There are some people out there who believe that all I do is talk theoretics among another small group of 3D printer enthusiasts and that I don’t build printers anymore. I still build printers. I’m just building so many of them, and they’re mostly just variations of the same model, so I don’t post about them often. This is the latest build for the local MakerFaire this year. Printable area is about 4ft tall x 2ft diameter. (1219mm tall, 609mm diameter for you metric folks)
I have been looking into larger FdM type 3d printers for some larger client work put am concerned about dimensional accuracy. How accurate are the parts from these Delta types?
@Temujin_Kuechle , as long as it’s engineered correctly, the accuracy should be fine. Bigger machines you’ll want bigger nozzles though. As the machine stands right now, it’s way too floppy – We’re making the arm angle much more shallow this go around, and putting clear acrylic on 2 sides to help machine rigidity and add some places to promote during makerfaire.
This is my first machine this big, so I’m sure I’ll post more about it again in the future.
If you want a machine that’s ready to go though, @Brook_Drumm1 needs “live testers” for his new machine. If you’re already in the purchasing phase, his printer would be the best option right now.
looking good … what profile sizes were used on this monster ??
Isn’t it your job to build printers?
Unfortunately I’m mostly theoretical at this point since I don’t have a working printer. Being poor sucks!
oh a upon closer seems like a 2040 or 2060 …
@Stephanie_A Theory is very imp as well ,… if you interested i could send you some links to make mini printers from E-waste …
It’s 2040 profile, with makerslide as the vertical beams. We’re actually going to play with arm lengths, as these aren’t ideal - we found shallower actually reduces our build diameter to around 16" so we’re going to sacrifice some height to gain width. We’re already 4ft and like…5 inches or something.
I’ve still gotta convince the head honcho that running a bowden of that length is bad mojo on a printer this large, and that we should be focusing on a non-bowden solution for this printer.
thanks …
will track this 
How are you able to print 4ft tall if the printer is only 1219mm tall? How long are your diagonal rods?
@Robert_Cicetti the printer is taller, 1219mm is equal to 4ft. Was just doing the conversion for the metric folks (I still can’t think visually in metric yet, but I use it every day)
Interesting, I just had an industrial customer ask me for a Delta w/2meter Z axis yesterday!
@Tom_Martz , I won’t lie - been a bit of a lul in printer sales lately, kinda hoping someone with too much money on their hands happens to want this one bad enough to part with a large chunk of it. We’ve made custom sizes for Lockheed Martin - they love our printer, because they already know how to operate the big ones.
@ThantiK , could you please try a third arm per side? You will need the effector to have the 3rd rod mount to be vertically above the other two. It would probably be a triangle shape on the sides of the effector and the mount the goes up and down on the frame. If you would like to try it out, but need an explanation, I can do a hangout with you around 6-11pm Chicago time.
Good to see makerslide is still being used! I’m putting a similar one together but only 750mm tall.
@shauki , corners are custom extruded/milled aluminum, the same ones we use on the smaller machines.
@NathanielStenzel @shauki three rods per arm has been done before, specifically by people wanting to mill with their delta… yes it’s more stable, but you have to have rather precise alignment or they become overconstrained and the joints get pushed/pulled a lot. (For example mag balls pop off.) If you just want more stability, a good set of U-joints and torsionally-stiff rods is a good upgrade.
But honestly, frame flex is by far a bigger issue than arm parallelogram stiffness.
add triangular arms or x’s that can be easily removed after the print is done … for bracing. also suggest 'wings" on cornerns at 90 degree’s /
@shauki still overconstrained. Each arm gives one translational constraint, each parallelogram gives one rotational constraint. Full constraint meant three arms and three parallelograms. If you put three rods in one arm, it now has three parallelograms, which gives five rotational constraints in total.
You can certainly build it that way, but the joint position and arm length must be very precise (better than most people can 3d print).
ThantiK as you are the owner and you build so much printers
what do you think of an open-source community design for a 3d printer that can directly print from pellet
(cost and custom materials)
and that can be assembled by hand
(so even me as handicapped as i am i can make my 3d printer) ???
?! i don’t see the post new thing