3DR "Simple" Delta Printer

Very cool! Keep the pictures coming.

John,

Any chance you can post your files to Github as IGES or Step files? I have SW2010 and can't open your 2011 versions. I am having some issues printing and would like to modify your files slightly. Working with STL's in SW is a PIA and takes a LOT of time. I'd rather not remodel them from scratch. I'll post my modifications afterwards if you wish.

JohnSL [ PM ]
Re: 3DR "Simple" Delta Printer
November 01, 2013 08:36PM Registered: 6 months ago
Posts: 71
Jeromelab, the older files are still on Github. Here is how you can find older files. First, go to the history section. For example, here is a link to the STL folder history:

[github.com]

In this case, you want the check-in that says "The first check-in of all files." After this check-in, I modified the parts to be stronger. Once you see this history, in the lower-right you can click "Browse code" and you will then see all the STL files from that date. You'll find those older STL files here:

[github.com]

I've been doing more work on my updated design since I had mechanical problems with the design you're printing. Right now I'm printing out the first set of parts for the base. So before the end of the weekend, I hope to have the new base built and tested.
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umdpru, yes, I can export them as IGES or STEP. Do you have a preference?

Also, is the one file in particular you want me to post first? That would be faster than exporting all the files.

Finally, can you describe the problems you're having? It might be easier for me to add a configuration with variations if it's a simple change like modifying the size of a hole. I can post files later today (I'm on the West coast).

I'm enamored by this design and am gearing up to convert my Simple to a delta-bot.

Now that the v2 design is a few months old, are there any problems or gotchas that have come to light?

Also, has anybody had any luck with the auto-bed leveling functionality with this bot?

Hi John,

I can't seem to find your files on github that include the "full" size pieces in the original 3DR style. What I mean is that I see one "full" motor mount, but it does not have the indents for the center triangle.

Is there any chance you have the file up? I tried to follow the suggestion to look up the github history, but I didn't seem to find older versions than the one you have 3 months ago. It does not have an indent for the center triangle.

Thanks for reading, and the work you're doing here.


EDIT: To be more clear, I'm looking for the files that you printed in orange early on. They seem to be in the original style but modified for 8mm shafts

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2014 05:18PM by Tomek.

Tomek, I never finished that version of the parts, nor did I ever put them on Github, which is why you can't find them. I do have a triangular version I could put up there:



I haven't tested this version, but if you want, I can add the STL files to Github.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2014 02:13PM by JohnSL.

I thought I'd share a progress report. I've completed printing all of the main frame pieces and started assembly, although I just ran out of M4 nuts, hence the top frame not being together & bolted in the picture below. I'm hopeful that Home Depot may have some tomorrow otherwise a McMaster order will be placed soon.

I printed the frame in ABS and it was a bit of a pain, although this was my first time printing pieces this large in ABS on my Mendel, so that may have been a learning curve for me. You'll likely note the bottom frame pieces have a blue marbling on the top of the pieces as a result of too much blue ABS and not enough acetone when I was trying out ABS juice. The top pieces wound up being a hairspray experiment which worked better than ABS juice. Cubify glue actually worked the best, but it worked too well and chipped my glass when removing it, so I only did one piece that way. Anyhow, the end result for me was that any pointed pieces of the frame all wound up warping slightly, but I think they're still good enough to use. I could have printed everything in PLA and had a much easier time of it, but I'm in South FL and worried that the PLA would be a problem if left the printer in my truck during the day when moving it around. I also wound up printing all of the frame pieces at 101% scale, and even scaled up just a bit it took a bit of gentle hammering to get the extrusion and precision rods into the frame (even after using an 8mm drill bit to clear out the precision rod holes and cleaning up the extrusion holes).

Anyhow, here's where my build currently stands:

2014-01-12 21.29.29 by Senior Kabong, on Flickr

Tomek,

Are you referring to the original 3DR Delta files by RichRap aka Richard Horne?

[github.com]

And his blog has more details, he has published four updates and talked about different build tutorial subjects.
[richrap.blogspot.com]

JohnSL,

My need for files is no longer. I was having issues with some of the bosch profile pieces staying stuck down initially. I have since upgraded the Cupcake CNC I am using to a stepper extruder and I have successfully printed 5/6 corner (top and bottom) frame pieces. I have the bosch rails on order and I am looking at purchasing the rest of the major mechanical pieces.

I do have a few questions, though.

