I like the look and the idea of a Eustathios-style printer, but I live in the third world and don’t have access to a 3-D printer to make parts with. But I do have a bunch of 2020 and a CNC router, so I am going to look at making a variant out of various engineering components and stuff I can mill from blocks of MDF.
I can easily get 8mm pillow bearings, which attach to the extrusion just fine. I also have a bunch of OpenBuild v-trak spare from another project that I could use to make the z-gantry and x/y sliding parts.
Looking at the current method of driving the z-axis by leadscrew, I thought I might simplify it by making it belt all the way. But, I realised that the screws also do double duty as gantry location/support.
Still, for me, shaft is cheap, screw is more problematic, and I have about 20 GT2 pulleys about the place already.
It should be quite practical to make an all metal variant. I’m doing something similar using aluminium plate and L shaped extrusions. Everything is screwed, cable tied or riveted together, no printed parts so far.
I also have a friend, locally, who has an Ul-T-Slot mkIII that uses milled aluminum corner plates and carriage. Note @Tim_Rastall started the ingentis with a belt driven z
An afternoon well spent… I’ve taken apart Rich’s design and made it ‘flat-compatible’ - I would post the pics, if I could work out how to load pictures… why is it so difficult?
You might also want to look into @Shauki’s QuadRap printers, they’re designed to be built without printed parts, with hand tools, and inexpensive components you can find pretty much world wide.
You’ll need a Laptop, controller (RAMPS 1.4 being the standard), 4-5 NEMA17 stepper motors, wiring, and extruder specifics that you’ll most likely not find locally. But those are solvable, and laptop aside, can be had for less than $150 US.
Thanks Mike. I make CNC machines, I have all the electronics I need - around 50+ Arduino boards sitting on my bench, about 20 steppers and a couple of TinyG controllers I am converting to bluetooth.
As to computers - about 10 of them of various vintage
Being in the third world means I can’t run down to the shops for machine screws or aluminium, so I buy in quantity. I do have a couple of Melzi controllers and a Prusa, but it’s shite. A really bad Chinese one that became the impetus for designing/finding a better printer, more suited to the materials available locally (we can’t even get threaded rod here).
There’s a lot of interest here, especially among the modeller community, but a lot of reticence - people have shelled out big money to ship machines in from overseas, only to have problems with them. There’s no support or local club-type resources. I am hoping to change that with maker-type services. People can already get things CNC-machined from me, I have about 24kg of ABS and PLa filament here just waiting for the machine so they can get printed parts too.
@Mike_Thornbury that design is very close to the ingentis bed. I recommend a geared down nema so you achieve a high steps per mm value. It’s critical to achieving fine and consistent z res. There is a section 9 that topic in the original ingentis thread on the reprap forums. http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?279,222917,page=5
Thanks Tim, I have a bunch of .9deg high-resolution steppers. With 16-tooth GT2 sprockets that should give me a step resolution of 0.008mm before turning on microstepping. The TinyG I will probably use has standard support for 1/8 steps, and you can set 1/16 if you are feeling lucky. That would give me .001mm or .0005mm resolution - enough, I think.
Hey Tim, see we hail from the same place - and we have had at least one of the same employer in the past - I worked for NEC on The Terrace about 30 years ago. Not that I’ve lived in Wellington for more than 15 years now. My Dad’s a crazy inventor, too - lives in P’ram.
Hah, small world! Given the tenure of some of our staff, you might even have worked with some :). If you knew the tssc folk then almost certainly. If you’ve not been to Welly for a while, it’s worth a visit, much changes in 15 years.
Then you have the base equipment set to build a VERY good printer. The Eustathios/Ingentis base makes for a great structural basis for a printer of reasonable volume. (mine was set to 350x350x400…a little less in practical terms), but 1M^3 is certainly doable, if you’ve got the acreage and the right diameter rods. I standardized on 10mm ceramic coated @igus_Inc rods and have been very happy with them…they’re straight and smooth running, and can be cut easily using carbide tips on a lathe.
A set of calipers, another set of parallels, and the ability to make X bars of Y Length to a reasonable degree of accuracy, and you’ll have a very good build experience.
The Eustathios/Ingentis base makes for a great structural basis for a printer of reasonable volume. (mine was set to 350x350x400…a little less in practical terms), but 1M^3 is certainly doable, if you’ve got the acreage and the right diameter rods. I standardized on 10mm ceramic coated 