Hi Guys (and girls)

New to all this, so bear with me.
I am designing a new consumer product that I need to make some sample of.
For the sample I am thinking of printing everything that will end up being molded in plastic. But the pieces are quite big.
Some of the parts I need to print are up to 240mm x 120mm hollow.

I was looking at building a MendelMax with a buildarea of around 280 x 280mm.
I have read that it should be "easy" to scale, but have a few questions.

Will the standard plastic parts work with longer extrusions?
If I want to use 10mm-12mm rods instead of 8mm, will this be an easy upgrade?
Any other things I have to be aware of?


Any experience would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,


Jonas L

You should also consider the Mendel90 which have been designed with scalability in mind (among other things).

I've read that you just have to tweak a few parameters and regenerate the STLs to get yourself a machine scaled exactly as you want.

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Most of my technical comments should be correct, but is THIS one ?
Anyway, as a rule of thumb, always double check what people write.

Hi DeuxVis

I saw this one as well, but I cant find any printed parts for sale anywhere. It looks solid though.
Guess the problem is always getting your first printer. After that its simply a matter of printing the next generation.

Jonas

Richrap made differently sized Mendelmaxes. Maybe his blog will help you there.

---

Most of my technical comments should be correct, but is THIS one ?
Anyway, as a rule of thumb, always double check what people write.

I built my MendelMax slightly over-sized (but not quite as big as what you're talking about), and everything works great. I used all of the standard parts and 8mm rods. Just make sure that you scale it up correctly so that none of the angles change, because that would make the standard printed parts not work.

As big as you're planning on going, you would probably want to use larger rods to cut down on the flexing (particularly the rods for the x axis since they're the longest ones). It sounds like you're already planning on that. Using the larger rods will make the standard printed parts no longer fit. You'll have to either find or design/print parts that have the clamps for the larger rods/bearings. I just searched Thingiverse for 'MendelMax 10mm', and it looks like people have already made all of the mods you'd need if you want to go with 10mm rods.

You can easily increase the build size by making the X axis longer. I did just that on my MendelMax and I have a build area of 270x260. That's with a length increase of 40 mm. You could easily get your 280mm dimension by going a little larger than that. There's a whole page on this at mendelmax.com. Thankfully, none of the printed parts change if you scale up the frame. If this is your first printer and you need the printed parts, I sell MendelMax parts and a very common option is to use 10mm rods.

Thanks for all the great info!

I read the post about scaling the MendelMax. So if I understand everything correctly, I should be able to make every extrusion let say 60-80mm longer and it should work.
And now I know where to get the printed parts for 10mm rods. :-)

I think I will be able to source most of the things myself, but if you can point me in a direction for the longer 10mm rods and leadscrews?
Pointedstick, do you sell these rods and leadscrews as well? If possible I would like to order as few places as possible, to make everything as easy as possible.

Cheers,

Jonas

jonasl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for all the great info!
>
> I read the post about scaling the MendelMax. So if
> I understand everything correctly, I should be
> able to make every extrusion let say 60-80mm
> longer and it should work.
> And now I know where to get the printed parts for
> 10mm rods. :-)
>
> I think I will be able to source most of the
> things myself, but if you can point me in a
> direction for the longer 10mm rods and leadscrews?
>
> Pointedstick, do you sell these rods and
> leadscrews as well? If possible I would like to
> order as few places as possible, to make
> everything as easy as possible.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Jonas


I sell 12" (305mm) leadscrews that will easily be long enough even with a taller machine. The rods I don't carry yet and the best place to purchase them from will really depend on where you live. I would recommend vxb.com, but they don't seem to stock 10mm rods. Anyone got any ideas?

In the US, try McMaster-Carr, [www.mcmaster.com] p/n 2900A381. Misumi also is a good source, but I have a harder time searching their site from an iPad...

Mkouri Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In the US, try McMaster-Carr,
> [www.mcmaster.com] p/n
> 2900A381. Misumi also is a good source, but I have
> a harder time searching their site from an iPad...


Misumi's prices are a bit high IMHO, and McMaster Carr doesn't offer the kind of hardened chromed shafts you really need. Zapp Automation is good if you're in the UK, but I don't know what their shipping to elsewhere would be like (especially for long heavy rods)

Everywhere I look 10mm are out of stock.
Is using 12mm an option? or should I simply wait. If so, will the plastic parts fit?


Jonas

Looking at the drawings now, looks like its going to be a hassel changing to 12mm.

I'm building an over-sized MendelMax using 10mm rods. The alterations to fit 10mm rods are quite simple, and all other parts remain the same. I extended the x-axis by 100mm and the y by 50mm. I have the majority of the parts printed and the frame assembled so far. I bought my rods from McMaster. They aren't hardened chromed shafts, but I've been using the same ones in 8mm on my Prusa for some time now without issue.

Hi Cameron

Sounds great, I will look into that.
I was thinking of making mine +100mm all round.
This is my first build, so I am pretty excited.

I guess when you have the first one, you can just print your next one when improvements are made.
This is what I love about the whole thing.


Jonas

jonasl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I guess when you have the first one, you can just
> print your next one when improvements are made.
> This is what I love about the whole thing.
>
>
> Jonas

Exactly. I built my first repstrap several years ago, and produced my first Prusa Mendel from that. Since then I have printed and built many Prusa Mendels for friends and to sell. I am now building myself a MendelMax, which I quite like so far.