I see on your github/simple files that you have a few different wing parts listed. Which are required and where? I assume that I print the wing and wing mirror, what is the wing long mirror file used for? Also, the MirrorWings file is oriented, in the stl file, such that the flat surface is printed last and a sizable bridge needs to be printed. Can you reorient that file such that the flat surface is printed flat on the print bed first? Did you have a motivation for orienting it that way? I plan on importing into SW and inserting some reference coordinates to use to reorient the part so no biggie, I just thought that it would be good to do for those that don't have the capability to reorient.

All in all, I'm enjoying this so far. There's nothing quite like making another printer with the printer. As a quick little story, I work in an electromagnetics department and I am trying to get 3D printing technology into the work place. I brought in the cupcake and the demonstration print I made was your 3DR Simple top frame piece. The guys were pretty impressed with the fact that I was making another printer with the Cupucake!

Can someone provide a list of hardware length's required? I'd like to put in a McMaster order sooner rather than later. If all else fails, I'll print the parts and measure what's needed.

EDIT: I have attached the SW2010 MirrorWings-Reoriented file in STL (SW file is too large to attach) format for your information. I added a reference coordinate plane and when saving out the STL from SW, you choose options and export it using the new coordinate system (there is a drop down box). I don't know if you knew that. I routinely model stuff without thinking about the orientation of the axes.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2014 11:12AM by umdpru.

John, what files should we be printing out for the top? There is a top mount file in the "simple parts" folder but then there is the whole top folder.

More progress: top frame completed, motors, spectra line and glass bed installed. I believe I'm now at the end of part 2 (other than splicing motor wires and installing endstops/controller board)!


3DR Simple Delta by Senior Kabong, on Flickr

Since part 3 isn't up yet, can I pick up from Richrap's build instructions or are there substantial differences? Another question is which bed clips have you found worked the best?

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2014 11:33PM by PierreB.

Thanks John! Your work is great. I ended up printing out richards parts and drilling out the holes [actually I drilled out the holes out of the version of richards I printed several weeks ago before I decided to go 8mm]. The area there was a little stronger than I expected, though I do worry it might be weakened and not ideal. In fact, for sake of complete disclosure, I didnt have an 8mm drill and went a little under (using a very bad caliper I got something like 7.87mm for that random drill bit, and heated up my drill rods to melt-slide them into the holes...I hope it won't present as a problem in the future. I had a ~8.2mm drill bit [oversized] that I used at the tops of the holes to guide the rods

Ran out of m4 screws. Hope to finish this weekend!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2014 12:22AM by Tomek.

umdpru,

I have two blog posts (so far) on building the 3DR "Simple" Delta Printer. The first one has a list of parts you'll need, as well as a list of parts to print out, showing pictures and with links.

Building the 3DR "Simple" Delta Printer, Part I
Building the 3DR "Simple" Delta Printer, Part II

I need to write another blog post. I'm not completely happy with the extruder, so I was debating writing the blog post using RichRap's version, or modifying his version. The issue seems to be with the length of the Printrbot hobbed bolt being a little shorter than the parts are designed to handle.

As to one of the wings not being oriented correctly, I wasn't able to find an STL file on Github that was upside down. I was pretty careful to make sure they were all oriented correctly. I did find two STL files that shouldn't have been there, which might have caused some confusion, so I've just deleted them. Were you looking at the STL files, or the SolidWorks files?

-- John

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2014 12:58AM by JohnSL.

PierreB,

I pretty much followed RichRap's instructions for building the extruder. I did have to create a spacer to move the extruder away from the smooth rods. Also, I changed the way I mounted the bed. So, I guess it's time to start working on Part III for what I've built. I'll start tomorrow and try to get it up in a few days.

Another quick question (I realize I'm off into what will be part III territory, but I thought I'd ask anyway in case if helps somehow...): should there be a gap between the hot end holder pieces when they are sandwiched around the hot end? I wind up with a 4mm gap once all the screws are tightened as seen in the pictures below.


Untitled by Senior Kabong, on Flickr


Untitled by Senior Kabong, on Flickr

Doesn't look like it.

Quote
jaydmdigital
[img-hotend]
Doesn't look like it.

Ack, looks like I found my problem, I loaded the gcode for that part into pronterface before it was done slicing or slic3r never finished slicing the part because my 'hot end holder with tabs.stl' part is only halfway printed. At least that's an easy fix, thanks for helping to spot the hotend picture above jaydmdigital!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2014 10:44PM by PierreB.

Pierre,

Remember to print the third part (HERE) for the hot-end holder as well. I didn't see it in any of the pictures, but it goes into the whole hot-end holder sandwich. It provides the third mount tab to the carriage.

Here is mine, showing the plate in place. (On the right side.)

JohnSL,

You mentioned that you are using a different bed-clamp than the spiffy spiral jobs. Is that the (decidedly less cool looking) spring loaded rectangular ones in some of your pics?

