Slowly but surely progressing on building this printer. Thinking of going with one of @Sanjay_Mortimer1 ‘s Volcano hotends on this thing considering the size. Most likely dual bowden extruders.
Built the bed support and got in the bearings and smooth rod for the Z axis. Put all the nuts in for attaching the motors and rod holders last night, just waiting on the right size screws to mount both of those.
Bed is reeeeally close to the 2’ mark… I’m doing my very best to make sure it’s the full size.
Checked @OnlineMetals.com but the cost for a 1/8" sheet of 6061 cut to 25.5 x 25.5" is over $80 compared to about $45 for a 24 x 24" sheet. Might just have to bite the bullet on this one but that seems really steep.
Bought a couple sets of FSRs from @SparkFun_Electronics and a couple ATTinys to see if I can build a little interface to make them simulate an endstop to the Smoothieboard for both Z-zero and ABL in case I can’t get this huge thing perfectly flat.
Currently thinking up how I want to secure the alu to some mounts to make it easier to level. Possibly using some adjustable leveling mount/feet from Misumi.
The $20/4 set of 12mm LM12UUs from Amazon were utterly horrible. Almost unusable they are so rough on the rails. Gave up and ordered some $20/ea ones from VXB, along with a few extra bearings for various needs. They came in and they glide a lot easier.
Next up is to use my Fusion360 learnings to design an angle bracket to support the bed from the linear rods and get the motors and such mounted up.
Smoothieboard has been soldered up and I got in a ton of those little .100 female connectors and pins so I can wire up the machine really nicely.
If anyone’s wondering, here’s the current BoM for this printer:
Onlinemetals is a bit on the expensive side but there are coupon codes for 5-15% off depending on which month of the quarter it is. Have you looked on eBay?
What are you planning to print on? If heated bed, then I’d go with a silicon heater and automotive relay to drive it from a high-wattage PSU, with glass on top of the heater.
If not, cast acrylic at least 1/4" thick should work. For that, http://estreetplastics.com
@raykholo Not sure yet! I’ll figure out once I’ve got it built.
Most likely going to use a 120V silicone mat heater and SSR like I’ve done on my previous printers, they perform pretty reliably.
I’ve been using aluminum to help with spreading the heat evenly and then putting glass on top of it to print on. This is my first one without a moving Y axis so I can make the bed a bit heavier.
@Chris_Purola_Chorca rather than using FSR’s, have a thought towards a… ‘microswitch hotend’ sensor. You set it up so the extruder/hotend mounting assembly is hinged and held down against a microswitch with a spring. So when the hotend touches the bed, it pushes up the assembly and clicks off the switch.
If your very interested I can take someone photos of a local printer done this way. But here it is done on a delta:
@Chris_Purola_Chorca , I can’t wait for this one to be finished. I’ve got some ideas of my own for a commercial-grade printer and I want to see what you end up doing here.
