So I got the XY gantry of my modded Eustathios assembled today. Things are beginning to move pretty quickly now that I have nearly all the parts.
I know my Z-axis modification was a bit controversial when I posed the CAD images earlier. I don’t have the bed on the leadscrews yet, but so far just from moving it up and down I don’t get any friction causing it to tilt forward and back, which is promising. I think it’s going to work out.
The XY gantry isn’t quite as smooth as I’d like. I think it’ll get smother as things begin to settle and those bronze bearings self-align. In any case, I’m fairly confident the steppers will be able to handle it. I redesigned the bearing holders to be printed without support material and less plastic in the style of @Jarred_Baines 's beautiful CNC machined ones. Pretty happy with how those came out.
The XY Carriage is again my own design and probably a bit over-engineered. I’m doing a dual extruder setup as the water soluble PVA as support material really appeals to me. Plus, it gives me more flexibility in general. The E3D hotends just slide on in the grove mount and are held in with a custom machined aluminum bracket attached under the main carriage block. The carriage slides on 4 LM8UU bearings, which, as I said is probably overkill, but still preferable in my opinion. I have mounting provisions on the back of the carriage block for 2 40mm cooling fans for the plastic as it’s extruded. In my experience with other printers, this is just about required for good prints with overhangs.
For the extruder itself, I’m going with this one from thingiverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:185005
I’ll probably re-design it in the future, but it’ll work for now. I don’t like the idea of using something from thingiverse.
I will likely be adding a heated bed in the future, but for now I think I’ve complicated things enough.
If anyone is interested in my CAD files, I’d be happy to share them. I have all the bits relevant to my modifications made and it can compliment @Eclsnowman 's CAD work.
Anyway, enjoy the pictures, and I apologize for making this text so long. I just want to make sure my thoughts and process are documented for others’ benefit.