Is that to allow the bed to be trammed? If so, what do you think of M666 and/or the automatic error correction in firmware for that?

My dream is to be able to easily swap print beds in and out...

brendanjerwin, here are the clips I was referring to:



Bed Clips

The version of Marlin I have on my printer is RichRap's version, which doesn't have support for M666. I'm hoping I can get the latest version of Marlin building for the Printrboard, which will then have support for M666.

In any event, I really like the bed clips with the Printrbot bed-leveling screws between it and the bed, as this makes it really easy to fine-tune the bed while printing the first-layer ring before it starts printing the part.

I have a bunch of 25mm instead of 20mm uprights. Can you put up a set for a 25mm build please.
I tried scaling but the 8mm rods position and carriage changed dimention also. Just need the 20x20mm changed to 25x25mm.
Earl in ABQ

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2014 12:36AM by uphiearl.

I've just published Building the 3DR “Simple” Delta Printer, Part III on my blog. I believe I have one final part to publish, which is about installing the firmware and calibrating the printer. RichRap has done a great job, so I can just cover what's specific to this printer.

Hi.

I've finished building my 3DR-Simple and it works great!. I used printed LM8UU-style linear bearings and it's almost noiseless. My Rostock is very noisy in comparison.
I ended using traxxas joints because the magnetic joints seemed too weak (may be I should use stronger magnets).
I'll publish some photos soon.

I've also uploaded my spool holder to thingiverse: [www.thingiverse.com]

Quote
JohnSL
I've just published Building the 3DR “Simple” Delta Printer, Part III on my blog. I believe I have one final part to publish, which is about installing the firmware and calibrating the printer. RichRap has done a great job, so I can just cover what's specific to this printer.

Thanks for the update! I believe I'm now done with everything except for running a few wires and printing the newer style bed clips (in progress). I didn't have tools available to mill my extrusion to run the wires internally, so I'm going to bundle all the motor wires and just run them up the back of one of the pieces of extrusion together. Other than that I'm ready to have a go at the firmware and calibration whenever that post goes up


Untitled by Senior Kabong, on Flickr

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2014 10:51PM by PierreB.

I've updated my Firmware settings post with the current numbers for this printer. I wrote the original blog post for the first version, and the published files are for the second version. My post now uses numbers from the "final" design. I've also updated the photos, and corrected one mistake where my measurement wasn't quite correct.

3DR “Simple” Delta Printer Firmware Settings

Hi all,

I'm about 50% through the build of mine. I have the main frame completed and have begun buying most of the major mechanical parts (already have the 2020 bosch extrusions). My big choice now is what controller and what size filament I want to use. I have a BIG stock of 3mm filament becuse it's what both of my current printer use. Do you all think 3mm will be ok for this printer? I already have a 3mm JHead coming. I forgot I wanted to think harder on that before I bought it from tridprinting. Anyways, I think I am just going to go with the ramps 1.4 since I already use two of them and they work ok and I'm familiar with them.

What do you all think?

I only have experience with 1.75mm filament and a Bowden tube. I would expect it would take a lot more force to push 3mm filament through a tube, so you might have problems with the extruder. Perhaps there are others who have tried 3mm who can speak up.

As to the controller, pretty much any controller should work. I've designed the mounts specifically for a Printrboard, so I don't know how well they might work with other boards.

"I only have experience with 1.75mm filament and a Bowden tube"

JohnSL,

I have a Printrbot Simple, and I am following this thread so that sometime in 2014, if I decide to, I can convert it to your 3DR design.
I am building a Mini Kossel, well I have the build completed except I am having difficulty with the extruder. I have no experience with Bowden tube and Airtripper extruder. Learning as I go.
I have some questions for you and maybe you could describe your experience with your extruders.
1. What size/type of Bowden tube are you using? the ID, OD, PTFE?
2. What design/type of extruder body are you using?
3. What motor are you using?

I have Phidgets motor 3317 5.18:1 planetary gear so it has a smaller round face and needs the proper extruder plastic body with the right holes.
I tried Johann's extruder body for his Kossel but I cracked the body tightening the screw to get the bearing to push on the filament more, so I am trying the Airtripper V2 body as modified for me by Jay Couture.
I have a 8mm shaft with a spur gear that makes the OD 12mm.
I tried using a 1.8mm ID PTFE tube but that didn't work. After measuring, the filament comes out of the extruder wider than 1.8mm due to the gear cutting into the filament and leaving ridges.
so, I am waiting for 2.0mm ID PTFE.
Ah, the little details keep delaying me.

Thanks for all your documentation, posting pictures and all the design work you have put into the 3DR Simple.
Richard