[A_Camera]

I don't know if anyone is interested here, but I am in the process of building a 3D printer and made a short video about the current status. It is a sturdy printer, made out of aluminium extrusions, using MGN12 and MGN9 linear guides, as well as 2 x 1204 ball screws for the Z. It is pretty heavy and basically zero vibration, so I expect to be very precise.

https://youtu.be/qRImcmjYsG8

[A_Camera]

OK, over 170 views and not a single comment. My interpretation is that there is no interest for discussing 3D printers on this forum, or no interest for my printer. I have no problems with that, so don't worry, no need to post comments just to bump the thread to the top. Anyway, since I made some more progress, I thought I post my second view here as well, in case somebody is interested to watch it.

https://youtu.be/rouipbCCjuA

It is about my Y table, which is made out of 3mm aluminium plate, using 2 x MGN12 rails with four carriages and 10mm wide GT2 belt driven by a 0.9 degree, 1.7A stepper motor. Everything mounted on a 3mm aluminium sheet. The modular design for was my aim from the start for easy installation, change and adjustments.

[jfong]

I guess I missed the original post. Really nice build, one of the more rigid diy 3d printers I’ve seen. I have a basic maker select plus that has meet my expectations for a $350 printer.

I need to finish building my extrusion/profile linear rail printer.

[A_Camera]

Thank you for your comment. My first one is a cheap acrylic printer, which I bought mostly to learn and to see if I really wanted to enter the 3D printing area, but I soon realized that this is fun as well, not just CNC use and building, so I decided to build my own. I had a lot of aluminium profiles, enough to make this 400 x 400 x 400mm box plus all the other aluminium parts I am using, so there was no question about it, I went for this size and format. Yes, I can see and feel now that it is extremely rigid, but I am convinced that it is only for the best, so I am pretty happy with it for now, though so far I only made some fake printing, not heated up the extruder yet.

[109jb]

Very nice build. I too must have missed the first post. I too bought a cheapo 3d printer to see what the rage was all about. It is a Prusa i3 copy and works OK, but has some problems that I too want to address but by making a new frame for the existing bits. What I plan though is nowhere near as deluxe as yours. I plan a MDF box structure to provide more sturdiness, and allow the printer to be moved/stored easier. Not sure about the real i3, but the clone I have is a bit flimsy and because of that and the shape make it somewhat problematic to move or store. I hope to address those issues with the box frame. Well enough of my ranting. I really like your design and hope you post more of the design as well as some printing videos once it is done.

[Zekyx]

Any news or progress here? I'm very interested to see how it ended because it goes against unofficial general rule for 3d printers of "zero moving mass".

[A_Camera]

Any news or progress here? I'm very interested to see how it ended because it goes against unofficial general rule for 3d printers of "zero moving mass".

Hi,
We had a summer in my part of the world, and so priorities were turned elsewhere. My current 3D printer is also working very well, so I did some other things the last months. What is left to do is actually only the extruder installation, so not that many man hour left to do, but at the moment it is been set aside. Partially also because I am busy with a commercial product, not related to this or to machining at all, it is a 100% electronics, Arduino firmware programming and camera/photography related product...

Anyway, regarding the "unofficial general rule for 3d printers" I never heard of such rule. There is no such rule at all. Mass means rigidity and stability, which is an advantage even for 3D printers. My light plastic fantastic currently working 3D printer is shaking a lot if it is run too fast, so of course, it is a limiting factor. The only problem with mass is that if the weight is increased it will require other, better quality linear parts, which is why I chose ball screws for the Z. It is actually easier to lift the Z of my new printer compared to the traditional cheap 3D printers with ordinary threaded rods or trapezoidal rods, even though the actual X/Z design is much heavier. Rigidity and mass means also less flexing which is really a benefit. I don't even have to build it to understand that logic, but I know that once it is ready it will proof me right. But of course, it would be even better if the actual X/Z would have been made out of CF, which is rigid but light, however for the frame I think it is much better with greater mass than a light design. In any case, with my design I have reached the next limit, which is the Marlin and the Arduino 2560 combination. It is simply not capable of outputting the number of pulses I need, so I am actually considering upgrading the electronics to a Due...

[A_Camera]

Very nice build. I too must have missed the first post. I too bought a cheapo 3d printer to see what the rage was all about. It is a Prusa i3 copy and works OK, but has some problems that I too want to address but by making a new frame for the existing bits. What I plan though is nowhere near as deluxe as yours. I plan a MDF box structure to provide more sturdiness, and allow the printer to be moved/stored easier. Not sure about the real i3, but the clone I have is a bit flimsy and because of that and the shape make it somewhat problematic to move or store. I hope to address those issues with the box frame. Well enough of my ranting. I really like your design and hope you post more of the design as well as some printing videos once it is done.

Thank you. Have you seen the changes I made to my plastic printer?

https://youtu.be/aq4qBsM0jPs

It really only took a weekend to do it but it was worth a lot, because it is actually so good that it lowered my motivation to work on the new printer. Anyway, I am also spending some time with testing different levelling methods, I can't really decide if it is necessary or not... currently only using manual levelling.