Ulti_printer 200x300

Just finished building two of these, completely own design.
Integrated is a fast interchangeable hotend system, so I can switch in a matter of seconds hotend. Only two screws to remove.
Because E3D hotends are rather expensive I make my own. Nozzles already done, from 0.43mm up to 0.8mm. It took me about three hours to make this set of nozzles. I will also make Volcano's with nozzles 1.0 and 1.2mm.
Heatsicks are done, heatblocks to. Busy making the heatbreaks now, made from M6 SS bolts.
So the only itmes I'll be buying are the heaters and the PT100 thermistors.

Looks Good!

Perhaps we should have a thread to co-operatively design and build an MEW 3D printer?

Neil

What did you have in mind Neil...?

Chris

These 2 pictures tell it all.
The green part is printed on one of my older printers. Many people will think, not bad at all.

But looking at the second picture, that black part is printed with my Ulti-Printer, judge for yourself. The quality of that perimeter is far better compared to the green part.

Edited By Chris Baetens on 30/06/2017 08:14:56

Nice idea Neil. Another thought, I have a CNC mill but not much space for a 3D printer. I've toyed with the idea of fitting an extruder to it for occasional printing. Might be an interesting project...?

Edited By John Haine on 30/06/2017 08:40:54

I wouldn't want to use a mill regularly for 3D printing, you can easily put on a hell of a lot of hours. Ball bearing slides are more than adequate for 3D printing and will wear less than dovetails.

I think an ideal machine would be built into a box, with an easily removed print head, using a QCTP-style metal dovetail that allowed it to be easily swapped out with alternative hot ends, a dremel-type tool for engraving and light milling, PCB drilling etc. or even a small laser.

The hot bed would also be easily swappable for a t-slotted bed and sacrificial beds for drilling etc.

I think the main thing to do would be to abandon the reprap philosophy of printing as much of the machine as possible. Many builders won't have a machine to do the printing, and as we have the capacity to make good metal to metal joints, for example, we should use it.

The challenge would be to make it capable of using, say, a 3mm end mill in alloy without over-engineering the machine.

Quite a few already out there. Not surprising given they have so much in common. And every man and his dog is making every imaginable variation. Exciting stuff!

Seem to be very few repraps these days, as so much of it has to be sourced or made of metal to be sensible. And the internet / Aliexpress etc is awash with all manner of relevant components.

Murray

I also have space problems but I found that the Kossel mini printer, which is another design by the same people who made the I3 prusa kit. This makes for a machine that's got much smaller footprint than the prusa, but compensates for this by giving it a lot of height.

Michael W

Perhaps someone could write a full constructional article for mew (with drawings etc) I for one would be very interested

Lionel

I would be happy to help others build this printer, but it is not an easy one to build, let that be very clear.
In the past we've built several other printer, a few Prusa i2, a few Prusa i3 also MK2(even a 200x300) a CoreXY, Skeleton, and a few others. They all were rather easy to assemble, except for the very first one of course...

In my Ulti-Printer I abandoned all LMUU linear bearings. I made my own bearings. These 'linear'bearings are made of separate (48!)ball bearings in total. I can adjust these bearings so all play can be ruled out completely. And of course these bearings are all absolute maintenance free.

To give you an idea of the complexity of these printed parts here's the XY-carriage in transparancy. Printing these parts containing all these ball bearings : there's no room for error at all. The holes for the ball bearing's axis must be printed perfectly. If not the axis won't fit, or the bearings are not at the correct angle, or there's to much play, or on the contrary the X an Y axis won't fit in that part at all. To be clear I had to make a lot of testprints myself before correct parts were usable. But in the end it payed of, I print perfect perimeters, except for a few minor details no issues at all to be seen. Higher up in this thread is a pictures of apart printed with that Ulti-Printer.

This printer has :

No LMUU bearings.
Silicone heatbed 200x300
Print height 230mm
Fast interchangeable hotend system.
1.75mm filament direct drive.
TMC2100 silent stepper driver.
I use the full 200x300 bed surface.
This printer total cost : 470€ (all depends of course where things are bought.)

I printed this yesterday on the same printer Neil is using

You can't see in the photo but it's 18mm deep and the side you're looking at is the top, it works too

Thanks,

Yes, the perimeter is very nice too, a couple of wipes with wet and dry and it's as flat as a flat thing, I didn't show it because the post-processing is already done

- Nick

That's just what I try to avoid in the first place, it has to be perfect without post-processing.
as matter of fact that's what the built of this printer is all about, perfect perimeters.
This part is ok, but still has some minor issues. I keep working and searching until they're gone to.

Most of the quality issues I get now are down to Cura, sometimes it prints relatively sections of a print as a sort of open 'knitted' texture. It may be related to the thickness being close to two nozzle widths.

The other challenging bit is shallow overhangs, but dropping the print temperature and print speed helps.

Neil

We've tried lots of slicers.
We ended up using the Prusa-Sicer and Simplify3D. They both give a good and consistent result, apart from the filament quality of course. Depending on the environment things also could go wrong(or not).

Chris

Assuming that's perfect have you avoided modelling round or rectangular holes and smooth surface finishes?

- Nick

To clarify, my definition of a perfect part is that it looks like a well rendered solid model and measures to print with micrometers, height gauge and surface plate/inspection Jo-Blocks and Diagauge Bore Measurement or better. Good enough is different and a world away from perfect, but still good enough. 

Edited By Nick Hulme on 01/07/2017 18:22:23

I'm afraid I don't quit understand what you're trying to say here...sorry...

I understand now, I think...
Still, goal of this thread is showing a printer capable of making near perfect prints. Or at least trying to, working on...

If someone wants to modify his parts through post-processing that could be the subject of another thread...
I mean it could be interesting to know what techniques are used to make a printed part look better if it has no perfect perimeter. I know of one (don't use it) Aceton vapor to smooth up ABS((never use it either).
To be clear : absolutely not my cup of tea..!