Some years ago I dreamed about building my own 3D printer. Half a year ago I finally started.
As I didn’t know which material to choose, I went into the basement and got some square-type tube.
I welded the frame and from time to time I placed another part on the machine.
Now finally the mechanics seem to be ready and wehn I’m back et home in July I’l go on with the wires.
Especially I’m happy about my spool holder. Was not much work to build it and it’s adjustable for different sizes of spools
What should I respect while mounting the cables?
And which software would you guys advice for an dualaxtruder (Wade and direct drive) auto-leveling (inductive sensor)
ArduinoMega driven Ramps 1.4?
For cabling, make sure you have strain relief for moving cables so they last longer. Don’t use solid core wire(they wear out to fast). Make sure you allow yourself enough length for all movement. Last but not least if you plan to tinker with different set ups use some type of plug at the hot end and run some spare wires for things like auto bed sensors or stepper motors for direct drive extruders
I havent seen a true diy machine for a while. My first reaction was should have used aluminum, but as soon as I saw it was what you had laying around I thought of how we used to build machines years ago. My 1st was wood and aluminum square tube.
What you learn from building a machine like this is priceless because you end up knowing everything about printers.
Damn, you beat me to it! I’ve been working on making a Prusa-like printer using square tube (since its much cheaper and easier to get in Midwest America than T-slot), but have been running into issues spacing the Z axis rods.
Tip: Put bare electronics and power source somewhere else. There is a lot of small particles during printing and removing prints. Dust can help transfer static electricity also. (Not to mention cleaning, adhesive and separator materials for the bed and oil for rods.)
@Joe_Walters I’m waiting for XT60 and XT0 connectors - that’s what I’m going to use to connect the hotends and heatbed
For sensors maxbe I’ll use some dupont-connectors.
@Michael_Scholtz that’s why I wanted to built my first machine myself
Especially my dualxtruder-setup will gain much experience. And my dual-hotend might be a lot of worg for autoleveling - but if it works properly, I’m sure that’s a great benefit
@Tomas_Vit Didn’T think about small parts and electrostatic. Maybe I’ll add a shield above the fan (of course with some space :D) and the ramps.
If everything is connected to groud properly, there shouldn’t be any electrostatic-probs anyway?
Or shall I connect the frame to PE using a big resistor (i.e. 5MOhm)?
@Michael_Weber My main issue has been that I want to use the same carriages for the Z axis as the Prusa (I forgot the actual name, they’re the parts that hold the lead screw nut and the lm8uu bearings for the Z axis), but I also want to use some sk8 rod holders (like what you used) for them, but I cant find the dimensions to how far apart the rod is from the screw and if there’s any offset to them. I don’t trust measuring a 3D printed part, especially one I print from my current printer. Also I just realized I lost my project files after reinstalling Windows so I’m starting from scratch again (which is a bit of a good thing because it gives me a fresh start).
Well…why don’t you just print the parts you need and see if it fits? Or buy parts you might think they fit and modify them
Or built your own parts if you’ve got access to a milling machine. It’s important to just start. without starting you won’t get finished
And there’s always something to optimize…
