Just a question that has probably been asked before.
3D printers use much the same hardware as a CNC, I mean it moves much the same X,Y and Z. It is all speeds and feeds correct?
So if one were to attach a 3D print head in place of the router I imagine one would have an awesome printer.
There are people who put a print head on other type machine. If you watch SVSeeker on youtube, he does plasma, router and 3d printing.
Nice, I have yet to invest in a CNC. I was a CNC machinist for many, many years.
Right now I am trying to make my hobby pay for itself and generate some income. Tough market.
@Daniel_Alderman1 I believe you are correct. Be aware: the converse is not necessarily true. A router/mill on a 3D printer may require more forces than the printer is designed to handle.
If you had an accurate router/mill, you could very easily turn it into a printer.
I do not think a 3D printer could handle a router, too much stress but the CNC router could easily handle a print head.
Might even get smoother prints.
Meed to hit the lottery first though.
I am far from an expert in 3D printers. However, I have spent many hours around them at my local hackerspace.
Although similar in nature, the software does work a bit differently to prepare a CNC design versus printing slices of a 3D design. Secondly, you will want height from a 3D printer along with width and depth. Most CNC machines are long on width and depth, but short on the vertical axis. Lastly, there is a lot of fiddling with a 3D printer for heating the nozzle and in some cases the bed where the design starts.
I would recommend having two separate machines instead of trying to build both into one. 3D prints can take hours or even days to print out, if large enough. Could you give up the work on your CNC machine for that long?
To start with, I would recommend this $10 digital investment in learning about 3D printers: http://www.makershed.com/products/make-magazine-volume-42
Eventually, I will likely have a 3D printer to go along with my CNC machine in my shop. Once my budget allows for it. That goal competes with wanting a CNC machine that can handle a full 4x8 sheet of plywood. After that, I also plan to add a laser cutter. Right now I have access to all three at my local hackerspace though. I have to admit that slows down the timeline of my needs, but doesn’t really stop my wants.
A CNC may be a slow but ok 3d printer. Remember you will new a way to control hotend temperature and a fourth axis for the extruder.
While this is technically correct, there are tweaks to each platform that make it perform better for its intended task. A good 3D printer will be capable of greater speeds than a TYPICAL DIY CNC mill, which makes printing the part much faster. However, such well designed 3D printers are usually moving much less mass, so you typically could not put a heavy milling tool on a 3D printer, but it can be done for very light CNC milling tasks (e.g. milling PC boards). Conversely, while you typically can put a 3D printer head on a CNC mill and have it work, it will be much slower than a machine designed from the start to be a 3D printer. Also, the firmware and software tool chain are quite different. Squirting a plastic to build a solid has different requirements than removing material from a solid.
I figured a lot of modification would be needed especially on the Z axis.
I have a small shop and some machines do double duty now.
A CNC router is what I will start with (someday) and then see where that goes.
@Daniel_Alderman1 I would suggest looking around your area for a Hackerspace or Makerspace to join. Although they come in many flavors, many have full workshops that members have access to. Many have CNC machines, 3D printers, and laser cutters along with the members who can instruct you on them and show you how to build your own. Membership costs can vary just as much, so shop around if you have several of them near you.
Quite bluntly, although they are fun, the product of current fused filament 3d printing sucks in comparison to what you can do with subtractive processes like a CNC router and have poor materials choices in comparison. If you are going to upgrade a cnc router, you would be better off adding something better to it such as a laser, 4th axis, or swivel knife, dust collection system, soundproofing or many other things. You would get a lot more “bang for your buck.”
I’ve seen at least one guy who modified his to take a plasma cutter - with an all metal frame under it. That’s a dream of mine, too.
I see a lot of people blanket stating that CNC machines are slower than 3D printers. While that may often be the case it is by no means the rule. I have seen CNC machines capable of speeds in excess of 2,000 inches per minute. I think that is more than fast enough to 3D print with too.
Closest Makerspace or Hackerspace is at least 4 hours away from me. But that was just a quick search.
I did add a 3d setup to my small format CNC, the key was adding slicing to the mach3 I was running. I’ll try to find the WordPress article I used to source the gnex controller and his mach3 add in, but it worked. My CNC was a bit too slow, but that was a fail of my CNC build, not the 3d components.
@David_Kirtley slightly outside of what is being discussed here, a printer can print a part that can then be cast in your favorite metal.
@Paul_Frederick just curious do you believe mills are built to be running rapids for hours at a time? A friend attempted to use his mill as a printer. His mill broke. More specifically, I believe a nut or a bearing actually failed, at a guess due to the stresses of the repeated movement.
@Kyle_Kerr
It depends on the design. If you’re running good guides, and linear actuators then yeah, you can run like the dickens until the cows come home. It is gonna cost you plenty though. THK rails and balls screws don’t come cheap. Although you can get great speed using toothed belts too.
BTW, I would like to refute the notion that 3D printers are just toys. DIY CNC machines and DIY FDM 3D printers are similar in their motion. But they are not both the same kind of hammer, nor are the problems they solve all the same nails. Try CNC machining a set of gears in place, or a curved (in the vertical plane) object with stuff inside it. That is something 3D printers can do. Conversely, DIY CNC machines can make strong parts with high precision, but mostly just flat or contoured (unless you have more axes, which anecdotal evidence suggests is not overly common in DIY CNCs, but I could be wrong).
Again, please note that I am talking about most DIY CNC machines, not the crazy expensive industrial ones that make incredibly complex parts out of metals. But also note I wasn’t counting metal laser sintering 3D printers, either. They can do some amazing things that CNC machines would be hard pressed to replicate, and with strong final results. As noted above, you can also 3D print an object in plastic and then use it to make a mold for metal or other materials, like silicone.
In short, they are different tools and DIY FDM plastic printers can do some things very well that DIY CNC machines cannot do well, if at all. Use the best tool for the job. Don’t use a screwdriver to pound in a nail.
@Kyle_Kerr Nothing wrong with 3D printers. That is why I ordered (and just received Monday YAY!!) a cheap printer kit. Just that adding one to a CNC router doesn’t really expand the range of materials you can work with or things you can make.
If you build, 3d printers are pretty cheap. I picked up a RAMPS 1.4 + MEGA and stepper drivers for $40. Not worth spending the time to mess around with the CNC software to configure for extrusion.
@David_Kirtley
It sounds to me like your control software is not very flexible. You really should not have to mess around with it. You just need to get an extruder signal out, and convert your STL file to G Code.
This fellow says it only took him 5 minutes and it works fantastic
http://reprap.org/wiki/Linuxcnc3D/it
If my Italian is any good.