I have been myself thinking about DC motors instead of steppers, with some kind of encoder. I always want to push faster, and stepper motor is not well suited for higher speeds, the question is still having the accuracy as well. A very cheap DC motor could run much faster than a stepper, with way higher torque (==more power!). I really hope you can make this succeed!by PulsedMedia - Reprappers
wow, awesome quality on the prints!by PulsedMedia - Reprappers
Interesting info A2! I should probably get a filastruder or somethign and make my own, choosing the specific material from that standpoint. Yes, i could get a lathe and make my own bushings that way - it would be easy, faster achieved and expensive.... and boring I want to make them using 3D Printing, because then i can achieve shapes that couldn't be done by lathe and milling, and do whatevby PulsedMedia - Polymer Working Group
I had similar, the heat would creep up and make the filament upwards soft enough for it to make a big blob and a jam happens ... Ended up heat insulating the hotend tip with heater element, reattaching the thermistor as close to the tip as possible (small slot in the nozzle). Used fiberglass matt and kapton to wrap it around many times. Now printing nylon @ 270c, and have a 80mm cooling fan coolby PulsedMedia - Printing
Nylon has become my favorite material It's easy to work with given certain precautions and extra steps. Here's my guide to good Nylon printing! Pre-requisites: * All Metal Hotend * Access to oven you can freely use for most of the day at a time * Glass print bed * Dishwashing soap * Black & white newspaper * PVA Glue (white wood glue) * Glass jar, or empty PVA glue bottle with cap intact oby PulsedMedia - Printing
awesomely simplistic, low cost approachby PulsedMedia - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Oisko jollakin välineet kierrättää vanhat feilanneet printit jossain pkseudun lähettyvillä? Mulla on tossa iso kasa feilanneita ABS, PLA ja Nylon printtejä ja ennenku ostan omat välineet niin haluisin nähdä miten prosessi sujuu ja kokeilla printtaa pätkän kierrätetyllä matskulla. Entäs vanhojen spoolien kierrätys? Eikös ne yleensä ole ABS:aa? Ei tuota kierrätettävää ole kuin ehkä pari kiloa josby PulsedMedia - Finnish RepRap User Group
I need the size to make the parts to begin with. Then again, it's not one of the reasons i want to build a megasized one. Fully autonomous with many smaller printers will handle the huge queue. as for heating the heat bed: My intent was always to go away from PLA, biodegradeable in automative OR datacenter applications not so good... especially with the low temps and hence, make the printer enclby PulsedMedia - Reprappers
My belief was that POM is not *that* rigid, rigid but not that rigid. I have a spool of Acetal, ie. POM here with me ordered from China, but haven't tried it and no idea what they have mixed in with POM :/ I think i might have to visit a local plastics specialist company to get what i need and make my own filament, since i need engineering quality. Intending to use for rally car bushings.by PulsedMedia - Polymer Working Group
Let me introduce you to my lil' friend, BFH: That ought to make the bigger pieces suitable smaller for the blender Just put in a extra strong bag so you don't get shrapnel everywhere ... and oh yeah probably wearing protective eye wear is a good idea too Now getting from there to 5mm pieces more reliably than a blender... Too much manual labor still.by PulsedMedia - General
When printing small things @ low speed, then it heats up too much, since the high temp is to compensate small melt chamber. Manual adjustments is a bad idea as eventually i want to be running these machines autonomously, i got a ton of things to print, just to begin with when design is finalized, i have about 3500hr printing queue :O Just for the ITX Blades + chassis parts. IMO, better to have laby PulsedMedia - Reprappers
thanks for the link about BigRep. Cool machine!by PulsedMedia - Reprappers
Extruder -> You are actually talking about the hotend Haven't built yet, and have to still do testing. Melt chamber size is infact adjustable on the "ghetto" design, i can just loosen up the actual hotend, screw it upwards, retighten, shorten the nozzle and screw it back in. Done, smaller melt chamber One of the things i need to test out is outside shape of the nozzle, in theory a bit sharperby PulsedMedia - Reprappers
QuoteShadowRam I have a large repstrap, There is no way in hell your design is going to work. If you are using any kind of rollers your boned, If you don't have your Y-Axis spread out enough from allowing your Z-Axis from wobbling around your boned, I'm using NEMA 23's. If you attempt to use NEMA 17's your boned. And to top it all off, your foot print is larger than mine, and mine is madby PulsedMedia - Reprappers
QuoteRezer There's one huge issue you didn't seem to address: weight. A build platform of nearly (over?) a meter squared is going to be massive, probably at least 20 times heavier than your typical reprap. How do you intend to get print speeds anywhere near what a small printer can do using the same nema 17 motors? You're probably looking at reliable axis acceleration orders of magnitude beloby PulsedMedia - Reprappers
