My work in progress

This is my project I am working on in autocad. Every part fits within a 3" cube (I know imperial sucks but its what I'm used to.) and the whole thing is bolted together. I still need to figure out how to do a z axis. The table should have 6" of travel in either direction. Constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.

Are you trying to avoid threaded rod?

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repraplogphase.blogspot.com

Except for the threaded rod that drives each axis. Also I wanted to make something that could be completely enclosed so that my curious cat wont get burned if she manages to get near my printer.

Also is there a reason for the restriction to 72x72x72mm"?
Makerbot is restricted to 100x100x140
Rapman/Darwin 230x230x100
Mendel 200x200x140

Is the point here maximum use of RP parts, reduction of cost. Sort of hard to help if I don't know where you are going with the project.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2010 07:20PM by spacexula.

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repraplogphase.blogspot.com

all the parts fit in a 76.2mm square.

I did this because I wanted to work with an easy number
(aka 3") instead of 3.93" or 100mm.

The point is to have maximum use of RP parts and to be able to fully enclose the print area. I also wanted to keep the number of unique parts down but theres not really any reason for that other than I felt like it.

In retrospect I really should force myself to get used to the metric system.

Check out these rods

[technocraticanarchist.blogspot.com]

This would allow you to drop the total mass of your printer significantly.

Have you considered a wedge configuration instead of the box? If you are not going to lift the build stage there's no reason to have a square configuration. (wedge could be covered also).

The printer looks VERY top heavy. You might have stability issues.

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repraplogphase.blogspot.com

I suggest to use some other way of attaching the parts to each other then thousands of bolts.
Preferably some kind of clip-connection using only the geometry of the parts and no external metal.
Certainly not as much external metal as in the image.

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Interesting stuff! You might want to work out the volume of plastic you're going to need, and how long it will take to print it. Could take a very long time, especially if you're using a threaded rod drive system.

I would be concerned with tolerance stack up. If your finished parts are within +/- 0.015mm and you have seven of them stacked together you could potentially be .1 mm large or small. This may make it very hard to assemble and keep square.

One idea would be to hook up a rack and pinion drive on the Y-axis of your Mendel. You could then print items much larger than the machine. I've also seen this done with pinch rollers hooked to stepper motors. By printing the long pieces in one piece you could make them lighter.