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      Large print area commissioned by a local company to build items as part of their business.

      This build was inspired by evilc66 My C-Beam 3D Printer but drawn from my years of building 3D printers and of late a redesigned LulzBot TAZ 6.

      I am a Sheetmetal tradesman, generally worked in one offs and prototyping all my career.

      Heated bed is the 500x500mm Wombot bed as fitted to the Cubus. It is 24v and I will switch on with the Reprap.me Power Expander which uses MOSFET instead of Relays.
      Z axis is C-Beam with Nema 23 motors, possibly 0.9deg/400step units
      Y axis will be on 2 linear rails and driven by Leadscrew and Nema 23 motor. Mainly because of the weight.
      X axis will be belt driven with Nema 17 and 20 tooth pulley. The axis will be 6020 with basic gantry... all pretty light weight.
      Extruder will be E3D Titan with E3Dv6 and Volcano hotend. Either 3mm or 1.75 not decided.

      As part of the build I will test the idea of running 1 Nema 23 and belt drive both Z axis leadscrews. I prefer this ideas and a good chance to see it in action.

      My first part was to print the redesigned C-Beam end plates. This was to get away from using the ugly angle brackets everywhere. First fit up proved I had everything right so I'll get them machined now.

      IMG20170203105846.jpg IMG20170203105934.jpg IMG20170203135702.jpg IMG20170203135717.jpg

      X axis: I designed the X to be light but strong. I am using 6020 rail with some redesigned files from Thingiverse. A Nema 17 motor mount and Idler with incorporated Belt Tensioner.

      OpenBuilds 6020 Rail X axis Belt driven with Adjustment by ant0ny

      IMG20170207150942.jpg IMG20170207154426.jpg IMG20170207154415.jpg

      I am printing an upgraded version with some tweaks. The first fit up is very good... a bit tight and needs to be printed in different orientation to make the part a little stronger.

      IMG20170205115645.jpg

      A mounting plate to bolt the X axis to the Z axis... fairly simply but with easy access to the bolts. This makes it very easy to attach the X axis without removing the Z axis gantry plate... if ever needed.

      IMG20170215103235.jpg IMG20170215103825.jpg IMG20170215103919.jpg IMG20170215132404.jpg


      Y axis: I am using 12mm Supported Linear Rail. Temptation was to go for other rail systems but I need to keep this as simple and serviceable as I can, so I stuck with what I know. The bed plate is 4mm Aluminum plate cut by CNC water jet and simply bolted to the bearing blocks.

      The end plates are from MakerStore in Australia and although I saw the warning about these guys I can say they were spot on with no fuss and the gear turned up correct and in quick time.

      The plates are a part of their Linear Actuator Kit which I guess is a kit that existed before the C-beam system. It has the bearing recess and is designed to have 2x 2040 rails to make up like an open C with the TR8 leadscrew down the center. I will use a 2020 rail running the length and the bracket fixed to the bottom rail of the bed.

      IMG20170215092655.jpg IMG20170215092703.jpg

      Advantage of this is it fits almost integrated into the bottom flame and is more compact than the C-Beam. I have printed a motor mount which works very well, compact and quite rigid.

      The Anti backlash nut fixed to the plate and offset with a 17.5mm spacer.

      IMG20170212173046.jpg IMG20170212173124.jpg IMG20170212173815.jpg IMG20170212174030.jpg

      The bed surface is only 85mm off the table face... that is lower than my 2 large printers by 20mm and only this dinky Wahoo Di3 I'm fixing for a client is 10mm lower... impressed with that.

      Z axis: I designed the center square to be the core of the machine of which everything hangs from. The 8020 section top and bottom and to make the side of the 8040 C-Beam section being side on to make the X axis uncomplicated and as light as possible, plus ease of alignment. To continue the 8020 square I used 4020 to widen the 40 side of the C-Beam.

      I wanted a seamless join and after some thinking I came up with a nice little V-Slot Nail ( as gooda name as any). A printed section knocked into place and surprisingly solid.

      IMG20170217092232.jpg IMG20170217092216.jpg IMG20170217092337.jpg IMG20170217092442.jpg IMG20170217092502.jpg

      After getting the main Z axis uprights together I have done a mock-up using my 3D printed test plates

      IMG20170217184031.jpg

      Started the process of wiring the TB6560 Drivers to the MKS Gen 1.4 board. This was easier than I expected with he MKS board having the 4pin EN,DIR,STEP and GND pins to make it an easy wiring to the external drivers.

      I added a brace to the Z axis to make it a little more secure with an aim to have this printing by next week. With the plastic plates still, as I am still waiting for the Ali ones to be done. Saying that like it's a bad thing... I am quite surprised how well the printed plates actually work... I build small scale (well normal scale as this is not) with combination of printed parts with 2020 but this thing is huge and heavy.

      IMG20170226104818.jpg IMG20170226104827.jpg

      Y axis Belt Drive: Although the 8mm leadscrew drive works I prefer the simplicity and the advantages of being able to move the bed when it's unpowered by just pushing it. My first attempt I just used GT2 belt as that was what I have plenty of. It actually worked fine despite the length of nearly 2 meters of belt. I did get some Y axis shifting and it seemed to be just simple belt engagement for the weight I am trying to move... no surprises there.

      I ordered GT3 belt and pulley and wow what a difference the belt drive works pretty well. Speed is a killer but I am able to print at 25mm/s and maybe a little faster but what has been my biggest issue is the non printing moves and acceleration.

      Quality of print is very good... well I guess printing at 25mm/s does help with that but overall printing with 0.4mm nozzle I would be very happy with that. The test will be with the Volcano with a 1.0mm nozzle and printing some bigger than a 20mm test cube.

      IMG20170410072751.jpg IMG20170410072733.jpg IMG20170410072820.jpg IMG20170410072806.jpg

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    Build License:
    • CC - Attribution No Derivs - CC BY ND

    Inspired by

    My C-Beam 3D Printer
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