It turns out the BOM i was using from the Reprap Huxley page isnt complete, and i needed to buy some M3 hex-head machine screws in 30m, 20mm, and 12mm lengths.

I went to RS, where i had gotten my other hardware from, and priced them up... and just about had a heart attack!  £50 extra on bolts wasnt something i really wanted to spend, so i went back to my old love, eBay!

There are loads of sellers of nuts and bolts and associated fripperies on eBay in packs of 100+, and you can decrease your parts cost by a LOT by getting nuts, bolts, washers etc from one of them.

After some discussion on the #reprap IRC channel, i settled on eBay seller 'boltmeup'

• M3x12
• M3x20
• M3x30

RS Price: £50, eBay Price: £14!

Also, i compared the stuff from RS i've already bought:

Only a £5 saving, but add that to the £36 saving from the bolts and it comes to enough for 4 pololu driver boards!

After checking my reprap fund, and finding out i had reached my £500 target seemingly without noticing it (!) I've started collecting parts to build a reprap Version 3 (Huxley).

I chose the Huxley due to the fact it is portabie, while still having a pretty big build area ~(150mm x 150mm x 75mm)

I'm making the base model, with some minor upgrades to parts:

• Nophead's Motor pulleys link
• Nophead's Power Resistor Heater Block link
• Whosawhatsis Wade-Type Geared Extruder link
• Whosawhatsis m6 pinch blocks link
• Simplified Pololu Stepper driver electronics link

I'm currently buying parts, and recording all the costs to This Spreadsheet

Total BoM should come to around £400, leaving me some money left over to buy some ABS / PLA to print with.

Today I went to FabLab Manchester with one mission, to create a case for my OpenBench Logic Sniffer, an awesome little device from dangerous prototypes and the gadget factory, which ships as a bare PCB.

I started off by measuring the OBLS (93mm x 48mm), and making a test box 5mm wider than it in each direction. I added some circles for bolt holes to the corners, and cut a test piece out of cardboard out using fablab's Epilog Laser Cutter.

This piece seemed to be the right size, so I drew up the second layer, with the middle cut out, and a 1cm wide space for the USB socket. this was printed and checked, and I proceeded to the third layer with cutouts for the header and the USB socket.

After I was happy with the measurements on this mockup case, I cut out a copy in clear acrylic:

Assembled it:

Disaster! I had given enough room for the USB plug, but not for the USB cable that plugs into it. I modified the top of the case with a cutout for the plug, and widened the USB hole to 12mm to compensate.
Cut out another copy with the modifications, and a prettier colour scheme:

Perfect!Download the Laser cutter files to make your own OBLS Case

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZImGw8d2ksc]

Finally got some time to work on r2 this weekend, and have movement! He can now move arond, and spin and stuff.

Unfortunately, still need to add some odometry, not quite worked out how thats going to work yet!

finally got a gearbox mount that i'm happy with, just need to work out how to add odometry to it, since Plan A had two magnets close and opposite each other.  One wheel turning would turn the other!