The Aluminum 3D Printer

[nickrivera]

Hello modretro members!
I wanted to show off my 3D printer I finished a little while ago

Specs:
Build area: 12" by 9" , 6.5" height
Heated bed
E3D V6 hotend
RAMPS board w/ A4988 stepper drivers
Unit dimensions: W,21" L,17" H,15"

The whole project took about a month to build, and cost around 500$

Here are some worklog pics:

the extruder and electronics:

And the finished build

Here is a little vase I printed: (sorry for the flax cellphone image)

 

[cheese]

Nice! Much better than my 3D printer...
What kind of quality do you get out of your parts?

 

[legofan623]

The extruder reminds me of a bunch of strips of mint gum all smashed together . Very nice work!

 

[nickrivera]

I get pretty decent quality out of it, there is slight banding in the z-direction but eventually ill swap out the z-axis lead screw with a higher quality one.

I added an image of a print to the first post

 

[spazmoid]

nice build and thats a pretty impressive build volume

 

[spazmoid]

have you considered adding a cnc spindle?

 

[PSIDuck]

dude this is freakin awsome!! jealoooous

 

[nickrivera]

I actually have considered changing this into a CNC mill, that is one of the reasons its so friggin' huge. It would be pretty cool to have a CNC/3D printer unit

 

[spazmoid]

it's also obviously sturdy enough to handle the vibrations from the spindle though the timing belts might not be strong enough to handle the forces applied if it is to carve at any decent speed. ballscrews might have been more practical though slower and more pricy

 

[nickrivera]

Yes that is true, but I have seen the belts used in CNCs before, it seems they run fine for light duty. Plus, I use dual belts on the X-axis. If I where to convert it into a CNC I would also probably move the Z-axis away from the build plate because it is hard to move a whole work piece rather than just moving the spindle.