So I’m making a smarter printer.
What is the best material to make the walls out of? 18mm mdf or is 18mm normal wood better?
thanks
Look for plywood. Best quality is ‘Marine Plywood BS1088’,
but too exspensiv …
I can’t buy the average plywood from Home Depot or anything. I live in Hong Kong and I get the wood from a local timber store, so I just get the best quality plywood I can find. Can’t choose what I get so I don’t know the type of wood.
I’d rather use stronger materials, but mdf seems to be pretty common for it. I’m making a smartcore. Do you think I should use 12mm or 18mm?
Sorry lol I wrote smartcore and it autocorrected to smarter. Didn’t realise.
Well you definitely want something that is strong and won’t warp. Mdf is good but can break down. If you paint it you are better off with it but have you considered a plastic??
Yea I definitely do plan to put a small brace between the 2 panels, my only concern is what material I should use. Would mdf really break down? Should I use 12mm plywood?
Hey, MDF is useful glorified cardboard, especially when you get it thick.
If you needed to make a structural wall and your only choices are various kinds of wood, MDF -> Plywood -> Natural. And be sure to seal it to keep the humidity out.
As Mark Rehorst said, metal tubing or extrusions (Tslot from a place like Misumi are very inexpensive and easy to work with) are a good option.
I don’t want to use metal extrusions for it because it would be much more complicated to assemble. I was thinking I would lacquer and spray paint it to keep water out. Would that work?
@Joseph_Lenox so what your saying is mdf is better than plywood? Why, and is 12mm thick enough?
One of the reasons plywood warps is because it’s layers of wood (alternating directions, but still…), sandwiched together with glue. Uneven expansion will cause the wood to warp. MDF is a more uniform material.
As for the thickness, “it depends”. How rigid does it need to be? How big are the pieces?
Metal extrusions are very simple to assemble, especially if you are using printed brackets. Easier to get square, too. I’ve seen designs that use alu pipes and fittings for the frame.
They also seem more expensive than wood. Is rather go with the traditional smartcore material. Maybe I’ll upgrade to extrusions later.
Each piece of wood won’t be more than 480mm squared. Is that ok?
Also with extrusions, mounting would be an issue since the parts are made to be mounted to a thin material, and the measurements would be hard to calculate.
For my little 100x100 “printrcore” (smartcore adapted to use the guts of a printrbot simple wood), I ended up using ~15mm (really 5/8") shelf MDF. It works fine. Smartfriendz, IIRC, designed the smartcore with 10mm MDF in mind.
If you wanted to use extrusions for the smartcore, what you would do is change the size of the parts in the OpenJSCAD source (it’s parametric and there’s an option for it) to fit the walls you were using. I personally rated using extrusions for that style of printer as “trivial extension” for that reason.
You want to be extremely sure that the cuts are square and true.
Yea. I’d use a table saw with a sled to cut them at my local shop… Do you think that 12mm is thick enough?
The print volume is about 290x200x300 (lwh)
If you’re opposed to extrusions for assembly purposes and want to use a flat sheet, try aluminum sheets, have them CNC’d. Any local college will have a CNC machine and can assist you or grant you access. Otherwise, try this site to find a CNC operator near you to get it at a decent price. http://www.makexyz.com/ (fair pricing, too)
That way, you get the lightweight, easy assembly of the sheets, plus the durability of the Aluminum.
as to 12mm MDF, “probably” – As I said, the smartfriendz parts assume 10mm MDF so far as I know for about that area.
I’ll look into that, but the aluminium would have to be really thin and I don’t know how I would fasten each one together. Also, it’s much more expensive.
I’m getting the wood+cutting for 300 HKD. Abt 40usd.
The smartcore design is pretty well-locked down.
Make sure you have room inside for the power supply you will be using. Otherwise, make the bottom panel a bit bigger and hang the PSU on the outside.
Maybe these pics will help: http://imgur.com/a/bTFZE#0