Hi PeterF
These are my thoughts on the Prusa i3 so far.
For me plywood is not stiff enough, nor dimensionally stable (humidity and heat are the worst offenders), hence my choice of a metal frame. The weak point in the i3 mechanical design is maintaining the right angle/positioning between the X/Z axis and the Y axis. I have a 600mm square granite kitchen worktop which I will use as a base. By mounting the Y frame directly to the base and using side supports for the gantry, also mounted to the base (as per the plywood version), the stiffness and precision in all three axis will be maximised.
By using a direct filament feed to the hot end the loads on the x axis are varied with the need to unwind filament from the spool, additionally the mass of the x axis is increased by having a stepper motor attached. So my choice will be to use a bowden feeder system. This may be iffy for very flexible filaments but for Nylon/abs/polycarbonate it will give better results.
The X axis tensioner is either not implemented or pulls against the vertical smooth rod. I will alter this to place the tensioning load on the two horizontal X axis parallel rods.
Will initially assemble mine with M5 stainless studding for Z axis and test the results. If accuracy is nbg will replace with better system. Am also not happy with running two stepper motors in parallel from one driver chip so may well make an adapter to use two driver boards, one for each z motor.
Any mechanical mods I make will be probably machined out of aluminium to preserve accuracy - plastic has too high a temperature coefficient for precision stuff.
Future thoughts :-
Stepper motors, the Ramps board uses A4988 chips which are rated up to 35V. Unlike most things, turning up the voltage on a stepper driver results in a decrease in average current consumption and allows a much higher stepper speed - so this is something I may investigate. Likewise an increase in heated bed voltage will allow speedier warmup. Much better Ramps Heater FET needed for this trick. Obviously, plus side of heater bed just goes to higher voltage supply.
Hope to order my kit in the next week or so
![:ddb:](https://madmodder.net/Smileys/default/dancenana.gif)
Best Regards
picclock