A new printer to explore the vacuum plate build stage

I have been exploring using a vacuum plate to hold a thin plastic film for the build stage. Results to date have been promising enough that I have decided to make a new enclosed printer to find if an unheated build stage will work with materials such as ABS.
This printer will use as many of the tried and tested methods that I use in my existing printer but with a few differences to allow it to work up to 80°C. The printer will be a Delta type very similar to my existing Delta but somewhat smaller - XY diameter will be 150mm and Z will be 200mm. The general design will be an acrylic box and the Delta mechanism will have LM10UU bearings on 10mm rods instead of LM8 and 8mm. The piezo sensors will be on extended actuator rods to get them well clear of the heated zone while the hot end will be a watercooled design.
I would be happy to put up a build log somewhere in the event that anybody is interested in following the development - and also hopefully to pick some brains. Can anybody recommend where I should have the build log as I have not followed any builds in the 3D printer arena for some years.

Mike

Excellent, I would very much like to follow the build. I tried printing Delrin (acetal/pom) and it has the worst warp of anything I have seen. I've been toying with building a small delta specifically to handle the high enclosure temperature that I think would help, so I'll very interested to see how you get on.

There's a forum section for deltas that I guess would be the best place to post ( [forums.reprap.org] ), and then I'd suggest adding a link here so that the thread is easy to find.

Oh I am looking forward to this one. Going to be following this for sure.

Have you taken into consideration the expansion of materials on your frame? Cheap carbon fibre rods of a delta may actually reach their glass transition (Tg) stage at 80c, depending on the type of resin used to bind them. Most reach their Tg at around 100-180c. Expansion may also cause binding of linear motion parts. Most linear rail guides are only suitable up to 60c.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/2017 01:21PM by Origamib.

I am trying to take thermal expansion into account, so far the biggie is that the CoE of Acrylic is about three times that of Stainless Steel, Aluminium etc.. I had not thought of potential problems with the carbon fiber rods but as there is little depth to the specifications available for this sort of thing I thing much of my time will be spent seeing if various components will work at an elevated temperature. I did think of potential problems with the linear bearings but ones like LM10 are likely to be less temperamental than precision guides.
One thing in our favour though is that many components will actually work satisfactorily at temperatures well above their published maximum - I use WW resistors in preference to cartridge heaters and have used them up to 300°C while their published t_max is 180°C

Mike

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I am trying to take thermal expansion into account, so far the biggie is that the CoE of Acrylic is about three times that of Stainless Steel, Aluminium etc.. I had not thought of potential problems with the carbon fiber rods but as there is little depth to the specifications available for this sort of thing I thing much of my time will be spent seeing if various components will work at an elevated temperature. I did think of potential problems with the linear bearings but ones like LM10 are likely to be less temperamental than precision guides.
One thing in our favour though is that many components will actually work satisfactorily at temperatures well above their published maximum - I use WW resistors in preference to cartridge heaters and have used them up to 300°C while their published t_max is 180°C

Mike

I believe that many of these things will work well above their stated temperatures, perhaps it will only lower the longevity of the parts?

I looked into high temp parts a while back to see if an extreme high temp printer was actually possible for high temperature/high warping materials like ultem (think oven temps). Even specialist linear rail designed for high temperatures will only work up to 120c or so, but obviously have high prices attached. I think an offset eccentric nut may be a good way, as you can adjust pre load on the linear parts depending on the chamber temperature (similar to how v-slot wheels are adjusted).

O.K., on the Delta forum as Hot Delta Build Log

Mike