Welcome To My Mad Scientist LABORatory
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 6:34 am
Brruuuuhaaaaww
(cough-cough) so much for my Mad Scientist laugh.
Well in short I am new to 3D Printing and Prototyping. Though a Mad Scientist since 7 years old. Ask my parents! And have been destructing and constructing all my life. But even though I am always interested in all things, I only recently discovered the DIY community (except for everyday DIY carpentry, remodeling, etc) I never imagined having or making a 3D printer (mostly due to the only ones I had ever seen cost 10's of thousand of $$).
Since I ran into the Desktop industry Community and realized how wide spread it is as well as Open-Sourced - I have gone gaga over it, soaking up everything I could find. Unfortunately because that my income possibilities are low and my medical bills are high - and that can in no way afford even the cheaper printers. So I fell back on Plan B - which is to make one from scratch, using parts i have lying around. And - believe me - after 40 years of saving anything cool that I ever owned - comes to quite a haul. Even so there are a few components that I didn't have; Like Stepper motors, Micro controllers or - in the case of the most easiest version to design and assemble - limited parts to make even a Mendel frame.
So what to do?
I had a head start; in that before discovering 3D printers i had been working on some telescope accessories that needed gears, small motors, sensing parts, etc so I had hit on the idea of using the gears and motors from Old Printers. These can be picked up from a Thrift or 2nd hand store for less than $5, and if damaged for less than a dollar! so i embarked on a more aggressive approach when i started contemplating this 3D Printer thing. Since I go to my Doctor once a month in Oklahoma City (OKC) - 140 miles away - I made a list of the 120 Thrift stores in the city and Printed up a flyer describing a hobby group - in need of part donations - and asking them to keep any donations of electronics and such that are broken or that they would just throw away and I would pick them up every month.
Well the response was overwhelming. many said yes, many had some in the back already and one even gave me every printer, plotter, laser printer (priced at $250) and scanner on his shelves (20+ pieces) free !!! Well there was no way I could say no to that. I did need to cut my shopping short because my suburban was so full from back to front (including the front passenger seat) and up to the roof that i couldn't have fitted even one more printer in the truck ! i even had a 200 pound copier i got for $20 bucks. Which i had to disassemble on the bed of the truck just to get it in my apt.
Well to make a long story short - it is my intention to use the parts from these used devices (belts, rods, gears, etc) to make a BOOTSTRAP 3D Printer - no matter how ugly. I would put it together so it would have the best quality output I could manage, but the most ugliest appearance. Hopefully it would last long enough and print well enough to allow me to print the of parts to make version 2 of my printer - one that is more in line with the types made and used today. As well as upgrading the KLUDGE version to be a combination CNC router, large Format 3D printer, etc.
While i have good training in electronics, computers, Design and concepts (as all good Mad Scientists do) I am limited in test equipment and lack recent hands on experience (my soldering skills are rusty as an example). So i hit the books (which in this age is called internet surfing) and have checked out other peoples work to determine my best choices in design and options. Which turned out the be the Mendal Prusa (mostly due to simplicity of hardware) out of all the options out there.
One thing I got from every printer is the Carriage transport. Each of these has these parts in common:
1. U shaped frame (a long side with 90 deg ends) with numerous holes and punch-outs.
2. At least one Long clean smooth metal rod.
3. Other rods with or without pressed on rubber.
4. gears and fittings galore - of all shapes and sizes.
5. 1 to 5 Motors (Mostly Servo or DC motors, but some Steppers).
