My very first printer was the Fab@Home Model 2, which is an all acrylic behemoth. Originally its extruder used a pair of paste syringes which never really worked well. I also built and marginally successfully got working a dremel mount to do some light milling. This was 5 years ago. After I got my SD3 working, I set this project aside and didn’t touch it again until last year, when I made a small modification to get it to use a Sangui board. I gave it to some of the kids I work with at the local community college with the proviso that if they could make it and the pile of parts I gave them to work, that printer was theirs to keep. Alas. I am getting it back this weekend and guess what, I will be doing to it what I did to the SD3: making it work with an all leadscrew solution (my original approach to the conversion). I believe it was a Cornell program that spawned this before it was abandoned, but if I am successful, I might offer it as a kit. The platform is a good 12x16 and if cut in aluminum, this thing would be a monster!
Hey @Samer_Najia ! I worked on the Fab@Home with Evan Malone at Cornell back in 2006-07. It’s awesome to see one still kicking! I have a couple here that I play with occasionally - primarily trying gel-like materials to see how they perform. I’d love to see what mods you come up with for the platform, and if I can help, let me know!
Thanks @Dan_Periard ! The design is really nice but there are parts that are way way too fragile for acrylic. I plan to recut them in delrin but first I need to replace the entire X gantry with an all metal equivalent that normally goes on an i3. That will also give me the extruder mount. As soon as the SD3 resurrection with Smoothie is done (hopefully this weekend), we transition to this in parallel with a Smoothie-Mini running Delta. Really it’s an awesome design! Thanks for being part of the team that brought it to life.
Thanks, @Samer_Najia ! I can totally understand the need to transition from acrylic to something stiffer; acrylic looks awesome, but certainly can’t hold up to the stresses of much beyond depositing material. I know the ones I have (and had) got cracked quite a bit from transporting as well. Delrin’s a great option, one of my favorite materials. One of my hacks was to take the Model 1 and hijack it with an Arduino Mega running one of the RepRap firmwares (Marlin?) - made it a little easier to control than the original F@H software.
I may have to pick your brain at some point. I have a Model 2, but didn’t work on it originally (after my time). I’ve never been able to get it working properly, something with the motor controls - seems like my PC always had trouble managing the motors.
Fun project! I wish we had had more bandwidth at the time to keep it rolling, but it’s great to see them still out in the wild. Actually, check out this video, at about 42 seconds in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU34o3jG0IY
Hey @Dan_Periard that looks pretty familiar! Like the Model 1/2! The most I got out of the Model 2 was to hook up the dremel and cut a small square using those motors. I hated them. Really hated them. I replaced them with NEMA 17 Steppers and hooked up a Sanguino, but I happen to have a RAMPS on my now defunct SmartRap and that’s what I will put on the Model 2. My changes:
Z axis gets a leadscrew and ditches the belt, as does Y. I might keep X with belts, but I am debating switching that too. I am looking at using those motors with the leadscrew hooked right into the shaft.
@Samer_Najia Looks like you basically went to what the F@H Model 1 was: leadscrews, stepper motors, etc
Here’s the parts list for the Model 1 - the steppers with lead screws came from HSI, maybe this list can help you:
@Dan_Periard , I like the belts idea but I have proven motion in Z is just not reliable with a belt. As for Y, that set up is already nicely rigid. I might still keep belts but for Z that belt has to go.
Totally agree… I just looked at the Model 2 I have here, I didn’t realize belts were all over it. The Model 1 relied pretty much entirely on lead screws that were directly integrated with the motors (There’s one belt tying two lead screws together for the X axis). That’s what’s in the spreadsheet link I just shared with you.
Model 1: http://del.h-cdn.co/assets/cm/15/10/54f9396fadbe9_-_fabhomesystemphoto_web.jpg
Exactly. I loved my printer. I even bought a big heatbed for it. I have 2 of those leadscrew/motor thingies where the motor shaft is the leadscrew and once that is in, then a small coupler is all I really need for X and Y. I have those working great already. Which reminds me, I should have it by tonight…hmmm…
Ha - excellent. Excited to see more updates on your build!
Ditto. I would bring back and artifact. Now I won’t be rigging a milling head on it, but who knows…