I find this little printer quite beautiful 
I think I’m liking crane style more and more
http://www.openbuilds.com/builds/indie-i2.1976/
looks like a heck of a lot of parts, but nice looking 
Looks like you could order the frame from 80/20.
@Simon_Day is the designer.
I am unsure of how accurate a cantilevered design like this would be. The farther out the print head is , the less stability it will have.
That’s essentially the same style as the Printrbot Simple Metal:
The simple metal has a very stiff frame because it is made with 3mm thick folded steel plates, and it is that stiffness that allows it to go fast without mechanical resonance artifacts on the surface.
I think that this Indie I2 design will not be nearly as stiff the simple metal because they are using aluminium extrusions instead of steel plates. My guess is that the simple metal is 4 to 5 times stiffer than this design.
@Paul_Gross ​
I think you are wrong. The simple metal have to move the whole mass back and forth. Which is far away from smart. This printer is just moving the print head. In addition steel is 2-3 times heavier than Aluminium.
And by the way, the folding of the steel doesn’t matter in this case because the load is not in this direction.
By the way, the simple metal is also using steel rods which are also additional weight. This printer here don’t use rods at all.
Maybe the simple metal is slightly stiffer, but if it comes to resonances we have to take the mass into account. And this will lead to reduced resonance frequency. (which is not good in 3d printing)
I think the indie i2 is the better design. Is way smarter!
@funinthefalls Yeah, the K8200 uses a single driven side and one kind of loose floppy side for it’s Z gantry and it’s wobbly at high speeds. I used to sit and just watch it bounce up and down. Would never touch a single driven side design again as long as I live.
It doesn’t seem too different from my CR7 or the Reach…cantilever arm. I can tell you that the structure is rigid (on my CR7), the movement smooth and very quiet…if that helps.
Awesome! Most of the parts for this is available at http://openbuildspartstore.com/
@mark_warlick ​ the frame in this is made out of Openbuilds vslot it has a built in lenear bearing surface for vwheels to run on the best place to order this material is from the link posted above or at http://www.smw3d.com and can be found in the linear rail section of either site for very reasonable prices…
As for the aluminum plates that would require someone with a CNC to cut and you could possibly find someone in the openbuilds forum by following the the link in the main post or asking to join the Openbuilds community here on G+
@mark_warlick reach out to @Clockwerk_Mech . If you have the DXFs he can probably get these cut for you.
@Samer_Najia clockwerkmech@gmail.com w/ dxf’s
This community is amazing everybody is connected to someone who can hook you up to something… Not sure if the dxf are available yet. The latest post update says coming soon
@Samer_Najia
I will do that.
I buy lots of stuff from 80/20.
They have some free design software for use with their products. Also, a big library of their extrusion profiles is available for importing into your software.
When are one of you guys going to build a desk top Apis Cor like printer?
@mark_warlick ​ I believe that almost all the parts available in the openbuilds part store have 3d models you can import into sketchup directly to help you put your imagination into practal use. This includes the aluminum profiles, universal plates, vwheels and many other awesome products… please correct me if I’m wrong @Mark_Carew_OpenBuild ​
@Alex_Krause
I’ll just go on and tell you that my access to 3D printing is turning in a request to have something printer on our Stratysis behemoth at work.
I want the capability for myself, but I don’t like “in the box” printers.
I would love to have a small version of the apis-cor house printer, but there are too many things missing from my skillset to get one made all the way.
In any case, if you are wrong about anything in this forum. I’m not likely to be able to detect it. I am a serial dilatant.