Tank3d printer build

[Boyan Silyavski]

Dont know, am i lucky or what? had no idea whatsoever before 1 month , decided a 3d printer before 2 weeks, 3-4 days to learn software and from one week ago i am non stop printing on my friends Legio / a Spanish knockoff of Prusa 3/

He told me he needs hours if at all to level the bed and that the machine is super flimsy/ it is/ . Last week he gave me the machine. I did not know how to operate it at all.

First thing i tightened properly the belts. Took from garage the hot glue gun and a precision square. Hot glued all that i did not like / ALL / . Hot glued machine to a kitchen board/ not best but i am going to weld a base/ . Hot glued the belt ends to the belt plates. As i said -all.

Then leveled the bloody bed for 2 min and it would have been faster if people were aware that 3 screws leveling is easier than 4 screws leveling.

Did some prints and 1 print f%%%d up cause unglued from bed. So i sat down infront of google and after 10 min i knew the magic. Went to garage, took a bottle of C200/ white wood glue. diluted it 1:1 in a small hermetic jar and tapping gently a sponge primed the glass bed. From then on glues like a ...you know the saying. Only thing is i have to wait 5 min for the bed to cool a bit from the 55C i print. Then it comes off easily. I see the hotend or the hotend extruder combo is not perfect, but i print always from then with rafts and skirt so no problem at all with the crappy breathing bed.

I printed PLA and from a couple of days only pla 3d850 which i intend to be the main material as its stronger than ABS when cured, very detailed prints, and hi temp resistant when cured. Its Ingeo but made in Spain so at 19euro per kg is a no brainer that i master it.

The only problem till now was to master the material which i did in a day, had problems and it made me learn Simplify3D up and down , at the end it was bloody material being 1.69mm thick, but when logic was implemented it took me only 2 hours to find the bug.



What i am saying is PVA glue is the way. Rafts also. No need to hurry and try to save 5 min or 0.05 cents of material. No need for special stuff. Or to use my wifes hair spray.



Ok, i dont know if you guys are aware but on a properly designed DIY CNC when head hits the table or gantry hits the end or similar, if steppers are used the machine just stops and thats it. Plus if you use digital drives most probably stall detection will happen and alarm signal will stop the machine.

So if the printer is properly designed i dont see what will happen apart from stopping.

I am still not there and will ook into that but: Arent these printers using some digital drivers with stall detection?????

I am much more worried why these toys dont use some kind of smoke detection or fire prevention??


Anyway, i moved further with the design. Managed to make the gantry very tight vertically, same with the hotend. Plus at the end i decided how what to do with the X motor, which will go in the clearance between the gantry sides and the table, which means keeping the structure height etremely low. That combined with the shallow depth will make it a real table top machine. Not some ugly cube. At the moment stands wide 620mm and high 370mm. I am still playing with the idea if i need or not the top and bottom cross bars, look last picture where removed. Looks more simple and better to the eye, I will decide that later . Their main idea was so if i sell the machine to sb all linear elements to be premounted here by me, Guess i have to receive the 20x20 profile and see how it will go. Their other function is if you fit servo drives and do crazy speeds so the machine to wobble. Though it wouldn't if side and top panels are fitted


Another thing that bugs me is the cable chain. Yesterday printed some cable chains and they are not properly designed for printing even if they tell so. I will check what price are Chines, design proper one or use what they use on the Original Prusa. Some kind of cable tie organizer???


have also started printing the parts and well, i am quite happy with the result. Till now had to redesign only one of the, All else is indestructible by hand. Which is how i like it to be strong. The hotend plastics are downloaded from internet. Just printing them now, cause i think i will have to redesign them to be stronger and ventilator adjustable somehow up and down in case i switch to the Volcano heater