OpenSCAD and Such

Well after going thru the OpenSCAD tutorials and very helpful video series Learning OpenSCAD (Youtube)  by James Newton, I thought I had a basic understanding of how it works. (Hopefully enough to generate some STLs) from Joseph Prusa's files.

Then it was on to the configuration.

Belt Types
Based on what I have read from the forums(Choosing Belts and Pulleyts) and RepRap (Also called: Choosing Belts and Pulleys) it sounds like GT2 belts are the way to go. Though I can't figure out what the Belt tooth distance and belt tooth ratio are or what exactly he is measuring for the belt thickness. I will leave them as defaults for the time being. 

Bushing
LM8UU seems to be the standard

Idler Bearings
I will stick with the 624 for right now.

Extruder
J-Nozzel with Greg's Wade Extruder

I went with just the rest of the defaults for now. 

Now here is where my plan kind of went to shit over the course of several hours.

Plan was to convert the STLs into solids and then just pop them into Solidworks make some assemblies and bam I would be done. Well of course it couldn't be that simple. In OpenSCAD all the curves get approximated in to faces. The approximated faces don't seem to mesh that well with the way Solidworks likes to splice things together. 

I was able to get them to import as solids by but Solidworks and every time I reopened the file it tried to reduce the faces. A first I thought this was was good but as you can see to the right not so much...

So now I am left with two options. 

1) Forget the modeling and just build the BOM and STLs from the provided files and hope everything works together.

2) Rebuild the STL in Solidworks as and continue with my original plan.


The problem is that I am not currently competent enough with the Solidworks to rebuild these...

Three of the my main reasons for building it originally this in Solidworks were  first that I could better understand how everything fit together, second have a working model to make alterations if needed and lastly learn Solidworks. If I give up now, I loose out on all of these.

I guess, it is time to find some more Solidworks tutorials. Any suggestions?  


On the plus side I found out how to get on the RepRap IRC I had been able to find them using mIRC no luck... But then I just typed IRC on Reprap and done. That was easy... RepRap IRC
Special thanks for the good help & advice from Cripsy1 Spacexula and Systemsguy on IRC


Some tips I have recieved right now:
Extruder: Wade Extruder Or Greg's Wade Extruder, Use the J-Extrude. Possible a double extrusion.
Materials: The Majority of the part could be done in PLA with a x-carriage and Gregs/wades extrider in ABS.
Print Surface: Glass (Like Borosilicate)
Control Board: A good cheap option is an X1
Motors: Kysan, avoid 12V, 62oz/in Nema 17 will work, but stick to low voltage, 1-5-2amp motors
Bearings: 624zz
Belts: GT2

I am not saying this is the best way to go its just the advice I have received so far and I am grateful for it. I would appreciate hearing about some of the hard lessons learned.