GearHeads Forum

Hi All:

 This forum will try to document my ( and Bob's) 3d printer project. We'll be using GM's gears, a robot assembly,
and various things to experiment in the rather interesting world of 3d printing.

 Being the software guy, Ill be concentrating on the control end, while together , Bob and myself will build the thing. Bobs great at implementation.. He build up the controller Ill post photos of, Ive had the robot laying about for years from Ebay about 5 years back.. we finally thought of a use..

Suggestions are more than welcome.. arguments as well. ( Me and Bob argue all the time about the mechanics of it all..)


More to follow

Art
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Hi Guys:

  Well, the building of the platform in a box is underway.. ( pics later ) , and Im working on the inket printing head that
I plan to hang from the gantry.

  I got an HP1000 printer from walmart and tore it apart. It has very few parts really that are important. I should probably have played with it software-wise first to see if I can fool it to do the required things in software, but decided insterad to see if I can build the inkjet into a box that I can hang, with the jet head hanging down to print on powder.. ( or t-shirts ) at any size the gantry can dictate.

 So.. after removing all the parts, I discover the only real impediment to making the injet a replacement for a cnc spindle.. is the little motor that drives the carriage back and forth. It hangs down.. not good.

 Picture one shows the injet assembly laying on a plexi face plate that will form the
bottom of the box. The motor has been removed and moved to the back of the carriage. ( it used to be bolted in that round hole in the base plate upside down. ) This leaves the bottom flat with the inkjet the lowest point on the carriage.

 The following pictures show how the motor has been moved and the belt reconnected to the carriage. The motor wires are reversed to make the motor run backwards as its now upside down to its normal position.

 The last photo shows whats left. A circuit board, a paper drive motor and its encoder wheel, and two opto sensors.. one for paper in, and one for paper out. Once I put all this back together I'll see if I can write a driver that can print one line of output at a time on command. The theory being that this box will replace a spindle on a mill, and thus be able to print any picture to the width and length of a cnc driven gantry in single line prints at differing positions.


 Ill post more photos as I go, and will let you know if its all a waste of time due to firmware limitations, or if I can fool it to be what I want it to be.

Price so far:

 HP1000 printer:   $28.00 Canadian.
 Acrylic sheet     $20.00 Canadian.
 Access to LAser:   priceless.





Art

Art, why not going for Projector instead of UV led/laser etc. See B9Creator its simple. You are right though the resin is much costly.
I am planning for making 3d printer with extruder head. They are cheap and now produce more quality work.

Hi Kahlid:

  >>Art, why not going for Projector instead of UV led/laser etc. See B9Creator its simple. You are right though the resin is much costly.

  The resin isnt expensive really, a can of oleatic acid which turns fibreglass resin to UV resin is about 30 dollars for enough to make 10 gallons of resin . So its about $15.00 a litre to make it including the esther resin cost.
But, after playing with it quite a bit I decided I prefer the extruder,,resin smells terrible. The projector seems the expensive route at the time ???...

Art

Art Thanks for telling the secret. I dont know why then these guys selling a small bottle of UV curable resin that costly. As far as extrusion based 3d printer filament is concerned you can now make your own extruder. The filament that you currently paying for 30dollar, you can yourself make not more than 10us dollar. I think LYMAN filament extruder's  videos you have seen on youtube, its open source.
By the way thanks for taking time and replying. I really a big fan of you.

Art, how much oleatic acid per liter of polyester resin?

Khalid, welcome to the forum!  Are you the Khalid with the laminar flow fountain on cnczone?

Kirk

Kirk:

  The stuff I used is called SunCure, its fabulous stuff, (its really just Dimenoxybenzoyl acid) one bottle makes 10 gallons of resin, costs about 15$ for the bottle as I recall. A small UV laser diode can cure it in a minute or less, a 1 watt diode cures it in seconds..you can buy it from surfboard makers online.)

Works on fibreglass resin as well as polyvinyl resin. Some sell the mixed resin for over  hundred a litre, but this stuff seems to work as well as the expensive stuff at abotu 10-15$ a litre mixed..(or less).

  I find I dont use much filiment, but I have seen the extruders and I think their probably great if you use alot of filament.

  Thanks for the comments khalid, I really dont like secrets in any of this stuff, and if I can help anyone understand something dark, it makes my day.

Art

Mooselake wrote:
Khalid, welcome to the forum!  Are you the Khalid with the laminar flow fountain on cnczone?
Kirk

Yes, the same Khalid.

@Art;
I hope you have watched this DIY filament extruder youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JebhbxgjBgA&hd=1

I think using Projector is the best/fastest way for UV curable Resin based printer.