GT2 is too weak for my use, plus getting proper lengths is going to be an issue. We have a local shop who specializes in belt drives, i could go there to shop around, but the cost to quality ratio is going to be way off compared to weaved thick fishing line. As for the temperature limitations of fishing line: Wikipedia says 80 to 100c, if i keep the enclosure at 60c, there shouldn't be any issueby PulsedMedia - Reprappers
Pneumatic stepper motors: Am i reading this right? Aren't those total crap? Weighs too much as well. Seems to be rather new thing, i found a paper from 2007 describing it as new. Oh well! Any ideas for remote power, which doesn't flex and doesn't weight too much? My bellief has always been that all cable based remote power flexes, and therefore will be way too inaccurate for this use.by PulsedMedia - Reprappers
I'm thinking a CoreXY type setup for the X and Y axis drive to save weight on the sled. The sled itself will not be very heavy, not sure how much makerslide weighs in at but will know then. I'm saying NO to inch wide belts, right now i'm leaning towards finding the strongest fishing line at sensible price, then weaving it together to form a even stronger one for the XY. Some fishing lines are verby PulsedMedia - Reprappers
Nice that you got it working! My first printer is a Prusa V1 which is unuseably broke right now and i don't think i can be arsed to fix it - too many mechanical design issues with it, i've got a makerfarm prusa i3 and makerbot underway for comparison. I run the drivers with enough current that one of my steppers started to loose it's magnetism due to the heat build up - without even heatsinks oby PulsedMedia - Reprappers
Yes - the gap is VERY important. Hairspray tho, at least with cheap one sticking is rather poor.by PulsedMedia - Reprappers
hmmm multi output... how about you need say 10 pieces of some print, operate two printers with same set of steppers... Just saying Thanks for reminding me this power transmission method is exists, this might help me with a weight issue on very large printer build. However, cables do flex, heavy gauge needs to be used for reliable long term use and further, backlash could be severe with this, buby PulsedMedia - Mechanics
QuoteGuizmo Wow, thanks guys! @ddseeker: I also tried to find the patent for the Spal system with no success, but that valve actuador is a great insight. I'm also thinking about a mechanism that could convert a reciprocating movement to a continuous one, so we could use the remoter in an oscillating way to drive a continuously turning output. One way could be engaging and disengaging automaticby PulsedMedia - Mechanics
As a solution, all he would have needed to do to make that machine *much much* better would have been to angle the main vertices so that they support both the X and Y directions, just something like even 5 degrees would have done MANY great things, then make all the parts taking much forces, such as the X carriage belt clamp area a bit thicker, and infact, the V1 has spot on the belt clamps *desiby PulsedMedia - Reprappers
Go with Mendel90, my experiences with Prusa v1 was so so so bad, and the reputation of Mendel90 is so good (made by nophead) i wouldn't hesitate if shelling out that kind of money. That being said - i have a makerfarm version Prusa i3 coming soon - mainly because i got it cheap, and hoping it's a usable machine. With Prusa V1, which is *very* similar to i2, basicly i2 is an update to v1, i've hadby PulsedMedia - Reprappers
Lead screws itself are expensive, for a 1600-1700mm pieces i would be assuming a total cost of 500$+ each, and 2 are needed. No thanks. The smooth rod screw will need auto tensioner ofc, static one will not do, and by design it has limited grip, so overtorque will make it slip - but if the torque is high enough it's a nice safety feature. Long term reliability of that system i would assume is quby PulsedMedia - Reprappers
there are other methods for autoleveling than adding a stepper to each corner Like measuring the level and changing gcode accordingly. MatterHackers claim to be able to autolevel on software alone - haven't tested this yet tho.by PulsedMedia - Reprappers
Quotecnc dick Yes pretty much so I don't think 20 x 20 mm is strong enough for even a small machine. And other things that are going to be mounted to the structure are also going to get heavier. For anything horizontal I think you should use rectangle with the largest side taking gravity load This makes me think that the narrow beam, which i incorrectly named in the designs X axis (i intend to hby PulsedMedia - Reprappers
Quotegaryhlucas The stiffness of a long narrow part comes from the material on the outside. Steel has a tensile strength of 50,000 psi or greater. Concrete 5,000 psi in compression, a couple of hundred psi at most in tension. So your frame will be much heavier but not stiffer. Doubling the circumference of a part about quadruples it's stiffness, and only doubles its weight. Making a part twiceby PulsedMedia - Reprappers
Quotecnc dick It's nice to see somebody else attempt this With very long running times reliability is more important than speed take for example if the printed parts take one hundred hours and it fails at 90 hours just lost 90 hours. Versus if it was a little slower will say 150 hours and print was successful obviously you'd be much better off. To achieve that kind of reliability you are going toby PulsedMedia - Reprappers