which reprap has the biggest build area ?

I would like to to build a new bigger printer which reprap has the biggest build area and most solid construction ?

Thanks Nikki

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/2015 05:30PM by Nikki81.

The one you make yourself of course!

If you got the money, you could buy a huge silicone heating pad, connect it to a solid state relay, and then just use the Marlin/Arduino board to turn the solid state relay on and off.
The Relay costs any where from $35.00 to $80.00. The silicone heating pad, which can be as large as you like, starts off at something like $80.00 a square foot.
Using this setup, the heated bed can be as large as you want/can afford.

Tom's guides on Youtube explains it better.

The one nitpick is that the heated bed has to be connected to an independent AC power source, but this isn't too bad, since that also frees up the Power Supply feeding the Arduino from having to feed those watts into the heating element directly.

That depends on how you define RepRap, how you define build area, and how you define solid.

$170 12x24 silicone heating pad, bare wire connection

[www.briskheat.com]

As Qxks_ says, if you want a really large build area then you can design one yourself. I am not aware of any widely-replicated designs for large printers. Here are a few suggestions:

- Avoid having a bed moving in the X or Y direction. It will be too massive to accelerate easily, and increases the footprint. So your choice is basically delta (fixed bed), or H-bot or CoreXY (bed moving in the Z direction)

- For the bed heater, you can get silicone heating pads custom made to your size, voltage and power specifications at amazingly low prices from these people: [www.aliexpress.com]. I use a 300mm diameter 230V 350W one in my large(ish) delta printer. To keep the wiring neat and avoid multiple power cables, I have the power supply for the rest of the printer and all the mains wiring under the bed. More details on my blog: [miscsolutions.wordpress.com].

- Building a large printer will cost you quite a lot in mechanical parts, so don't spoil it by using Arduino/RAMPS electronics. Go for good 32-bit electronics with a web interface, such as Duet or Smoothieboard.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Quote
dc42
- Building a large printer will cost you quite a lot in mechanical parts, so don't spoil it by using Arduino/RAMPS electronics. Go for good 32-bit electronics with a web interface, such as Duet or Smoothieboard.

Why is it better to have the stepper drivers onboard? A newbie (like me) killes a driver in no_time. With a duet or smoothieboard you are screwed for a long time.
RAMPS and pololu driver boards are easy to get and always available. Is that also true for duet or smoothieboard?
-Olaf

From what I can tell, the only advantage is being able to set the current digitally.

What I don't understand is why this can't be done with a Pololu driver?

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greghoge.com

HUGE 3D PRINTER PARTS SALE!!!

There is another advantage of having the drivers on the board, which is that they can be better cooled by the PCB. The standard stepstick-type drivers just don't have enough room on them to provide enough PCB copper area to cool the driver chip properly.

Don't underestimate the benefit of software-controlled stepper motor current! It makes getting the current right much easier.

I appreciate that some users prefer plug-in drivers because they can be replaced easily. However, most driver failures are the result of people connecting or disconnecting stepper motors with power applied, or shorting the adjustment pot out while adjusting it with power applied.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].