diegudios printer - looking for economical strength
Posted by diegudio
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diegudios printer - looking for economical strength January 07, 2013 07:25PM |
Hi there! My name is Diego, an argentinean in Austria and I'm new to the forum and to the 3D printing world...
I've been thinking in having my own CNC almost since the beginning of time, but due to space, noise and dirt reasons I keep it in stand by for the future... until I discovered the RepRap world and the possibility of having my own DIY printer and the dream of CNC came back again.
One part of me was saying "go for the safe, buy a kit", and the other said "no man, do-it-yourself"... as you can imagine, the DIY won the battle and here I'm presenting my own design called "diegudios_printer".
... and yes, it's still a design, but the general idea of the printer is there, and it's 100% oriented to finding a strong, robust frame with the less money investment possible.
As you can see in the pictures, the design is more similar to those of the home-made CNC machines. I don't know if there is an "official" RepRap name to this kind of configuration. In case not, maybe I´m creating a new now
Some characteristics:
- The frame is based in a L-shape done with (probably) two pieces of 80x80 wood.
- The support bed (heated) is sliding in X & Y direction (horizontal plane)
- The hotend will be located in the Z-sliding-arm, that will slide along the vertical part of the L-frame.
- The extruder will be static (as in some Rokstock configurations) - only the hotend will move.
- X & Y transmission is done with T2.5 belts, Z transmission is done by threaded shaft (M6 or M8)
- All 3 axis sliding devices are IGUS DryLin® W double-rail, with non-lubricated skids.
The idea of using this configuration is to reduce the "suspended masses" --> By moving the bed in X & Y directions (instead of only X or Y as in Mendel types), I reduce the components that must be displaced in the Z direction. Even more, with the fixed position of the extruder, the only mass moved in Z is the hotend, reducing bending of the Z-sliding-arm.
The stiffness of the bed when displaced outwards the frame (Y direction) is guarantee by the igus rail, which is an aluminium profile and gives extra-strength to the 10mm-thick-wooden base in which it's located.
The rails and the skids are quite cheap, easy to mantain and (I guess) they will provide a good strength for the suspended masses (Y-transmission motor).
As the speed in Z direction is not a priority, I decided to use a threaded shaft for the displacement instead of the belt, so I can get a better precission, and at the same time I reduce the total price by saving in belts, belt pulley and bearings. I don't need to "align" the threaded shaft because the Z-sliding-arm is aligned by the igus profile.
In addition, my configuration has the advantage of using 4 stepper motors instead of 5, saving some money there.
Of course, I won't see if all this assuptions are true until I put this to work...
The next step is to define the electronics (I have an Arduino board at home, so I'll find a configuration to use the arduino and save some more money)...
Finally, if this works, I'm open to share my design (including the 3D model) to whoever is interested.
Well, I've wrote such a big story here... I would appreciate your comments/suggestions and thanks to all of you in advance!!!
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2013 07:29PM by diegudio.
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##diegudio##
I've been thinking in having my own CNC almost since the beginning of time, but due to space, noise and dirt reasons I keep it in stand by for the future... until I discovered the RepRap world and the possibility of having my own DIY printer and the dream of CNC came back again.
One part of me was saying "go for the safe, buy a kit", and the other said "no man, do-it-yourself"... as you can imagine, the DIY won the battle and here I'm presenting my own design called "diegudios_printer".
... and yes, it's still a design, but the general idea of the printer is there, and it's 100% oriented to finding a strong, robust frame with the less money investment possible.
As you can see in the pictures, the design is more similar to those of the home-made CNC machines. I don't know if there is an "official" RepRap name to this kind of configuration. In case not, maybe I´m creating a new now
Some characteristics:
- The frame is based in a L-shape done with (probably) two pieces of 80x80 wood.
- The support bed (heated) is sliding in X & Y direction (horizontal plane)
- The hotend will be located in the Z-sliding-arm, that will slide along the vertical part of the L-frame.
- The extruder will be static (as in some Rokstock configurations) - only the hotend will move.
- X & Y transmission is done with T2.5 belts, Z transmission is done by threaded shaft (M6 or M8)
- All 3 axis sliding devices are IGUS DryLin® W double-rail, with non-lubricated skids.
The idea of using this configuration is to reduce the "suspended masses" --> By moving the bed in X & Y directions (instead of only X or Y as in Mendel types), I reduce the components that must be displaced in the Z direction. Even more, with the fixed position of the extruder, the only mass moved in Z is the hotend, reducing bending of the Z-sliding-arm.
The stiffness of the bed when displaced outwards the frame (Y direction) is guarantee by the igus rail, which is an aluminium profile and gives extra-strength to the 10mm-thick-wooden base in which it's located.
The rails and the skids are quite cheap, easy to mantain and (I guess) they will provide a good strength for the suspended masses (Y-transmission motor).
