18mm diameter body. 25.5mm long However, I would prefer 14mm or 16mm for better resolution.by nicholas.seward - Developers
I use AutoCAD and the post process in inkscape. There are many free 2D cad programs if you don't have AutoCAD. Hand sketches are also welcome.by nicholas.seward - Developers
X=x-3z Z=x+3z Y=y The capitals are steppers and the lowet case letters are coordinates. I would be interested in a sketch of what you have planned. I can't visualize it yet.by nicholas.seward - Developers
For 8mm I would limit your length to 300mm. Scaling up is tricky but for a rough idea scale everything the same. If you want to go from 300mm to 900mm long then the diameter needs to go from 8mm to 24mm. (It is tricky because the loads will probably increase too from weight from the other axes. If everything is directly scaled then so will the error. This means you have to increase the diameby nicholas.seward - Developers
Stainless is not as strong. What angle will the wire make with the rod? The smaller this is... the more buckling you will get. Additionally, even small X accelerations (0.1g) will start some gnarly big oscillations (quickly estimated to be 2mm) no matter how you support the ends of the rods. It is even possible to hit the natural frequency and get 1cm+ oscillations. If you specify your targeby nicholas.seward - Developers
What is the diameter of your smooth rods? 8mm will buckle at that length.by nicholas.seward - Developers
QuoteRalph.Hilton I suspect that to gain the same stability as given by 8mm rods, you would need 8mm cable and that the cost would be higher than the rods. This is not true. Bridges are a good example.by nicholas.seward - Developers
@3dkarma: I would agree that it is not a large portion of the total costs. However, your meta message seems to be that you shouldn't remove them just because they are cheap. If you can remove them and make the printer simpler, easier to assemble, better looking, etc then I would say go for it. @napalmvictory: You won't be able to do a direct string for rod replacement. First of all, the Mendeby nicholas.seward - Developers
QuoteA2 Look into a thermal fuse connected to a relay to power everything down. The advantage with the above approach could be less house-burns-down points of failure. A self-regulating heater by definition would be hard to overheat. A thermal fuse could become detached or the relay could be broken.by nicholas.seward - Safety & Best Practices
I recently found out that PTC thermistors in some cases can be used as a self-regulating heater. I am quite happy having a PLA only printer especially if the chance of burning my house down is reduced. More importantly, it would be nice if the students that I loan out printers to and "promise" me that they will not run it unattended would have a low chance of burning down the dorm. Has anyoneby nicholas.seward - Safety & Best Practices
@vreihen: No, but I assume it can be done easily. Wish I had time to do it. I am probably going to save my new Azteeg X5 for my CorEXY. (It is a CoreXY that drives the extruder with a belt from a static stepper.)by nicholas.seward - Developers
QuoteDaveGadgeteer Would it be so bad to move the Z rails and bearings to the other side of the gantry? Then the pulleys could move out further toward +-X. The string forces wouldn't be in the same plane as the guide rails, but not far away. The short answer is you can do this. The long answer is that I struggled with this design for months. I went through many many iterations. It was a gamby nicholas.seward - Developers
Quotebrucehvn Thanks Nicholas. I'd like to take a look at your branch. So, are you using a smoothieboard and smoothieware now? I am not using it yet but I am moving in that direction.by nicholas.seward - Developers
@brucehvn: I have hacked together a Marlin branch for my machine. I don't claim that it is a general solution but I would be glad to share it. I would spend more time on making the firmware handle generic transformations but ARM chips seem to be the future and Smootieware is good at that already.by nicholas.seward - Developers
First, I would not worry about the added complexity. It is very easy to drill holes and route the string so that isn't really a problem. However, I think you can keep the string in 1 plane and get smaller. Here is the arrangement that I now use. It keeps the string in 1 plane with only the addition of 2 bearings. The gantry is about as compact as it can be in the X direction. Sidenote: Mby nicholas.seward - Developers
@NathanaelXYZ: I have had instances with low string tension that allowed the gantry to fall about 10mm. With high/regular tension, the gantry usually never budges. In any case, the farthest it has fallen is 10mm so at the end of a print, I park the gantry at the top and off to the side and have yet to have a problem. Before I go into the calculations, string walking on the spool for the mostby nicholas.seward - Developers
@LMColl: Sounds like fun. Let me know if you need a design review or anything.by nicholas.seward - Developers
@Dejay: I am going to experiment with my own acetal/derlin lazy susans for the GUS hub. I will also break the convention that the shoulder offset and the hub offset are the same. It will make the math harder but I have some Azteeg X5s coming. The print volume actually goes up as the size of the hub increases to a point. LISA is not a super rigid arrangement. A traditional arrangement is whby nicholas.seward - Delta Machines
@Hazer: I sure hope that humans leaving the planet and self-replication isn't a fad. We can't really take on solar system sized engineering projects until we do both on a regular basis. There is no way to reach a Type II Kardashev Civilization without both. It might be far from practical now but endeavors in that direction can hardly be said to not help anything. I like the saying "if you arby nicholas.seward - General
@cozmicray: LISA started as a design challenge after I felt bad for telling someone on this forum that lead screws are a horrible idea for column deltas. It was mostly a joke. I never intended to build it. My students happened to need a project and everyone seemed to like the concept so I threw caution to the wind and let them build it. For me, that is the end of it. I have shared the ideaby nicholas.seward - Delta Machines
I try to use 3D printed parts as a cost reduction measure. It makes a lot of sense if you want to make your own printer or one for a friend. However, I would avoid 3D printes parts if I wanted to make a product. What I am saying is that the goal of making a cheaper more self-replicatable not is a good one. Additionally, that is just my take. If someone wants to spend more to get a more self-by nicholas.seward - General
@pbrstreetgang: There will never a shortage of people that make false or misleading claims. You might be in for a very long break if you wait for them to go away. I think the best approach would be to educate the public.by nicholas.seward - Safety & Best Practices
You can implement a leveling probe or FSRs on any bot. Kossel was actually one of the first printers to popularize its use.by nicholas.seward - Delta Machines
Quotesanman Quotenicholas.seward The metal DLP is probably similar to how we can paste extrude metal clay and then put it in a kiln. Probably most SLA printers will work. But does this produce a metal part which is as strong as a forged metal part? Or will it be much weaker? There isn't enough information yet to speculate. My guess is that it won't be as good as a forged part. However, heatby nicholas.seward - General
I am sure it is a balancing act. More lumens could be faster but you also might start curing things you don't want to. I wonder how strong you can go.by nicholas.seward - General
The metal DLP is probably similar to how we can paste extrude metal clay and then put it in a kiln. Probably most SLA printers will work.by nicholas.seward - General
Quotesanman I was curious to know if DLP can make parts that have the strength and appearance of polycarbonate. Are there any DLP resins which can do this? What about fiber reinforcement - can DLP make parts containing short fibers for structural reinforcement purposes? What is the cost of DLP resin in comparison to FFF/FDM filament? Again, I've read conflicting information - some people say DLPby nicholas.seward - General
DLP can make much higher resolutions parts. They also make small parts, take longer to printer, have less design restriction on the parts, and have fragile prints. FFF can make low resolutions parts faster, stronger, and cheaper. As A2 indicated, they are both better than the other. You obviously need to have one of each just like you have a toothbrush and floss.by nicholas.seward - General
I have a Beagle Bone Black with the CRAMPS that is capable of controlling 9 steppers. That could mean a Sextupteron with 2 extruders and 1 gripper. It is really exciting to see all the solutions start to pop up with real processing power backing them up.by nicholas.seward - Delta Machines