed inside its housing, a late add after the initial build revealed it was impossible to assemble. 

I do not plan on building this mechanism again until the final build. This may change depending on how complex the pipe-work gets to be, but I'm hopeful. 

Next steps:

1. Final cleanup on the model:
   1. Add access holes to a few screws for assembly. 
   2. Redesign the hopper-to-chute interface because the current design cannot be printed effectively. 
2. Design pipework around the mechanism. Pipework has a few primary functions:
   1. Enhance the aesthetic of the design.
   2. Provide structural support for the fully assembled device, including elevating it off the ground.
   3. Holding mechanism for the two feed bowls.