As the speed in Z direction is not a priority, I decided to use a threaded shaft for the displacement instead of the belt, so I can get a better precission, and at the same time I reduce the total price by saving in belts, belt pulley and bearings. I don't need to "align" the threaded shaft because the Z-sliding-arm is aligned by the igus profile.
In addition, my configuration has the advantage of using 4 stepper motors instead of 5, saving some money there.
Of course, I won't see if all this assuptions are true until I put this to work...
The next step is to define the electronics (I have an Arduino board at home, so I'll find a configuration to use the arduino and save some more money)...
Finally, if this works, I'm open to share my design (including the 3D model) to whoever is interested.
Well, I've wrote such a big story here... I would appreciate your comments/suggestions and thanks to all of you in advance!!!
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2013 07:29PM by diegudio.
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##diegudio##
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Re: diegudios printer - looking for economical strength January 08, 2013 05:49PM |
Thanks Traumflug!...
Yes, the two bars of the frame are wooden profiles, and will be glued and reinforced with a metallic L on one of the sides to keep the structure stable.
I need to inform myself a little better about electronics... The idea that I had was to use the Arduino and add the 4 motor controllers, but I'm not sure if this is possible. I imagine that the Gen6 that you mentioned is a motor controller based in the ATMega processor... so perhaps somebody else have already tried with something like the Gen6 but split in two pieces: in one side the ATMega (in my case the Arduino) and the motor controllers in other side...
But probably is cheaper (and easier) to buy the Gen6 directly instead of buying 4 motor controllers and adapting everything together with the Arduino...
I was today in a local store to search for some possible materials for the frame and I find out one very strong and well polished 1m-length 50x50mm profile that would fit... I will update the design to the new profile dimensions to see how it will look like...
The only thing that I'm still deciding is the igus guides... the package of 3 guides and the skids (12) cost 90€ including cutting and delivery... It would be great to find something cheaper...
___________
##diegudio##
Yes, the two bars of the frame are wooden profiles, and will be glued and reinforced with a metallic L on one of the sides to keep the structure stable.
I need to inform myself a little better about electronics... The idea that I had was to use the Arduino and add the 4 motor controllers, but I'm not sure if this is possible. I imagine that the Gen6 that you mentioned is a motor controller based in the ATMega processor... so perhaps somebody else have already tried with something like the Gen6 but split in two pieces: in one side the ATMega (in my case the Arduino) and the motor controllers in other side...
But probably is cheaper (and easier) to buy the Gen6 directly instead of buying 4 motor controllers and adapting everything together with the Arduino...
I was today in a local store to search for some possible materials for the frame and I find out one very strong and well polished 1m-length 50x50mm profile that would fit... I will update the design to the new profile dimensions to see how it will look like...
The only thing that I'm still deciding is the igus guides... the package of 3 guides and the skids (12) cost 90€ including cutting and delivery... It would be great to find something cheaper...
___________
##diegudio##
|
Re: diegudios printer - looking for economical strength January 12, 2013 06:31PM |
I have some news...
1) reading and reading I figured out the most economical configuration for the electronics. As I already had a Arduino Mega, I will buy the kit for mounting the RAMPS 1.4 and 4 motor controllers. I'm not sure if this configuration is better than Gen7, but if both uses ATMega chips, I guess that the softwared uploaded to the chip should be similar (or even the same). I haven't red anything about software yet.
2) I decided for the IGUS linear guides, but instead of the DryLin W I will use the DryLin N, which for less price I get a bigger guide (80mm wide). It seems that the in the W is easier to attach something because the drills in the N are not so deep, but I don't think that it will be a problem.
IGUS DryLin N (the 80mm-wide is the bigger one)
IGUS DryLIn W
Now I need to define the hotend... I bought already the resistor and I also have some NiCrome wire at home, but I'm more worried about the thermal isolation than anything else. I can't find a PTFE bar or rod cheap to use as isolator, so I will need to think about it a little bit more or look for further info in the web... any idea?
1) reading and reading I figured out the most economical configuration for the electronics. As I already had a Arduino Mega, I will buy the kit for mounting the RAMPS 1.4 and 4 motor controllers. I'm not sure if this configuration is better than Gen7, but if both uses ATMega chips, I guess that the softwared uploaded to the chip should be similar (or even the same). I haven't red anything about software yet.
2) I decided for the IGUS linear guides, but instead of the DryLin W I will use the DryLin N, which for less price I get a bigger guide (80mm wide). It seems that the in the W is easier to attach something because the drills in the N are not so deep, but I don't think that it will be a problem.
IGUS DryLin N (the 80mm-wide is the bigger one)
IGUS DryLIn W
Now I need to define the hotend... I bought already the resistor and I also have some NiCrome wire at home, but I'm more worried about the thermal isolation than anything else. I can't find a PTFE bar or rod cheap to use as isolator, so I will need to think about it a little bit more or look for further info in the web... any idea?
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