I love the Mendel90 design!
After spending months considering different options for my first printer, I can see the Mendel90 (Sturdy) solves many flaws in other designs. So 'Well Done!' to nophead and others involved.
Of course everything can be improved. If I'm aiming for faster, finer, and more accurate prints, then what part of the design is holding it back?
NB: For the sake of this discussion, I'm not concerned about build volume, cost (up to an extra few hundred dollars) or complexity of assembly.
Some things are simple so I figure I might as well spend a bit more and get:
Precision trapezoidal lead screws, nuts, and couplers for the Z
Good GT2 belts and pulleys for X and Y
High-end smooth rods all around
Either polycarbonate/acrylic or similar to replace MDF frame parts (since I have high humidity)
A compact geared extruder (eg Ron's or Trinitylab's).
... but going a few steps further, would I benefit from:
A) Replacing motor mounts with Angle steel or aluminium?
B ) Replacing the X and Z smooth rod with supported rods and open linear bearings?
- In this case I'd mount the linear dovetail rail X-Axis on a thick sheet of aluminium which is mounted on 4 open linear bearing blocks
- the X-motor and pulleys would attach easily to the aluminium sheet which extends beyond both Z-rods.
C) Dropping all the round rods and just using dovetail rails everywhere?
D) Making the axis even more rigid by making it out of 12mm aluminium or steel sheets?
- Or just 3mm sheets with SHS reinforcing everywhere that matters?
E) Mounting the whole thing on 100kg of concrete?
F) ????
If I made all these changes then I'd end up a very rigid and precise machine, but I'm trying to discover which modifications would actually improve the print quality over the standard design. Nophead has made the designs very easy to assemble so there needs to be a real advantage if I'm going to spend all the extra time (and money) machining the parts for an 'upgraded' version.
So let me know your thoughts. What is holding the Mendel90 back?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2012 10:24PM by ahorton.
