I'm building a large CoreXY printer with a build volume of 20"x26"x26". So the hotend can be very far from the hotend at max size (which obviously won't be used too much but i'm designing for when it does). I don't have a good grasp on how well Bowdens work, esp for flexible filaments, which is leading me to my questions: How long can a bowden tube be to successfully print flexible filaments? Hby shortyski13 - General
QuotePippy Quotedc42An easier way to increase resolution (if you need to) is to use 0.9deg motors and 16-tooth motor pulleys. Moving to 16 tooth drive pulley would be nice because that produces 0.02mm per step rather than 0.025mm per step .. nice to have more rounded numbers, not that it makes any difference at that level with home built 3D printing really. The reason for me was mainly to reducby shortyski13 - CoreXY Machines
Looking now, it seems almost everything there are chinese knockoffs. I also wonder how RobotDigg's versions are. Curious for reviews on those.by shortyski13 - General
I'm building a fairly large printer. Originally i was planning to use v-slots and rollers, but since I've learned of linear rails id like to do that, not just for accuracy but also needing less maintenance. The problem is the cost since I'm trying to keep my costs down and they are expensive. Are there any inexpensive rail and block systems out there that work well, better than vslot rollers?by shortyski13 - General
Quotenewbob To me the most important specifications when choosing the belt were backlash and repeatability. I picked GT2, 2mm pitch for lowest backlash and 10mm width for repeatability. As per sdp-si.com, GT2 2mm belts have lowest backlash (equal to or slightly better than trapezoidal belts), that is much lower than GT3 3mm or HTD belts. GT3 3mm and HTD belts are more suitable for CNC machineby shortyski13 - General
I'm currently leaning towards 9mm 3GT belts (gt2-3m) for my large design to fight against stretching and what-not. still not sure if that will sacrifice on backlash or not though...but that could be another option.by shortyski13 - General
Based on parts I have on hand, I'd like to make a belt-driven cnc router/milling machine used primarily for wood, and once in a blue moon for aluminum (and would need a bit less accuracy). Would this work with reasonable accuracy (particularly on the wood)? I'm thinking hardwoods by the way, but clear (no knots). Thanksby shortyski13 - CNC Routers, Mills, and Hybrid RepRapping
If I wanted to switch from using a volcano heat block with bigger nozzle, like .8, and decided I want to print something smaller and put a .3 nozzle on, would this work? I realize changing the heating elements shouldn't be that big of a deal, but I'm curious and don't have a way to test it myself. Would it just kill any hopes of retraction with much more melted plastic inside the throat?by shortyski13 - General
I found that 3GT belts can be used with HTD-3M pulleys, so I will use those for the idlers and 2GT-3M drive pulleys, since those I can find. Just FYI for anyone with the same predicament and were debating using a smooth idler (which I'm opposed to).by shortyski13 - General
Do you think the cooling scheme in this design will work well, or do you think 2 fans on either side is really needed? (Pictures attached). Essentially, I upgraded the 30mm fan on the V6 hotend heatsink to 40mm and ducted it, just to give that some extra cooling and help prevent creep at higher temperatures, and then used the stock 30mm fan that comes with the hotend to blow fan on 2 sides of thby shortyski13 - General
Quoteetfrench Quoteshortyski13 Quoteo_lampe Here is a good place to look for GT3 pulleys. They're called GT2-3mm as mentioned above. Trying to avoid plastic bearings. Much appreciated though. Why? They are more than adequate for the loads a printer will be putting on them. I thought they would wear out very quickly and wouldn't be very precise. I could be wrong. Plus they aren't shiny ;-)by shortyski13 - General
Quoteo_lampe Here is a good place to look for GT3 pulleys. They're called GT2-3mm as mentioned above. Trying to avoid plastic bearings. Much appreciated though.by shortyski13 - General
So as I understand it, GT2-2M belts are also known as 2GT belts and are GT2 belts with 2mm pitch and is total 1.38mm thick (dimensions shown here, but can be found elsewhere as well: ) As I understand it, GT2-3M belts are also known as 3GT belts, and are also considered GT2 belts with 3mm pitch. They also are thicker with total 2.40mm thickness, some is in the actual belt thickness and some inby shortyski13 - General
My X/Y belts for my CoreXY design will be approx 3meters each (very large build). Thus I'm looking into 3GT belts for added stiffness, particularly 9mm width, but am having a couple issues that leave me to questions that seem hard to answer by my best friend, Go Ogle. 1) It seems impossibly hard to find toothed 3GT idlers, especially 9mm width. Misumi has them but are insanely expensive. Anyoby shortyski13 - General
Is it noticeably beneficial to have the air coming from two sides vs just one side? Also, wouldn't you want them to be at a bit of an angle instead of directly blowing at each other to avoid stagnation?by shortyski13 - General
Quotedeckingman For info, my Core XY has a build area a tad under 400 x 400 and 740 in Z. The main frame is 600 x 600 x 1,000. I can print stuff like this and this and there are some other things on my Youtube channel. The bed weighs in at around 7kg (10mm thick aluminium topped with 6mm thick float glass) and is lifted by 3 screws driven by a single Nema 17 via a continuous belt. As configureby shortyski13 - General
