KUB5 homemade printer

Hi,
I bought one year ago a Anet A8. It is was working fine but i decided to modify it. I took all the parts (electronic and mechanical) and I printed the other ones to built a new one based on my design. It was a bit risky because if something went wrong I had to rebuilt my anet to redesign the faulty part... But at the end it was ok

It is made of 2020 aluminium extrusion. Height is 500mm , X and Y is 330mm (1m/3). I bought my extrusion in the local shop... Next time I will purchase them directly at BG. the lenght will be 350mm and the cut is probably better than mine...

Printing area is 200x215... (220x220 with BG profil). In heigh it is only 200mm but it is more than enough for me.

I did not fix the vertical axis all the way up to have a better rigidity and it is much easier to design (however you need one more extrusion)

I will update the soft as I plan to used a reduction between motors and axis (~2/1) it will increase the resolution

I need also to reduce the lenght of the axis to put the inclosure. It will be made of 3mm PVC hard foam

I am also in contact with Igus for bearings. I want to replace the bronze bearings and the linear bearings with their products... I just afraid by the play and the friction

I also detected some play on the head (cheap bg bearing), I will print a new one to put two short bearing instead of one long.. But right now the quality is very good much more that expected...and I want to test the Igus solution

I will also redesign the extruder for tpu...

So it is still in progress but it is printing fine

[www.youtube.com]





Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2018 04:56PM by Cid156.

Some more pictures

Nice job. Looks good.

Are the X axis guide rods rotating?

Interesting to use rod as guide and drive?

Cozmicray, a lot of printers use this type of mechanism: ultimaker, zortrax etc. I personally quite like it, it looks cool, is quite rigid and has an independent and symmetrical X and Y system with no moving steppers.

Trakyan, IMHO this printer has a unique way of using the shafts ( which drive the belts on both sides with one stepper ) also as smooth rods for the gantry.

That would require a different bearing type, like IGUS bearings?
edit: a closer look told me, you are running the gantry without bearing. I'd at least use PTFE tube for longer service life.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2018 02:59AM by o_lampe.

All axis are on bearings
The main head is on linear bearing
The side axis are on bronze bearings cause they are rotating too

You can not see it on the above pictures cause I use a lip to avoid the bearing to slip out of the part. And on the other side a screw (like the picture below)





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2018 05:30PM by Cid156.

Quote
o_lampe
Trakyan, IMHO this printer has a unique way of using the shafts ( which drive the belts on both sides with one stepper ) also as smooth rods for the gantry.

I believe that's what the ultimaker and zortrax etc. do. They usually use bronze bushings on the perimeter for exactly this reason, since an LM8UU doesn't fare so well with the rotation used to drive the belts.

It is nearly finish... I put the cover on... It is only fix with magnets

I have a similar design in planning and I was wondering how secure the pulleys are on the smooth rods. I was considering putting flats on the ends, but if they’re secure enough, I might not.