Up To Speed

I've been making this personal fabricator for a month or so now, but I just decided to write about it. I really needed an independent place to host this. I think personal fabrication is a really exciting technology, there is a lot to be done yet in this field.
I started from the RepRap McWire 1.2, and made a few changes. Right now I have the X & Y stages completed. In the picture here there are no motors or springs. I have both of those. In the end I am deviating from the McWire design, as the guy who posted most of the work did also. It's good to get started on and for learning, but there is a lot of waste in it as well.
The blue platform for the two stages is acrylic plastic 1/4". I used the patterns from the McWire 1.2 and cut it out on an Epilog 45W laser. 1/4" stretches the limits of the 45W Epilog; I had to do 1 pass on the highest power setting and one pass on a slightly lower setting to make sure everything was cut properly. The was a little bit off on the Teflon bearings, so I drew a set of new .dxf files. I will post those files later. The McWire 1.2 calls for 16 skate bearings. I had some leftovers from changing my rollerblade bearings. Skate bearings was a brilliant idea. You can get 8 for $6 here in San Jose from the skate shop. If you buy bearings elsewhere they are 10x the cost. The rest of the stuff I got from OSH here in San Jose. The Teflon bearings I ordered from McMaster-Carr. I want to say it was a pleasure ordering from McMaster-Carr, they had my order on my doorstep in 2 days and it only cost me $6 in shipping. (I live 5 hours North of their West Coast distribution center. )