3D printer Frankenstein Mark_1
Hello, hello and hello!
The idea of building a 3D printer has been on my mind for about a year, I finally took it as an engineering subject and got motivated.
I decided to model it after the existing Artifex, as you can see.
In general, the main criterion for selecting components was price, unless the difference was small.
The choice therefore fell on:
-an aluminium profile frame;
-rails with bogies on the X and Y axes (best idea ever!!);
-trapezoidal screws;
-extruder with gearbox;
-fullmetal head from China.
Reviewing other projects, I come to the conclusion that from a technological point of view this is a higher-end design than, for example, the Prusa i3, and I will explain why right away.
A very popular solution is to construct the X and Y axes on shafts and linear bearings. This solution seems to be much cheaper, as the components are a few zlotys each on Allegro. I have such a solution applied to the Z-axis and what I noticed - huge clearances in the X-axis, which is perpendicular to the bearings. I calculated some 0.28 mm with free movement, and 0.06 mm in the Y axis.
After testing, I can conclude that it is even bigger when printing faster.
This may significantly limit the speeds we will be able to achieve. I don't know how much better the case will be if I buy decent bearings, but then the price of the rail with the carriage is no longer so high.
Of course the Prussians print amazingly anyway, but if it can be better....
Don't use plywood for the table base either, unless temporarily. It shakes like it's having an epileptic seizure.
Moving on.
Putting the printer together itself is somehow not particularly difficult. The 3D printed parts make it all come together nicely. It wasn't until getting the printer up and running that I encountered another wave of problems.
The big problem turned out to be the Chinese head, because of the heat sink. Its core right on the heat block was incredibly thick, so that cooling at the most critical point was severely limited. This caused the head to clog during operation. The problem was solved by removing the excess material and hot-tightening the nozzle to the heat block. Currently it performs quite well for heads that can be bought for $4 each.
Generally the printer will work on anything that will let it move, but it is worth getting the extruder right or buying a Goliath and an E3D head. The solution is not cheap, but if someone can afford it and doesn't want to tear their hair out, it should be a pretty good solution. Or at least everyone praises them.
The price of the whole thing isn't even as frightening as some people scare, it cost about £1000-1200 and a lot of costs could be cut. I bought 3 times as many screws as I needed, trapezoidal nuts with flange are 2 times more expensive than trapezoidal ones, if a friend prints the parts for us at cost, we are another 200-300 zł ahead.
The printer is still being modified, but it is already printing quite well. Below is a sample print where I increased the speed during printing to 170%. The holes on the top could probably be avoided with cooling and the Lift Z option in the slicer.
Comments
Quite interesting. How long did it take to print the item shown? Is that red table heated? What are these heated tables for? [Read more]
I can't cut my head off, but probably about 30-40 minutes. Some time ago I printed this :) Yes, that red thing is a heated table, a "PCB heatedbed" to be exact. It improves the adhesion of the prints... [Read more]
Which glass do you use? All the ones I've used (tempered and regular) warp and I have constant problems levelling the table because of it. I'm thinking of adding an extendable z-axis probe, but I see... [Read more]
Ordinary, cheap windscreen from Allegro :) It is not rigidly fixed, but with clamps, and is only heated to 60 degrees. Maybe that's why nothing happens to it. By the way, I didn't know something like... [Read more]
Very nice snowflakes, as for the first cats behind the fence these are getting better and better prints, a colleague after 3 months of trials and tests finally gets amazing prints also patience and it... [Read more]
Nice printer :D massive. Somehow this play is unbelievably large, probably loud knocking, is it the bearing? with me there is no such play. There shouldn't be any perceptible play. If so, it's... [Read more]
Hello What electronics did a colleague use and why ? I am curious because I am at the stage of wiring my printer for which I bought a reprap 1.4 with a large 128x64 LCD. This is probably the cheapest... [Read more]
Cool, but you write that it's a technologically superior design to the Prusa i3, but after the prints you somehow can't see that :) [Read more]
I would like to know which Slicer you are using and which Firmware? @Jacik The cheapest electronics are Sinaptec on arduino nano (DIY version). [Read more]
The printer runs on a Sanguino, but I think the popularity of this chip is falling. As for print quality. The printer has been running for a week, maybe two. So far it has melted less than half a kilo... [Read more]
Well, probably with an in-house build it is definitely more difficult with quality. I recently had to deal with a prusa i3 kit and the print quality is much better than yours. But the Y-axis construction... [Read more]
I haven't delved into slicers yet, I'm just relying on incidentally heard information so I could be wrong. The printer isn't actually finished yet so it's quite easy to beat it with refined models bought... [Read more]
@kiriki-kun From my own experience I would advise you against Slic3r, I used it but one day my patience came to an end as it made pointless movements without printing! It just kept riding in the "air"!... [Read more]
I don't use ABS, I just know that a heated table is highly recommended. Yet some people only print on juice. [Read more]