Got a new motherboard, after a resistor failed on the old one, and the Deltesian is now printing!
Here’s the album, If anyone is interested in seeing the progression of the project from the early zip-tie stabilized prototype to the semi-functioning printer.
I have to ask, why? What is the benefit of mixing the two printer types?
@Ralph_Schaffner Besides the, George Mallory, “Because It’s There”
It’s remixing existing hardware into something new. I’ve cut none of the extrusions or linear rails from a standard Delta kit and reconfigured them in a new way.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not a ground breaking idea. It’s a niche design that had pros and cons.
Build Area: A Deltesian combines a Cartesian’s rectangular build plate with a Delta’s print volume. Using 3 - 450mm Linear Rails, I’m looking a printable area of X220mm, Y440mm Z250mm. And because the Y is linear printing long straight parts simplifies the Delta’ 3D surface concave/convex calibration to a 2D spline calibration.
Simpler: Removing the 3rd tower makes calibrating the Deltesian about getting 3 points, on a curve, flat verses a sphere. The change from 3D spacial to 2D planar motion vastly simplifies the geometry. 2 Pillars, 180degree opposed are easier to square. The X & Z motions are planar.
Speed: Faster than a Cartesian, in the X direction, but slower than a Delta. The lack of the extruder stepper on the effector means less mass. Less mass means it can accelerate faster without rubberbanding on the drive belts. However, you need to use a Bowden Tube style extruder which has some issues with retraction.
Parts/Cost: Deltesian: Only 3 Steppers & 3 Identical Linear Rails vs i3(for example): 4 Steppers, 4 6 Rails & 2 Leadscrews. The trade-off is accuracy. An i3 will kick a Deltesian/Delta’s ass. That’s what you’re paying for. Note: yes a CoreXY will kick both but, please point me to a 440mm CoreXY design.
Sorry for the long explanation. A quick aside:
One of the things I’ve enjoyed from this project; it’s the reactions. I could have done anything 3D printer related. But, I doubt I could have gotten the feedback I have, replicating a CoreXY or a Scara or Mendel or pick your Kinematics.
This idea IS dumb. If you look at the early videos here: https://gfycat.com/@bornity/albums/deltesian_project the entire thing is Zip-Ties and Delta components. THIS WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A THING.
And honestly, that’s why it’s so fun to work on this design. So what if it combines the worst characteristics of a Delta and a Bedflinger? I’ll take my 17in Y travel while you fret over your .02mm accuracy. Yeah it might not be accurate but it’s big.
I like this idea, as it would translate well for ganged printing on an assembly line.
Imagine - a long row of these over a precision conveyer, with pick-and-place machines between.
The deltesians lay down plastic, then the conveyor moves the part to the pick and place to load up non-plastic components (screw bushings, electronics packs, lubricants, etc), then the conveyor shifts back to the deltesian for more layers.
Repeat as needed.
@Jason_McMullan that’s an interesting idea. I was also thinking with the 220x440 build plate area you could stick (2) 220x220 heated plates back to back. Maybe you could remove one glass plate w/ parts while the Deltesian prints on the second plate and repeat, swapping between the 2
Add a second X&Z unit in Y direction and you have something like the BCN3D Sigma R17. That would be incredible cool.
I can appreciate building something because you have the parts or because you can. Nothing wrong with that.
But if you simply want to have a bigger bed, that is pretty easy to add to an existing mendel variant (prusa i3, Mendel90 , etc) since the Y axis is completely separate from the X and Z axis. And if you built a Mendel90, like I did, the model files are all parametric openscad files. You tell it the size you want and it will generate the appropriately sized 3d printable parts and tell you how big the rods, screws and belts have to be.
@Thomas_Sanladerer Built an extra wide Mendel90 which he used as a testbed. To bad I think he disassembled it.
@Ralph_Schaffner Where’s the fun in that? LOL. Plus it looks really cool! https://gfycat.com/UnrulyLittleGallowaycow