At this point in time the mechanics of my printer are complete, I need to add another z axis belt, re tighten the z axis mounting bolts and the mechanics will be complete. I have finally added the print bed to the printer, and I have leveled it oriented to the print head so that no matter where the bed is located the distance between the print head and bed will vary less than .004" over the entire 12" bed. I am using stainless springs to assist in maintaining a level bed, only time will tell if this will be acceptable long term.
I have also completed the computer build for this printer it consists of the old parts from my old gaming computer in its entirety, except for its case. The case along with the case for the printer electronics follows the principle "function over form" which I learned long ago. The cases are made from wine crates, and have a 1/8" acrylic cover.
The printer electronics case houses gen4 Makerbot style electronics, a 400 watt power supply, a 350 watt computer power supply, solid state relays, 2 PID controllers, and switches for various parts of the printer. the 400 watt Lambda power supply is only for supplying 12v dc to various parts of the printer, at this point only the print head. It will be done away with once I convert to a cartridge based heater since it will operate off of mains voltage as the heated bed already does. The heatsinks are mounted to a strip of aluminum angle because I felt that the got to hot when I was operating the printer in the past.
The printer electronics box is going to have some aggressive cooling, 2 fans in the computer power supply, 1 fan in the Lambda supply, 4 120mm fans in the acrylic top, and I may add 2 more 80mm fans in the case somewhere.
And the slideshow of all images:
A question I have for someone better versed in mains voltage than I: Should I tie the bed and in the future the extruder to earth ground, since the bed is powered by mains voltage? the extruder will be as well in the future.
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