6. Limit switches, linear and rotary encoders (both mechanical and optical as well as magnetic).
7. Springs of all types and purposes.
8. Slip & rotary bearings, as well as rod and gear fitting.
9. Uncounted number of screws.
10. Wires and wiring harness with connectors.
And depending on the type of device (Laser, Inkjet, copier, fax, Scanner, etc.) timing belts, power supplies, PC boards with all types of parts, glass sheets, laser emitters, light rods, sensors of all kinds, etc, etc.
with inkjets and scanners the printing head assemblies and the scanner assemblies are ready made linear Axises. These allow a belt driven head to travel along a rod and already have position sensing systems and are aligned already. If I could mount them in the proper orientation I could have a 3 axis machine in a short time. and I did just that by hot gluing 3 together as a test and had a ready made X, Y and Z machine. All print carriages (the print head with ink cartridges) come apart leaving a flat block of ABS plastic attached to a belt and powered by a motor that has position feedback already built in on the frame, either by a rotary optical wheel encoder and or that/flimsy strip of plastic that goes the whole length parallel to the print head path. (if you look at it with a magifier you can see marking every fraction of a millimeter on most of them). These blocks on the belt (which work the same as the table in a Prusa) are ready made to attach a load.
Of course the power is limited by the motor, but it could be upgraded by a stepper motor or a larger motor from a fax or a copier machine. For a long time I was convinced that this was the way to go. but while it 'might' be effective; once i disassembled the large - expensive - copier i changed my mind.
The copier came apart in 3 large sections each capable of being a base of a large machine. with numerous attachment options and strength and weight galore. The copier even has two linear slide rails that are super smooth and quiet; to be used as the base Axis (be it X or Y) and by attaching a scanner bed to that I could provide a Y axis. this has the benefit of allowing the bed to be moveable in the X and Y directions leaving the Z axis alone for the tool-head. Which means it could be fixed (except for the Z-axis motion). It would even be possible to make the bed go up and down in the z axis meaning the tool-head could be truly fixed; avoiding any weight or torque problems inherent in a moveable head arraignment.
Or i could use a gantry type arraignment for the upper section with Y axis on the gantry and the X and Z built into the table OR just the X axis in the Table and the Y and Z on the Gantry. .. So many options.
I know its WAY too late but to cut this short. What I plan on doing is to use one of the large heavy copier sections as a base, which will use the linear slides as the X-Axis (moving from to back). and to use a Printer gantry from a Wide Format 8 color printer (along with its very cool Shell) as the Y axis. I will not decide whether the Z Axis will be in the top or the bottom until I do some prototype builds. There are advantages and disadvantages to either method.
Though after witnessing the first printing of the Max last night on the live stream - I realized that the extruder does not have to sit on top of the hot end - so the head would be VERY light and therefore incorporating the z axis into the Upper axis gantry would be much simplified (in cost and design) compared to building a vertically movable build table. So I will likely be going that route. though to be honest I still want to have the moveable head to be modular to the point that I can have interchangeable heads for Plastic extruding, CNC routing. laser burning and maybe other tool options built into the upper section. and that may require a more robust assembly, especially for a router.
by using the shell from the printer and the base from the copier I will have a VERY large interior working space - which will allow for sound insulation - as well as for the interior mechanical workings (we discussed large building platform pros and cons last night as well) and a large working area will be one of my goals. We are talking almost 34" by 26" interior space with a minimum height of 24" !!
With maybe enough room to design independent build areas in one large plate so i can either build small parts on a section without having to heat or prepare the entire plate (maybe even different types of build plate compositions, hell maybe one section could use the photo-reactive liquid resin method). Maybe even multiple gantry assemblies (and tool-heads) to do more than one process at the same time. Mmmmmmm. Food for thought that (Though more than likely that Idea came from lack of sleep since i have now been up for 32 hours!
At some point I will be setting up my own site/blog/Thing or Instructable on this Mad scientist project of my deranged mutant mind. Though I have to work hard to keep my main goal in mind. That this first project's goal is to create a basic plastic printer - in a minimum of time, minimum cost and in the simplest manner. So then to be able to print the parts to create the second more sane printer. And then afterwards maybe upgrade this one to be a more versatile, accurate super printer. Maybe making it some sort of Indie project. Though I would need assistance with that since I know really nothing but the basics of how that works.
[Images, Files, Designs and Sketches coming soon]
i would like to hear some thoughtful and constructive ideas and comments.
