Considerign building a Tantlus

As the title says im considering building one currently i have an sd3 thats been giving me pure hell of late. Hopefulli will be able to print thepastic parts i need my intent is to build the original with the printed walls.

But i'm thinking of using a newer E3d light print nozel (i still have to decide and order) I'm thinkign what i want to do is make 2 for my niece and nephews for christmas.

but i do have some questions the original used braided fishing line instead of beltsis that a better way of running it or are belts better?

Has anyone tried to run it as a direct drive?

what tips do you have for assembly and what should i be aware of as problems?

Only my opinions...

I really enjoy Tantillus - it's my favorite printer and I have two. (I'll be building another thanks to drakkn.) The resulting prints are incredibly precise and the printer itself is highly portable. People love to watch it work.

However - I'm not convinced it's a suitable printer for first-timers or children. My printers from Maker's Tool Works are considerably easier to debug and keep running. Not easy, just easier. The bowden extruder on Tantillus caused me considerable headaches - though (again), it works fabulous when tuned properly and fed good filament.

I haven't tried the belts or the cable lift, as I've found the 'fishing line' to be very precise once tightened properly. I love the X-Y drive as originally designed.

Finally, all the 'build tips' you need are probably archived in this forum. You could probably gather a comprehensive set of hints by spending an evening reviewing the early posts and taking good notes.

I was thinking of a Tantilus for my nieces as well, though acrylic rather than the printed body so they could watch the prints. Was half inspired by the TinyBoy which is a smaller, all-acrylic printer aimed at school children. I think I would definitely prefer a direct drive setup though with belts rather than fishing line, not that it can't work just as well.

has anyone customized their tantalus build i mean like the printed parts having a special design in them?

Quote
Manxian
has anyone customized their tantalus build i mean like the printed parts having a special design in them?

Not that I have seen, but really cool idea.

Assuming you can add something like that with meshmixer, though I believe there are instructions in one of Adafruit's 123D tutorials for modifying the mesh of an existing STL file.

Well here is the idea i had for another project this will eventually be a door to a sla printer i'm eventually going to print

art Neaveau door i usually use thinkercad to design stuff because i'm not versed with any of the other real design programs.

I used a program to convert the image i chose (a black and white) into a stl file then joined the solid door design to the stl the glass behind it (well platic0 will be a uv blocking red or orange. let me know what you think

and yes i know i have to clean it up alot and join stuff together.better but it was a proof of concept for me

would anyone happen to have a copy of a sketch plan for the tantillus?

I've got to admit, I'm still thinking about building one too...

My parts have started coming in yahoo