Building a 3d printer

[PHULL]

So i wanted a 3d printer to get into the cnc side of things. i went for a reprap style machine
First I bought the machine around mid january and the said individal has yet to send it. it should look like this when or if it arrives

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/320805550...84.m1497.l2649

other things were also ordered from other sources, Stepper motors, Control board (Audrino style), a heated bed, Some Peek Plastic.

Another thing I needed was a printer heat. so I contacted Billzilla off this forum to print out some parts to build the print head. Thanks Bill it's going well

so here are the photos...


the heated bed




the control board, comes with everything on itextruder and stepper motor controllers. Also a heated bed and hot end controller


a shot of my desk that power suply has meed mofified to work the machine












the white plastic parts are whts was printed by bill, the other parts were what I had on hand, the bearings I have shitloads of and the large long black bolts attach the hot end whih is yet to arrive. I am also about to puch out a run of them on the turret lathe too

[Billzilla]

Ah very cool I was wondering how all those parts fitted together.

[Greg Rust]

Very nice, I hope you heat treat those spur gears!

[Billzilla]

Very nice, I hope you heat treat those spur gears!

Noooooo ....!!!

[Shonky]

Are the gears assuming they are included in the "white parts printed by Bill" really strong enough for the job?

[Billzilla]

Are the gears assuming they are included in the "white parts printed by Bill" really strong enough for the job?

Yep I made them on my machine - http://www.performanceforums.com/for...#post841343716
There's no big loads in those machines so the gears will be fine. But yes they're reasonably strong.

[Karnage]

So If you can use a 3d printer to make a 3d printer, Does this mean when AI becomes a reality we are all screwed?

[Mister Black]

So If you can use a 3d printer to make a 3d printer, Does this mean when AI becomes a reality we are all screwed?

One step closer to Von Neuman machines to strip-mine asteriods....

[Mister Black]

So If you can use a 3d printer to make a 3d printer, Does this mean when AI becomes a reality we are all screwed?

Heh, self-replicating forum posts too.

[BoganDAVE]

So If you can use a 3d printer to make a 3d printer, Does this mean when AI becomes a reality we are all screwed?

fknlol

[Nathan Tinkler]

You have to keep part a and part b separated by several kilometres to ensure it's safety.

[bugle]

Skynet

[Stix Zadinia]

sort of a thread hijack - but has anyone looked at the Roland iModela? might be too small for your purposes though (and i think it cuts a block rather than injecting plastic to build something up)

http://www.rolanddgn.com/Products/detail.html?id=100

[poid]

will follow, as i wanna build my own 3D printer during the year. Though i think i'll go with a CNC-style fixed gantry design, less complicated (i dont really care that it cant replicate itself!)

[buket of water]

yeah i have one of these
brought an assembled one off botmill (what a fucken mistake)

spent two weeks trying to get my computer to talk to the printer and once i did i blew up the stepper controls (i have RAMPS 1.4)
i would suggest thread locking the nuts once you have the frame square as z axis movements vibrated the shit out of everything.

[PHULL]

so the machine managed to arrive today, and I am assembling it as we speak, here are a few photos of the machine as I put it together, dispite the wait which I was displeased about I found the machine well thought out and well designed, ( if you suck at Ikea even with instructions you are in trouble) this came with all the inear slides ( looks line sinlered bronse on drill rod) and mounting hardware


mocked up with the heat bed, I thing I'll use some alloy angle for this


another shot with the printer head next to it. If you look closely you can see where the print head mounts too on the machine


this is how the base and most of the other parts were put together with mdf glue and clamps

[Billzilla]

Ah, I see it's made from wood, and so is self-replicating.

[Benonymous]

Can be a slow process however...

[PHULL]

I'm pretty sure thats what the dude who sold it to me did to make the machine lol

[PHULL]

so now since the machine is fully assembled it is time to move onto the electronics side of things. Also last night you will see a have fitted the end stops to the linear slides and also the lead screws. The kit ws supplied with self tapping screws but I though they were sucky and installed M3 socket heads with matching lock nuts


Now is time for the limit switches


and some more



Here too


The unions for the lead screw to the stepper motors came from Jaycar they were a brass 4mm to 6mm union I bored out on the lathe to 5mm for the stepper motors and pressed the leadscrews in and secured with more M3 screws

[Nathan Tinkler]

Is the leadscrew mild steel threaded rod?

[PHULL]

yerp they sure are

[Billzilla]

FWIW I had to clean the nozzle on mine (soak in acetone overnight to dissolve the ABS) and took a photo of the size of it for you.
Looks like about 0.2 mm to 0.25 mm diameter.

[PHULL]

I went to the jewlers supply place on Swanston Street ( Guys you should go there, the stuff is seriously cheap compared to Bunnings or Total tools. pitty all I could get was .5mm drill bits

[Billzilla]

I went to the jewlers supply place on Swanston Street ( Guys you should go there, the stuff is seriously cheap compared to Bunnings or Total tools. pitty all I could get was .5mm drill bits

Maybe try jet drills for carby jets. I'm not sure if they'd go small enough though.

[PHULL]

yeah they will to, I think RS components has smaller drill bits too

[Billzilla]

... or just buy an UP! nozzle?
http://store.3dprintingsystems.com/i...tegory&path=63

[PHULL]

At that prive I think I might try getting the gas jets you find in Natural Gas/ LPG appliences they are slightly cheaper, dunno about the service tho

[Greg Rust]

I used to buy a fair bit of stuff from these guys http://tecpro.com.au/

Easy to deal with, Andrew Cooper was the contact there.