Goodnight
(cough-cough) so much for my Mad Scientist laugh.
Well in short I am new to 3D Printing and Prototyping. Though a Mad Scientist since 7 years old. Ask my parents! And have been destructing and constructing all my life. But even though I am always interested in all things, I only recently discovered the DIY community (except for everyday DIY carpentry, remodeling, etc) I never imagined having or making a 3D printer (mostly due to the only ones I had ever seen cost 10's of thousand of $$).
Since I ran into the Desktop industry Community and realized how wide spread it is as well as Open-Sourced - I have gone gaga over it, soaking up everything I could find. Unfortunately because that my income possibilities are low and my medical bills are high - and that can in no way afford even the cheaper printers. So I fell back on Plan B - which is to make one from scratch, using parts i have lying around. And - believe me - after 40 years of saving anything cool that I ever owned - comes to quite a haul. Even so there are a few components that I didn't have; Like Stepper motors, Micro controllers or - in the case of the most easiest version to design and assemble - limited parts to make even a Mendel frame.
So what to do?
I had a head start; in that before discovering 3D printers i had been working on some telescope accessories that needed gears, small motors, sensing parts, etc so I had hit on the idea of using the gears and motors from Old Printers. These can be picked up from a Thrift or 2nd hand store for less than $5, and if damaged for less than a dollar! so i embarked on a more aggressive approach when i started contemplating this 3D Printer thing. Since I go to my Doctor once a month in Oklahoma City (OKC) - 140 miles away - I made a list of the 120 Thrift stores in the city and Printed up a flyer describing a hobby group - in need of part donations - and asking them to keep any donations of electronics and such that are broken or that they would just throw away and I would pick them up every month.
Well the response was overwhelming. many said yes, many had some in the back already and one even gave me every printer, plotter, laser printer (priced at $250) and scanner on his shelves (20+ pieces) free !!! Well there was no way I could say no to that. I did need to cut my shopping short because my suburban was so full from back to front (including the front passenger seat) and up to the roof that i couldn't have fitted even one more printer in the truck ! i even had a 200 pound copier i got for $20 bucks. Which i had to disassemble on the bed of the truck just to get it in my apt.
Well to make a long story short - it is my intention to use the parts from these used devices (belts, rods, gears, etc) to make a BOOTSTRAP 3D Printer - no matter how ugly. I would put it together so it would have the best quality output I could manage, but the most ugliest appearance. Hopefully it would last long enough and print well enough to allow me to print the of parts to make version 2 of my printer - one that is more in line with the types made and used today. As well as upgrading the KLUDGE version to be a combination CNC router, large Format 3D printer, etc.
While i have good training in electronics, computers, Design and concepts (as all good Mad Scientists do) I am limited in test equipment and lack recent hands on experience (my soldering skills are rusty as an example). So i hit the books (which in this age is called internet surfing) and have checked out other peoples work to determine my best choices in design and options. Which turned out the be the Mendal Prusa (mostly due to simplicity of hardware) out of all the options out there.
One thing I got from every printer is the Carriage transport. Each of these has these parts in common:
1. U shaped frame (a long side with 90 deg ends) with numerous holes and punch-outs.
2. At least one Long clean smooth metal rod.
3. Other rods with or without pressed on rubber.
4. gears and fittings galore - of all shapes and sizes.
5. 1 to 5 Motors (Mostly Servo or DC motors, but some Steppers).
