Designing a new printer
Designing a new printer
I'm looking at making a new printer. I'm thinking a core XY similar to a Voron, but I would be making it from scratch. I'm looking for something I can make reliable and accurate. I want to print PLA, ABS, TPU and more. I have a bunch of parts now that I would stick to.
235mm heated bed Revo hot end Nema 17 motors. BTT E3 mini, although I could use my SKR3 instead.
The easiest would be a bed slinger, but I am open to a Trident style. I like unique and challenging things.
What new features should I include? What should I avoid?
Why not just build a Voron? Other than your bed size, nothing else you listed wouldn't work on a Voron build. If you want to make it your own, the design is fully open source so you can modify to your heart's content. There are also a ton of "unofficial" and "official" mods.
It's worth saying that CoreXY != bed slinger, so...
I design my own printers and like the challenge. Vorons are expensive and have a ton of parts. I like unique stuff. Ive made my own delta printer and conveyor belt printer. The limitations of those leave me wanting a more traditional style.
If cost is your design constraint, and you want a CoreXY design, think about what drives the Voron BOM cost and optimize around that. Without thinking about it too much, the thing that jumps to mind are the 4x (2,4) or 3x (trident) z motors. Reducing beyond 3 will not allow you to get the gantry mechanically in plane with the bed, but that didn't stop Bambu labs from using a single motor on the z-axis for the x1 and p1. Ditching the cable chains for a CAN or USB toolhead would also probably save some cost out of the gate (fewer wires + you won't have to buy the cable chains).
Also consider what your design goals are. In the case of single vs 3/4 z motors, you're trading initial fiddling with cost. A single z motor is going to require more fiddling to get right, but it does save on BOM cost.
I built myself a 400x400x500 CoreXY machine from scratch.
Honestly, my prints are dogshit unless I go slow, and then sometimes they're dogshit anyway. I have found the entire exercise as one of futility and massive frustration... but I low key love fucking with it. I can't help myself, I keep building upgrades and improvements for it. I keep sinking time and energy I don't have (and cash that I do) into this fucking heap of shit and I can't help but love it to pieces. It's dumb as fuck and it's pretty fun to work on.
Honestly the vibes are about the same for a project car. Don't daily it or you will hate yourself, but if you put it together and tune it right, you'll have a blast.
Exactly. I made a delta printer about 10 years ago from scratch. Every part has been updated and updated again. Its an adventure.
Do you have any pictures or info on your printer? What would you change?
Have you looked at Klipper to tune out the high speed Issues?
I'm not ready to make the jump to Klipper just yet. I want to iron out hardware issues first.
I have a couple important takeaways. First, build the damn thing to be actually rigid out of the box. I thought I could keep it cheap with only 2020 extrusions, but I'm honestly paying a helluva lot more to add some stiffness to it.
Second, plan for your wiring at any given point to double. I got really tidy with my wiring at first and now it's an absolute nightmare. I gave up and half of it dangles off the back on the floor. It works but I really could have done a lot better with some better planning. It is truly a shameful sight.
I did add an extra pair of motors to the Z axis, bringing me to a grand total of four. I'm waiting on some stepper drivers to get it going again.
I don't have any pictures on hand, but could take some later.
Do you have a big budget to buy parts? You can do work in CAD? Copy the Pantheon HS3 design approch. Always question design decisions. In the broader picture of 3D-printer is the HS3 still engineering porn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooE0Xc6jPBY
I can make reliable and accurate.
I’m thinking a core XY
Mark my words: CoreXY hype is slowing down. In the next years, we will see people avoiding it due to the accuracy challenge of long belts. Not sure what will be the next trend but maybe we are going back to shorter, separate belts with the motor riding on the gantry once more. I don't see ballscrews happening soon as all of the china, low cost, easy to source options are unsuitable at the moment (wrong pitch/mm per revolution).
With Prusa publicly talking about E3D Revo issues (and implementing a special slicer mode for them) we might see there too a new design.
Looking to build on a budget right now. Basically I would dismantle my belt printer to build this and it's a core xy so I have all the parts including the hot end. I hear you on the core xy, it has its disadvantages, but it makes a clean, easy to make machine. What's not clean is the Z axis and I agree with you on the screws. I would love a cleaner simpler way of doing z, thats why I am entertaining the idea of a core XZ belt slinger. It does split all the motion up nicely.
The benefit of core XY is that you don't have a heavy motor riding on the X-axis allowing you to push higher speeds without increasing the rigidity of the y-axis. The downside is the long belt which will stretch a tiny bit meaning a lower accuracy.
With core XZ you don't gain anything as the z-axis is generally not high dynamic meaning the weight doesn't matter at all but still need to eat the downside of a long belt. In my opinion, it is just a stupid gimmick people fell for because is looks novel or cool.
Also core XZ is a bed slinger. With small objects, this is not an issue. The higher they are and the less rigid the print is the bigger the issue of the 3D print itself deflecting gets. With the usual 20cm height and the usual helmet and the like this aspect doesn't matter at all.
My personal hatred of Core XY not withstanding that sounds like an awesome idea. Belt printer? Maybe at a 45 degree slant to avoid support and overhang issues?
What is it that you hate about Core XY?
I too would like to hear some hot takes on core xy