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3D Printing. How to (And not to)

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Divided he ad:
Very interesting stuff Alex  :thumbup:


Keep it coming... It's all getting stored away  :coffee:  (and I can come back and read it again too  :) )







Ralph.

ParCan:
Part 3

So how much does all this cost ?

I said in part 1 that my 1st machine cost me around £1000.
The design of the machine has since moved on significantly.
 
The Current full size machine known as the Prusa 2 will cost you around £500 to build.
The full size machine has a Print area of about 200mm X 200mm X 160mm high

Another option is a smaller machine known as the Huxley.
The print area will come out at around 140mm X 140 mm X  100mm High.
You should get that together for around £400

Prices are as always dependent on what you already have kicking around or can scavenge.

Expect a good parts set to cost you around £75.
Rods, fasteners, Bearings and Sundaries around £100.
Belts and Pulleys around £25.
Electronics around £150.
Motors around £50
Nozzle around £50
Plastic to print with and all the rest will bring it up to £500

There are various speciallist suppliers around the world. I'm not going to pass comment on any of them here.
You could try Ebay - there is always plenty on there but usually at a price.
Another good place is a community site http://www.emakershop.com


The Printing platform

SAFETY:
Please be aware that we are talking about more than enough power here to burn your house / workshop / Shed down. It may only be 12 volts but we are talking about 10 - 15 amps.
Use appropriately rated connections and wiring.
A bed plate can easily get up to around 150 C. More than enough to burn you!


One thing that helps to keep prints both Flat and stuck to the bed plate is the printing surface, also known as the Bed Plate or Y axis.

The Biggest and most important upgrade for your printer has to be a heated bed plate.
There are several designs out there, a Circuit board being the most popular option.
http://reprap.org/wiki/PCB_Heatbed
On top of that you need a Glass or Aluminium plate for the actual print surface.

If you print with PLA Use 3M Scotch Blue painters tape. (No the brown stuff will not work)
It's a few £/$/euro a roll from any DIY / hardware store and available world wide.
Some people have tried a variety of other surfaces with mixed results.

For ABS you need to use heated kapton Tape.
kapton tape is expensive and you will have to look around to get it.
Trying to print ABS without a heated bed simply won't work. The prints won't stick and curled up.

PLA did work but I had several prints come loose during the print. I solved that by warming my bit of MDF with a hair dryer first.

I made my own Heated Bed from a 4mm thick Ally plate I got from a skip and some constantin resistance wire from Maplin in the UK.
I insulated the ally plate with kapton tape. I then taped the constantin wire in sets of 3 loops all over the bed.
Another layer of kapton and the heater was secured firmly and stuck down.
Connecting it up was fun. I was aiming for about 1 Ohm @ 12 V
With the help of: http://www.the12volt.com/ohm/ohmslawcalculators.asp and http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-paralresist.htm
I soldered it all together and connected it up.
You can solder constantin wire. You can not solder Nichrome wire.

It warmed up and is still working to this day.
The bad news is I don't have a Photo of it and I'm not going to pull the bed apart just to do that !

The Gen 6 electronics has no provision to control a heated bed so a got a thermostat kit from Maplin. All of the modern electronics have provision for a heated bed that is controlled by the software.

You will find some of my experiments with Heated bed plates at:
http://parcansreprap.blogspot.co.uk/2010_09_01_archive.html

Alex.

ParCan:

--- Quote from: buffalow bill on May 01, 2012, 06:38:32 PM ---Hi Alex,
Thanks for the quick reply – but it has given me more questions !!!

Presumably you can print onto a rotating (along a horizontal axis) cylinder held in a rotating table set vertically. Thereby printing all the detail on a wooden core, or have got to far ahead with the wooden core?


 Bill

--- End quote ---

Now that is an interesting concept.
I can see no reason why that would not work I have to say.
I'm also told that this has been done during the early development of the reprap Project.

You'd need something to control the rotation of the cylinder in software.

Alex.

buffalow bill:
Hi Alex,
How about using the same stepper motor that drives the Y axis to drive the rotary table/device. Providing the gearing is all set up correctly, the software/print head won’t know the difference (possibly).

This is sounding like a project !!!  :ddb:  :ddb:  :nrocks:  :nrocks:  :ddb:  :ddb:


Bill

buffalow bill:
Hi Alex,
The heated table and different types of tape, are used presumably so the printed item can be removed from the base. Therefore if it was required to print detail onto an item that is no the table, there would be no requirement for heating or tapes, or am I a barking mad modder?


Next question, in a previous post you indicated that the filament was forced through the heater. Is this force applied by forcing the cold filament into the heater or more like an injection moulding machine where the molten material is forced out via a heated screw???


Am I running ahead of your tutorials?

Sorry  :palm:

Bill

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