Quick idea without much thought afterwards because I need to go to bed... to remedy the "can't retract" problem, what if you hook up a small vacuum to the nozzle somehow to "pull" the material up a bit, or at the very least have it just strong enough to keep any from seeping out. Thoughts? This is an interesting topic, and despite the nay-sayers, ill stay optimistic in that I think that while iby shortyski13 - General
Quotethe_digital_dentist You're still not getting it. In my example, the distance from the nozzle to the bed will never be more than 200.945 um. The error is cumulative and the total error in a 1kg print is 42um. There will never be a layer that's 242 um thick. I completely understand what you are saying. What I'm asking is: If there is 201um gap between the extruder and the print, and yourby shortyski13 - General
Quotethe_digital_dentist I corrected a math error in my post. In the example, a 200 um layer, if it were solid plastic covering the bed, would have a 0.945 micron error at the completion of the layer. That's about 0.5%, of the layer thickness and that amount only occurs if the layer is solid plastic covering the entire bed. Prints that do that are pretty rare. The error accumulates slowly, aby shortyski13 - General
QuoteDjDemonD Has anyone ever tried or considered a rail supported z axis which climbs a rack using a pinion gear like a mountain railway? Then it wouldn't matter how tall it is, provided the pinion gears were geared highly enough not to roll back down the rack on power off. Interesting idea. I feel like the lack of available parts is the biggest hindrance, and i'm assuming that alone makes itby shortyski13 - General
So you almost have me convinced on the belt driven z-axis. The biggest problem I see with mine is that my Z-Axis (if I make it taller, which I'm leaning towards doing), will be moving about 1200mm, so 71% bigger. Doing quick calcs, that means .072mm/kg of stretch, position dependent. So while printing small parts would be fine and wouldn't see much stretch, if any at all, larger parts could cauby shortyski13 - General
Interesting. I'm using all 2040 but may go to the junkyard to find some scrap pieces of metal to use to brace the thing more. I recalculated the load, and the whole bed/frame assy that will be lifted is about 15 pounds for my design. Do you think I should go with a 9mm wide belt for this instead of 6mm? The belt will be about 2600mm long. Currently my X/Y belts are just a little shorter and arby shortyski13 - General
Quotethe_digital_dentist I think constraining all four corners of the bed support is likely to end in the mechanism binding at the slightest misalignment. Two bearings should be enough if everything is perfectly inflexible, so three should be plenty in the real world. Belts vs lead screws is a personal choice. Belts look like a cheaper alternative initially, but when you solve the bed-drop pby shortyski13 - General
I'm currently debating increasing my build height on my 3d printer design, which would require 1400mm lead screws to move my bed along the z-axis. I've been looking at 12mm dia ones and also at the option of just using a belt driven Z-Axis. Now I'm trying to justify using the belts system over the lead screws, but I just don't see the advantages, but maybe I just don't understand how lead screwby shortyski13 - General
QuoteLoboCNC Quoteshortyski13 I'm looking for a rather large (2138mm to be exactly, obviously bigger is okay, just not smaller) gt2 closed timing belt to run the pulleys for the bed raising/lowering on my large printer corexy design. I have to admit, i didn't expect to have the issue of not being able to find a large belt. Does anyone know where I can get one, or how to convert an open pulley iby shortyski13 - General
I'm looking for a rather large (2138mm to be exactly, obviously bigger is okay, just not smaller) gt2 closed timing belt to run the pulleys for the bed raising/lowering on my large printer corexy design. I have to admit, i didn't expect to have the issue of not being able to find a large belt. Does anyone know where I can get one, or how to convert an open pulley into closed that will actuallyby shortyski13 - General
All good info, thanks! If I use my phone (galaxy S7 Edge), tablet, or laptop to control/send commands to the duetwifi, can I also do so mid-print, and say pause/start the printer mid-print, or would it be more of a set-it and wait until it's done or it's unplugged thing? QuoteGroupB IF you want to use Reprap Firmware ( same as duet) with a radds forget the LCD thing, it work only on marlin andby shortyski13 - General
Questions in Blue, for those who prefer to skim. Currently still designing my large 3d printer, and about to go over budget, so I'm looking at ways to minimize the price but still get something that prints well (ie i'm trying to avoid crappy electronics if I can, like RAMPS). Currently, I've priced out my build using duetwifi controller. My question about this is: Do I need to by an LCD screenby shortyski13 - General
Sorry, should have specified. I'm looking at the V6 hotend that i'm unsure of how to mount. Im going to try a bowden setup and keep the extruder stationary.by shortyski13 - General
I'm modeling up a design for a corexy printer. I picked out the 3ED extruder and Hotend (mostly due to lack of knowlege and good reviews on those, plus I like i can print hot temps), and I realized I have no idea how to mount the sucker onto a beam (prob 2040 extrusion). Has anyone have a favorite method, mount plate, etc for mounting this thing to their machine? I know there are a bunch of difby shortyski13 - General