6. Limit switches, linear and rotary encoders (both mechanical and optical as well as magnetic).
7. Springs of all types and purposes.
8. Slip & rotary bearings, as well as rod and gear fitting.
9. Uncounted number of screws.
10. Wires and wiring harness with connectors.
And depending on the type of device (Laser, Inkjet, copier, fax, Scanner, etc.) timing belts, power supplies, PC boards with all types of parts, glass sheets, laser emitters, light rods, sensors of all kinds, etc, etc.
with inkjets and scanners the printing head assemblies and the scanner assemblies are ready made linear Axises. These allow a belt driven head to travel along a rod and already have position sensing systems and are aligned already. If I could mount them in the proper orientation I could have a 3 axis machine in a short time. and I did just that by hot gluing 3 together as a test and had a ready made X, Y and Z machine. All print carriages (the print head with ink cartridges) come apart leaving a flat block of ABS plastic attached to a belt and powered by a motor that has position feedback already built in on the frame, either by a rotary optical wheel encoder and or that/flimsy strip of plastic that goes the whole length parallel to the print head path. (if you look at it with a magifier you can see marking every fraction of a millimeter on most of them). These blocks on the belt (which work the same as the table in a Prusa) are ready made to attach a load.
Of course the power is limited by the motor, but it could be upgraded by a stepper motor or a larger motor from a fax or a copier machine. For a long time I was convinced that this was the way to go. but while it 'might' be effective; once i disassembled the large - expensive - copier i changed my mind.
The copier came apart in 3 large sections each capable of being a base of a large machine. with numerous attachment options and strength and weight galore. The copier even has two linear slide rails that are super smooth and quiet; to be used as the base Axis (be it X or Y) and by attaching a scanner bed to that I could provide a Y axis. this has the benefit of allowing the bed to be moveable in the X and Y directions leaving the Z axis alone for the tool-head. Which means it could be fixed (except for the Z-axis motion). It would even be possible to make the bed go up and down in the z axis meaning the tool-head could be truly fixed; avoiding any weight or torque problems inherent in a moveable head arraignment.
Or i could use a gantry type arraignment for the upper section with Y axis on the gantry and the X and Z built into the table OR just the X axis in the Table and the Y and Z on the Gantry. .. So many options.
I know its WAY too late but to cut this short. What I plan on doing is to use one of the large heavy copier sections as a base, which will use the linear slides as the X-Axis (moving from to back). and to use a Printer gantry from a Wide Format 8 color printer (along with its very cool Shell) as the Y axis. I will not decide whether the Z Axis will be in the top or the bottom until I do some prototype builds. There are advantages and disadvantages to either method.
Though after witnessing the first printing of the Max last night on the live stream - I realized that the extruder does not have to sit on top of the hot end - so the head would be VERY light and therefore incorporating the z axis into the Upper axis gantry would be much simplified (in cost and design) compared to building a vertically movable build table. So I will likely be going that route. though to be honest I still want to have the moveable head to be modular to the point that I can have interchangeable heads for Plastic extruding, CNC routing. laser burning and maybe other tool options built into the upper section. and that may require a more robust assembly, especially for a router.
by using the shell from the printer and the base from the copier I will have a VERY large interior working space - which will allow for sound insulation - as well as for the interior mechanical workings (we discussed large building platform pros and cons last night as well) and a large working area will be one of my goals. We are talking almost 34" by 26" interior space with a minimum height of 24" !!
With maybe enough room to design independent build areas in one large plate so i can either build small parts on a section without having to heat or prepare the entire plate (maybe even different types of build plate compositions, hell maybe one section could use the photo-reactive liquid resin method). Maybe even multiple gantry assemblies (and tool-heads) to do more than one process at the same time. Mmmmmmm. Food for thought that (Though more than likely that Idea came from lack of sleep since i have now been up for 32 hours!
At some point I will be setting up my own site/blog/Thing or Instructable on this Mad scientist project of my deranged mutant mind. Though I have to work hard to keep my main goal in mind. That this first project's goal is to create a basic plastic printer - in a minimum of time, minimum cost and in the simplest manner. So then to be able to print the parts to create the second more sane printer. And then afterwards maybe upgrade this one to be a more versatile, accurate super printer. Maybe making it some sort of Indie project. Though I would need assistance with that since I know really nothing but the basics of how that works.
[Images, Files, Designs and Sketches coming soon]
i would like to hear some thoughtful and constructive ideas and comments.
Goodnight
