Gargantuan H-Bot design (Ozbot)

I'm working on a ~8' (~2.4 meter)^3 design. It is a modified H bot design where the entire "H" moves along the Y axis instead of having a moving build plate.

The current design uses mostly welded steel framing with a rack & pinion Nema 23/34 drive with 20mm/4 acme lead screws for the Z axis. The gantry moves along the X axis (pink) and both the X and Z move along the Y axis on linear carriages attached at the top and bottom to 3" wide hardened steel bolted to the framing.

The build plate would likely be built up with room to slide a hand lift or fork lift under it to assist in moving heavy prints out.

The minimum layer height would likely be in the 1mm range, focusing on building really large prototypes and not necessarily high resolution prints.

I'm looking for feedback on my design. I can probably provide more detailed screen captures next week, maybe even a simple animation, showing the construction and movement. I'm already worried about yaw as the print head moves along the Y axis, but I feel like this is a lot simpler design than having a separate moving build platform.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2015 11:12PM by steve918.

Unless you balance the forces on the z-axis lead screws, you will probably see bending an distortion when moving in the Y direction.

Honestly, this does no seem simpler than just moving the bed in the Z axis. You are still going need a hefty Z axis so you arent really getting rid of anything.

Also, why do you need an 8 ft^3 build volume?

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gmh39
Also, why do you need an 8 ft^3 build volume?

Because I don't think you need a multi-million dollar machine to design stuff like this [www.gizmag.com]