K'Nex 3D Printer

Hello everyone!

I recently built a 3D printer with its frame entirely made out of K'Nex. This is my first 3D printer and I learnt a lot while making it. Trying to make it function with K'Nex was a nice challenge. I was only able to make it thanks to all the resources available on how to assemble a Prusa Mendel i3 and all the great guides on the RepRap forums/wiki. I've made a video on my current progress. It prints out small simple shapes like a cube pretty fine but larger complex shapes (such as the Marvin in the video) turn out sloppy. I would love it if you guys can check it out and help me improve on it.

[www.youtube.com]

One main problem I've noticed is that the right z-axis belt is lifting up the x-axis slightly higher than the left side which I figured would happen since the the right side is light and is not carrying the NEMA 17 motor as the left side. Does anyone know what I could do to fix this?

Thanks,

Mohammed Al Aryan

Hey Mohammed, that's a great proof of concept - well done! I don't think I would have guessed that was possible

It may be difficult to get the frame stiff enough to really improve the quality very much. It depends on what your goals are - if you just want to get to a higher quality prints as easily as possible then using more metal, particularly for the linear motion parts, will probably be the best bet. But if the aim is to see how far you can push the knex then you could try doubling up on the slide rails (the x axis looks like it's sagging quite badly) and generally reinforcing the frame wherever possible.

And welcome to the forum!

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2016 09:26PM by JamesK.

Thanks for the advice James! Ya my goal is to see how far I can go using knex. For the sag problem I'm thinking of replacing the Geeetech MK8 extruder with a E3D V6 bowden setup, I think that would lighten the load off the x axis rods greatly.

Yes, that should help a lot - look forward to seeing the results.

Wow! Very cool.

And now you can print more, better, stronger K'Nex pieces to improve the printer

haha thanks Frank I definitely could once I get it to print out better parts!