Large Format Repraps (under 5k) and quad extrusion

Hi everyone. I've been drooling over that PBC linear 15k meter by a meter printer.

But. 15k. no. not paying that much. My mendelmax 1.5+ has been great. Did a lot of custom work with PBC linear parts to get it to run as fast as 200mm/s (print at 100 as with a 0.75mm print head it cant pump out enough heat)

So I'm interested in looking into building my own. Though I'm hoping not to be a trail blazer as I don't really have the time and funds to do so. I'm looking for a XXXL print area. I know that the mendel90 can be "scaled" but I haven't seen any XL printers. I'm guessing I'll just have to order the parts for the PBC linear printer but just a bit smaller and figure it out myself. I'm thinking at least half a meter for size. If any of ya'll know of some good resources I'd be much appreciated.

I'm also looking into 2-4+ plastuders. I can only seem to find this "kraken" which is an okay plastruder. They don't do 3mm which I exclusive use. I'm thinking I'll have to move to a bowden system (which would make the flimsy 1.7mm plastic make sense) to make this work and just make my own array. I've been using makergear for years but they have been slow at advancing, IE STILL no all metal plastruder.

If you can't tell I'm looking to make a Beast of a system that prints out a lot of material fast.

Thanks!

For speed, you'll want 1.75mm for its better surface/volume ratio. If you don't want a Kraken, I'd recommend an E3D Chimaera or Cyclops.

All solvable problems in terms of scaling. If you find a robot arm used and cheap that would make things easier, but there are several large deltas to print house parts. That should be a size that fits.
Do you have any special application for it because I have build a larger delta and im seeing now that there is not really the demand for prints that size, so my next one will be smaller again.

Argh how annoying, I checked follow, but not email replies.

So what ended up happening, I drooled over the airwolf systems, but just could not see how on earth it would cost 5k for their systems. That lead me to the Giga printer. Which I Loved! I would have totally bought their 5k kit... till they started %%% me off with a 200 dollar "roller" kit. I mean come on that's not even 70 in parts. Made me question their markups. Then I went back to drooling over the MendelMax 3. But they don't have 3 mm options. I'm pretty vested in 3mm. So while I'm sure I'll buy one in the future. I quickly found myself trying to customize their motion kit. At this point, if I'm putting up this much effort I'll just make one myself. That's half the fun, and I'm experienced enough to do it.

So I ended up buying..
[www.ebay.com]
for the Z axis. I'm a little worried as I couldn't find detailed specs on it. It also doesn't have the anti backlash.. but I think it will work better than 98% of the printer systems out there.

Now I just sent off an email to the local PBC linear distributer. Asking about 600mm axis quotes for the X and Y.

I'm also trying to figure out how on earth I'm going to get a heated bed for this monster. I'm pretty sure a rambo wont be able to pump out enough to heat this thing without blowing a fuse. (Software engineer by trade, not a EE..)

I want to do this for under 5k. I got the guy to cut 100 off each of the Z actuators. I figure 1.3k for the custom rails. Then just scale up a prusa i3. Render a few custom mounts (no big deal) and presto. a prusa i600! (as it's 600mm^2 print area) or something. Haven't settled on a nickname.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/09/2015 08:02PM by L4nce0.

I'm thinking I'm going to do the Diamond. They are coming out with a 3mm version. I've tried 1.75 mm before and I spent all my time unjamming it. It literally crinkled in my plastruder, over and over. So I stay far away from it. Though I do see why one would want to use it in a bowden system. I'll just stay stubborn ;-)

I get past the S to V ratio by pumping more heat :-D.. Sides at the speeds I'm able to print my issue is that the layers before it are still molten.. not melting the plastic so much. Least when I was using PLA.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/09/2015 08:17PM by L4nce0.

Quote
sungod3k
All solvable problems in terms of scaling. If you find a robot arm used and cheap that would make things easier, but there are several large deltas to print house parts. That should be a size that fits.
Do you have any special application for it because I have build a larger delta and im seeing now that there is not really the demand for prints that size, so my next one will be smaller again.

The purpose is for myself. I'm not really selling parts. I can't really go into it much, but before 3d printing I was a sponsored computer case modder :-) It's also the challenge of it.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/09/2015 08:20PM by L4nce0.