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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Printer works, New Pics, and Evolution

So my printer which at this point I call the BRR, is finally working, but is nowhere near finished. 
The printer has now printed its first upgrade part, a fan mount for my stepper motors as they get quite hot to achieve the speed and torque that I want and need.

One of the next modifications is to start working on a heated bed platform for my entire build platform all 22" x 22" of it.
Here are some new pics:



close up of fan mount
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

Introduction

My name is Jeff, I have been following the RepRap project for a little over 2 years.  I decided to build my own version about a year and a half ago and started building about a year ago.  This is my first post on here, I wanted to have something that I can reference to when people ask about my printer

My printer is a behemoth of a printer compared to Mendel and Darwin.  The printer stands just over 4 feet tall 26 inches deep and 26 inches in width.  The print area is 22in x 22in x 18in.  These Print areas where not designed this size to actually print objects that large, but to be able to add extra components to the printer in the future.

All of the structural components are made of wood, specifically 3/4in MDF.  The Z axis is controlled by 2 Nema 23 stepper motors, 4 ball screws, and 4 linear bearings.  The XY axis is controlled with timing belts, at some point I do wish to switch over to ball screws for it as well.

Included are some pictures of my XY gantry and a 3d model of my Z axis.  This printer is 99% operational, the only things left to do is to tune the feed rates and other aspects of the printer.





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BRR Z Axis V2-2
BRR X Axis V2
Ball Screw Nut Close up Shot
Ball Screw Nut Group Shot

I want to make sure that people understand that I am not trying to make a printer that can make most of its self, that is nice, but it is not my goal, many parts will be upgraded on my printer when it is 100% functional but my goal is to make it easier to make parts for other things I build.