Idea ? Thinking out loud

So, i ordered the smartrapcore alu (not the xl300 because i prefer the alu actually) (and because i'm cheap) and i'm already throwing out ideas to improve this printer.
Big ideas.
Well, in the beginning i wanted to eventually build myself a c-bot, but now i'm thinking about being more realistic and finding out what i can do with the structure i have.
The first thing is: we have a 400x400x340 mm printer that prints in 200x200 mm. we sure can fix that right ? What if we put linear rails on top of the frame ? no deflection whatsoever, we get the motors on the back or the front of the printer like in the c-bot so we get them off the frame, replace the x-carriage with an aluminum extruded t-bar with another rail mounted on that ... seems promising to me !
What do you think ? It would be cool to use the same frame and enlarge the build area ... then you get the electronics on the side where you put the motors, 4 panels et voilà, awesome printer.
My only doubt is that (and i would never thought to say this) the aluminum extruded frame may be a little too weak. so maybe to increase rigidity some corners ?

I think trying to squeeze more printable area out of it is a good idea. I'm thinking to enlarge one axis by 10cm (x) but not really change the layout. Motors outside of the frame is a great idea. Easy to do for the left side as the pulley sits quite a bit higher than the frame, but on the right the pulley sits in line with the frame vertically. Not an insurmountable challenge at all but would need thinking about. Some people turn the motor upside down but leave the pulley where it is.

Linear rails seem a sensible way to go. I think as long as you think carefully about the belts being equal length for ease of setting up, definitely equal tension, and square to the frame not on odd angles then you can a lot with this printer design.

As for the frame being too weak wait until you built it. I could stand on my printer. There are no corner pieces the extrusions mount to one another with centre hole m6 bolts. Cross bracing wouldn't hurt though.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2016 01:27PM by DjDemonD.

---

Simon Khoury

Co-founder of [www.precisionpiezo.co.uk] Accurate, repeatable, versatile Z-Probes
Published:Inventions

Yeah, seems to me that there are a lot of ways to improve this, but all involves printing out different part or making the frame bigger ....
Well, for now i think i'm gonna upgrade the shit out of the printer without major changes (z-axis, stability, etc.), then when i need to make a major upgrade i'll include making the print area bigger.

That in my opinion can be done by either keeping the original design but changing the frame and the plastics to take 10mm rods, or changing some pieces with linear rails all together, maybe getting things on the frame instead of inside the frame ... but that's in the future, maybe i'll be ok with a 20x20 workspace, even if 20x30 is very tempting ...

Other interesting things are a direct drive extruder and a double extruder ...
While having 2 bowden i don't think it will be a problem, direct drive extruder would be a problem... first of all you'll lose the corexy advantage of having a light printer head, and second, i don't know if the bars and plastics can take it ... lot to think about ...
Maybe a flex3drive and a bowden would be ideal, as you can print with flexible filament and have a light carriage ... or the e3d titan and a bowden ... either way, i think that the e3d titan could be a huge upgrade for this printer, but someone should test it with the little nema motor seen here [www.youtube.com]

Or i just wait someone smarter than me makes an improved alu design on thingiverse

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2016 04:29AM by Gibbon91.

It's one step at a time I've had mine for 2-3 months it's had a lot of changes and I'd say now it prints really nice. Now I'm thinking about changing the print volume. I expect another few weeks or a month of messing around with it then to get to a really high state of tune. This is spending around and hour or two each evening.

I'm liking your ambitious plans, but get the thing and build it first.

I've ordered titan and a 13Ncm nema 17 motor so will let you know. I'd use a bowden for support material and a flex3drive for the part, that's best of both worlds.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2016 04:33AM by DjDemonD.

---

Simon Khoury

Co-founder of [www.precisionpiezo.co.uk] Accurate, repeatable, versatile Z-Probes
Published:Inventions

yeah, i like gettin ahead of myself ...
Or you can make a composite flex and pla print or something like that, i'm gonna go and search on youtube if someone has done a cool thing with it