making the next set of parts

My 3D printer (a Lulzbot TAZ 6) is operational again after replacing the controller board because of a bad stepper motor driver.  In the meantime I found a generous machinist with a big CNC mill who is making the framing plates. While I wait for those, I'm printing and stockpiling the assortment of odd-looking pieces that will be needed for version 2 of the prototype assembly.

The most complicated of the framing plates is the one to which the 18 stepper motors are attached. Half are for rotational motion and half are for lifting motion.

This prototype has one digit wheel stack holding two 4-digit numbers, a set of fixed and movable long pinions that can shift up or down to effect multiplication or division by 10, and one anticipating carriage mechanism that can add or subtract. That will be enough to do simple repetitive calculations, like of the Fibonacci Series.

It is not enough to do multiplication or division. I've worked out a scheme to do that, in the next version, with one additional carriage, two additional digit stacks, and small new mechanisms for "running-up" (overflow) detection and stand-alone decrementing/incrementing of the number in a carriage.