Check out my newly finished 3D printer in a briefcase, which owes much of it's design to the Smartrap. I went with 8mm rods throughout because that was what I had but I might switch to 6mm for X and Y to make it a bit lighter. The eventual plan is to swap out that large 30 amp power supply for something more compact so that I can fit a small spool of filament inside the case as well. At present, when I want to shift it I can either just cut the length of filament I want and put it loose in the case, or I can leave my 1kg spool attached and carry it outside the case (but with the power cable jammed in the case to prevent the closed case from kinking the filament). Most of the plastic parts are new designs and many of them will need a bit of refinement before I'll be happy posting them online. I'm particularly pleased with the extruder drive which passes the filament across the face of the stepper motor (between one of the mounting screws and the spigot) to keep the overall height of the extruder drive below 80mm. With the filament passing so low - I was able to devise a one screw layout to adjust the load on the extruder idler. There is good leverage and a bit of flex in the extruder idler arm, so no spring is required. All plastic parts are in PLA and steppers are sufficiently over-sized/under-driven that they don't get hot enough to be a problem. The E3D hotend is positioned so that the fan nestles between the Z axis smooth rods when the X axis is zeroed. I was thinking I would implement auto bed levelling for this machine but I have since spent a bit more time levelling it manually and it has now printed a couple of larger area objects without problems so I probably wont bother. https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?344,501846,501846#msg-501846 Thu, 10 Sep 2026 16:08:30 -0400 Phorum 5.2.23 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?344,501846,502211#msg-502211 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?344,501846,502211#msg-502211
So... Until the divorce (lol, just kidding) I guess there will always be another printer project for me...]]> madmike8 Smart_Rap Sun, 26 Apr 2015 19:12:15 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?344,501846,502200#msg-502200 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?344,501846,502200#msg-502200
On reflection - the portable machine could have had a much smaller build volume because let's face it - if you are taking a portable machine somewhere to use for an afternoon, you'd be unlikely to do a print that will fill a 200 cubed build volume. When you are limited to a few hours - your prints will be physically small. In the end I figured that if I could usefully fit a 200 x 200 x 200-ish build volume inside the briefcase then why not. At the moment my portable machine has a larger build volume than my original one due to the 2nd extruder on that machine.]]> n.glasson Smart_Rap Sun, 26 Apr 2015 18:25:34 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?344,501846,502183#msg-502183 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?344,501846,502183#msg-502183 madmike8 Smart_Rap Sun, 26 Apr 2015 17:26:18 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?344,501846,501846#msg-501846 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?344,501846,501846#msg-501846 3D printer in a briefcase, which owes much of it's design to the Smartrap. I went with 8mm rods throughout because that was what I had but I might switch to 6mm for X and Y to make it a bit lighter. The eventual plan is to swap out that large 30 amp power supply for something more compact so that I can fit a small spool of filament inside the case as well. At present, when I want to shift it I can either just cut the length of filament I want and put it loose in the case, or I can leave my 1kg spool attached and carry it outside the case (but with the power cable jammed in the case to prevent the closed case from kinking the filament). Most of the plastic parts are new designs and many of them will need a bit of refinement before I'll be happy posting them online. I'm particularly pleased with the extruder drive which passes the filament across the face of the stepper motor (between one of the mounting screws and the spigot) to keep the overall height of the extruder drive below 80mm. With the filament passing so low - I was able to devise a one screw layout to adjust the load on the extruder idler. There is good leverage and a bit of flex in the extruder idler arm, so no spring is required. All plastic parts are in PLA and steppers are sufficiently over-sized/under-driven that they don't get hot enough to be a problem. The E3D hotend is positioned so that the fan nestles between the Z axis smooth rods when the X axis is zeroed.

I was thinking I would implement auto bed levelling for this machine but I have since spent a bit more time levelling it manually and it has now printed a couple of larger area objects without problems so I probably wont bother.]]> n.glasson Smart_Rap Sun, 26 Apr 2015 02:11:49 -0400