Here comes my DIY 3D printer

I don't know how much interest there is for 3D printers here, but here is my thread about my own design. It is not going to be a proper Build log, since I did not document every step from the start, but I made some YouTube video (at this moment only two, but more to come later) showing the progress.

For those interested in some background...

I designed and built a CNC some years ago, which I upgraded about two years ago and am very happy with that for now. I planned to make a 3D printer head to replace the spindle with so that I could use it as a 3D printer also. After I bought some necessary parts I made some tests and realized that I will not be happy with as a 3D printer, so just as well I give up before I spend too much time on the converting works and regret in the end. However, I became a little interested in trying out 3D printing so I decided to buy a cheap acrylic 3D printer kit, knowing that it is only for testing out the concept and to see if I am really interested in 3D printing or not. So I bought this kit:

https://youtu.be/XcHv82eBWo4

It is a Geeetech acrylic Prusa i3 Pro B kit, delivered from Germany after a few days, assembled during a weekend and it worked OK from the start. I made some minor changes "on the fly", but those changes were not really necessary to start with, I did it because I had the parts. After a few days I realized I wanted to do some improvements, so I spent a few hours, made some quick sketches and cut some aluminium, drilled a few holes and basically rebuilt the Z, which in my opinion was the weakest part. Made some other modifications as well, and once the work was done and changes were made the printer reached it's final status.

https://youtu.be/aq4qBsM0jPs

It is now not as sexy as it was from the start, but it works much better and the speed is also improved a lot. After using it for a few weeks I realized that this is fun and decided to build my own. I had a lot of rest aluminium profiles at home which I intended to use up for the purpose, so the design was based on 30x30, 30x60 and 15x120 profiles, making stepper holders from 5x50 L profiles, and other bits and pieces from 3mm aluminium sheets. The design is a boring, standard box design with moving table, similar to my CNC but smaller of course. The print volume is 200 x 200 x 150 mm, so it is not huge but more than enough for my needs. A few weeks ago I released the first video about it, with some other details.

https://youtu.be/qRImcmjYsG8

The total volume of the box is 400 x 400 x 400 mm plus I have an external power supply box built into a micro PC box, but that's floor placed. It is pretty heavy (I think over 20kg now), have still to weight it, but it gets heavier every day to lift and rotate it for different reasons, since it is still work in progress. Currently, just a few days ago, I finished the Y table and installed it on the frame, as well as made a new video about it, which I published yesterday.

https://youtu.be/rouipbCCjuA

I have done some fake printing on it (not in the video) and it seems that I am not going to regret the weight and rigidity of it, because the printer is very stable, not jerking around and shaking like the other one, which is too light for it's own good. This one is like if it was glued to the table, though the print pattern I tested with was very jerky, with honeycomb fill and fast printing.

I have also tested the table heating, but currently I don't have an aluminium heated bed so I sandwiched two 12V PCB heat beds together for the test, connected serially so that I could use the 24V PSU which will be the final voltage for the bed and the extruder. The bed heats up to 70 degrees in two minutes, so it is pretty good in my opinion. ...but it was just fake printing. The extruder is not connected yet, so real printing must wait for a while. It's summer here, and I have quite a few trips to make, some for business, some for pleasure, so the progress will be slow until mid September.

That's it for now. Will update this or answer comments/questions if there is some interest, but as we all have noted and noticed, the interest for discussing 3D printers is pretty low here.

I'm interested - I love 3D printers :)

400x400x400mm is a pretty awesome build area and is the kind of size I would go for if (when?) I build myself a new printer one day.

What are you using for print bed? I've been having a great experience lately with printbite+ on a tooling plate.

Just FYI, you can get silicon heater mats made up to order so whatever size/voltage/wattage you want. The ones I ordered for my new build plates have a thermistor built in and came with tape applied ready to fit so very convenient.

It’s great that you are posting and sharing but I’m trying not to be interested in 3D printers because I know how it ends :biggrin:

It is not the maximum print volume which is 400x400x400 but the printer. The volume is pretty much standard 200x200x150 , so it's not that large, but enogh for me. The heat bed at the moment is 2 PCB sandwiched and connected serially to get 24V control. Will see how it works out.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by routercnc

It’s great that you are posting and sharing but I’m trying not to be interested in 3D printers because I know how it ends :biggrin:

---

I understand what you mean. I was also not interested for years... :smile: but one day I woke up and realised that I don't want to die without trying... and now I am stuck. It's fun and even if some things are better made using my CNC, I prefer printing if possible, at least for now.