Larger format 3D printer?

Hello All,

This is my first post and I am about to start the design a printer. I have over 30 years in the precision linear motion indutry and would like to my skills on a project to have some fun with as well as I have a need for a larger format desktop printer and have yet to find one to buy. Are there any 3D printers with x axis in the range of 24"? If not Why? Some dificulty I m overlooking or just nobody has bothered yet?

Best regards,

Marc

Hi Marc!

Great to have the help from some one experimented! You are going to enjoy 3D printing, for sure.

A few big printer have been seen, especially on kickstarter: Gigabot.
Or: [www.grassrootsengineering.com]

The real problem is the print time. With a small printer, it may take from 12 to 24 hours to print a full sized part with 0,1mm layers. You will be talking about days on a big printer.
Maybe the hotend should be «scaled» too if you are thinking about something huge, maybe like a 1mm nozzle.

Another issue that a lot of 3d printers have during large scale Prince is working. This can be alleviated using alternating pads or rafts to help secure potential lift points. Warping is a huge issue with larger prints even ones quite a bit smaller then the scale you are referring to. Most big prints people do are done by printing several smaller pieces that are engineered to fit together to make larger pieces. This works extremely well especially with ABS as it can easily be glued in conjunction with other methods.

Like he said if you wanted to print using that scale then the best way to do it would be to scale up your extruder, otherwise you will be taking days to do a print that may warp. This would make you have to re-print the part. It might take you weeks to print one large usable part that isn't warped.

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Hello All,

Thanks for the great replies. While I have a few items I would want to print that are long, a larger printer also gives a larger area to print many small parts too. I woudl never expect to print the full volume area, but more like a large rectangle but less than an inch thick. If I were to go with a 3mm filament to bump up the speed then I would do that at the sake of layer thickness and resolution on those long and large parts. Could I use a hot end designed for 3mm that will work for less accurate and fast yet also still be able to do fine layers when I need to on small parts with a smaller diameter nozzle? basicaly what I am asking does settling on 3mm material and a hot end made for that make it so I cant get 100 micron layers when I need too? I suppose I could ave two hot ends one for 3mm and one for 1.75mm material...

For the small machines, I have been intrigured with the delta design, but curious how they seem to get better accuracy over the gantry design as I would think the multiple linkage arms would have quite a bit more hysteresis then a properly designded gantry.

Your thoughts?

Marc

Concerning your hotend, you should look for a changeable nozzle. I've never seen a 1mm nozzle, but it could be very easily done.
You don't necessarily need to have both 1.75mm and 3mm kit, because you would probably need to have many different parts (tube, extruder, kits, etc) I suggested 3mm because printing with a 1mm nozzle will have a very fast filament speed. You may encounter problems with a 1.75mm, probably the heat won't melt the filament quickly enough.

Delta design is great, accurate and fast. We see more and more innovation with this design, magnets links avoid any leak/gap with parts and linkages. This design is mostly effective with tall parts.

I just ran across the Kossel design and its quite close to the methodology to the design I had in mind. I might order the pre printed parts for it, build it and learn from it. Chances are I'd learn a thing or two I could put to use in whatever I design..

Marc

Excellent idea Marc, I've done exactly the same thing. Learn and then design! You might want to take a look at the Kossel Clear, currently on kickstarter.

Hey WoodenCaseo1,

I saw that as well and it looks like they took the Kossel idea and are marketing it. My design intent is similar to theirs as I want to avoid multi length rods and a non adjutsable arm is what I wanted to do. However the last material I would choose is plexi for that... Seems they got hung up on the clear idea so much so that they kept the arms clear... I have a different much more ridged method but the result is the same..

Marc

Marc, I think everything worth trying. The fundamental with reprap is to get a printer and reproduce it OR improve it. There is always place for improvement. Your ideas might be better than what you can expect. Or they may lead to a better idea.

woodencase01 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Marc, I think everything worth trying. The
> fundamental with reprap is to get a printer and
> reproduce it OR improve it. There is always place
> for improvement. Your ideas might be better than
> what you can expect. Or they may lead to a better
> idea.

Quite true..I was a bit hasty to talk ill of the plexi arms...

addicted2climbing Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello All,
>
> This is my first post and I am about to start the
> design a printer. I have over 30 years in the
> precision linear motion indutry and would like to
> my skills on a project to have some fun with as
> well as I have a need for a larger format desktop
> printer and have yet to find one to buy. Are
> there any 3D printers with x axis in the range of
> 24"? If not Why? Some dificulty I m overlooking
> or just nobody has bothered yet?
>
> Best regards,
>
> Marc


there are a lot of concerns with building a large 3-D printer number one is that large prints are going to take an extreme long time 24 hours a day for days which is okay professional large machines take a long time to do a large print the company I used to work for the biggest one they did took seven days 24 hours a day on a professional machine the main thing is reliability it has to be able to run long periods of time without any goof ups first thing to do is build an extruder and hot end that is reliable once you achieve this and by the way you can test on any CNC machine you can start building your machine strength of the machine depends on how heavy your extruder turned out to be average print speeds you want from 60 to 120 mm a second with Rapids of around 300 mm a second and with large prints you going to need a heated built chamber here is a picture of mine