Delta250

This journey starts with a purchased Cartesian printer which never quite met expectations. After much research I decided to build the Delta 6 (thank you everyone who contributed to that thread). That was a great learning experience and I am generally pleased with the performance. I did however have difficulty with the belt tensioning and concluded that relying on printed structural parts just isn't the way to go.

With a need for a smaller printer at another location, I began searching for an "all metal" design. After studying the designs here on OpenBuilds I decided to try something other than the traditional trianglular frame. I chose a "Y" frame configuration with everything bolted together. Printed parts are used where appropriate and are shown in red in the Fusion 360 file.

The frame is made from 20x40 V-slot and 1/8" aluminum plates. Corner bracing, motor mounts and belt tensioning utilize 1x2x1/8" aluminum rectangular tubing. The idler brackets are made from 3/4x1/8" aluminum square tubing. The carriages are cut from 1/4" aluminum bar stock. All aluminum parts are 6061-T6, cut on my CNC router.

The drive system utilizes .9° stepper motors, 16 teeth sprockets and gt2 timing belts. Magball arms connect the carriages and effector. The system is controlled by a Duet WiFi with a PanelDue 5i touch control panel. Power is provided by a Meanwell 24V 350W power supply. The bed heater is 110V 400W. The extruder is the E3D Titan Aero. A Duet3D IR height sensor is used for build plate height calibration.

Great care must be exercised in assembling the frame. The V-slot ends must be square. The "Y" frame angles must be set at 120° with a precision protractor. Any error here will affect print quality.

Performance: I was concerned that the mass of the Titan Aero extruder would be a problem. Surprisingly, print quality is comparable to the Delta 6 with a Zesty Nimble extruder. I have reduced the jerk and acceleration settings to help smooth things out. The frame has some minor flex but I'm not sure it is having any great effect on print quality. Tuning continues...

Below is a link to the Fusion 360 files. This documents the entire design. The attached BOM was generated from the design file.