My 3d Printer build

[ArtF]

Dan:

  Didnt realize it myself till I made the gearing work.. Its kinda interesti ng to see what the firmware actually does
when you play with it this way..

Art

[Ya-Nvr-No]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IJk8s76zOo&NR=1

Interesti ng 3d printing printer company and material.

[Khalid]

Hello Art,
Following links are must see for you...or, anybody who want to make DIY printer with commercia lly sold printers accuracy. This is just for teasing:

http://3dhomemade.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snOErpOP5Xk

[ArtF]

Hi:

   Yup, seen that one a few times.. Nice option.. but UV resins are very expensive, and have a very short pot life..

Otherwise I think Id be temped to jump in on that one..

Art

[ArtF]

Hi Guys:

  Well, finally progress continues . Here's a photo of the new sled before wiring. We have shelved the robot arm and water idea for now, instead we decided
to go with a powder printer made from an inkjet printer. This sled you see will roll itself back and forth across a powder bed. Its a HP1000 printer ( seen earlier) but reformate d to have the paper motor roll it across a table. The Pokeys and PoKeys relay board will control reversing the printer paper motor on each sweep so it rolls one way printing on powder, then rolls backwards "printing" an empty page while actually spreading a new layer of powder. The PoKeys will control two platforms, one that rises 1/10 mm so powder is available to be spread, the other will hold the printed object and will lower 1/10mm each pass as the object builds in the powder chamber.
  This shouldnt require any firmware programmi ng, will run simply from USB on standard printer thats been fooled to run in two direction s, and the PoKeys hardware.
  So Im hoping the entire standalon e usb 3d printer will actually be able to be built for something around $250.00 all in. Then I need to make a small slicing program for the print image.. This should make it all very high res..

 Heres the first photo as the printer sled is built.

Art

[vrsculptor]

Art,
I have complete faith that you could write a magnifice nt slicing program. But before you write a program please take a look at Netfabb studio basic. This is a free program that slices OBJ and STL files into SVG, DXF, PNG, BMP or PS files that should work well with the existing printer drivers. It also has tools to repair meshes. I have used it and recommend it.

Just trying to make your life a little easier...

Roger

[ArtF]

Thx Roger:

 Ill check it out..

Art

[Ya-Nvr-No]

have you seen this project?

http://www.makermasters.com/makerslide-changing-the-way-machines-are-built

[ArtF]

Hi:

  Thx, I hadnt seen it. But its a good site. In the end I biulkt my own slides from plexiglas s that worked
amazingly well, but Ive since switched to a better method of controlli ng things.. Hope to show more
soon. Its an amazingly hard thing to do ( controlli ng an inkjet properly. .) but a fun project..
 
Thx
Art

[ArtF]

Hi Guys:

  I thought you may be intereste d in how my search for a personal version of a 3d printer is going.
The mechanism I built is show here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejSQYs0q7UM

  Unfortuna tly, though very reliable and very cheap ( about 50 bucks to built this ), the software
I figured would draw on it just cannot be done. Also unfortuna tley it was impossibl e to know this without
trying. . The firmware prints two slices moving slightly between each slice, so I just couldnt stop that
behaviour so it always prints a blurred image, though its rotated right..

  Good thing is, all this experimen ting has taught us how to fool the paper sensor with a magnetic latch
sensor ( 50 cents ), so that it shoudl be very reliable on a linear platform. .so its going back on its table
to slide back and forth. We figure we can do this using nothing but the printers firmware now, so we'll still
have a cheapo tshirt printer to use as a test platform for various printing technique s. So the project is ongoing,
and starting to look good for an ink sprayer thats cheap and easy to build. ( I think I know more about inkjets than
I ever wanted to now.

  The printer is a 29 dollar bestbuy wireless printer.. 1 50 cent sensor , 2 small magnets.. so if it works as good linearly as it does
rotating, we''ll be at least finished playing with mechanics .. then its on to phase 2..


Anyway, just a progress report..

Art

[ArtF]

Hi Guys:

   Just an update for those following this thread. Ive now moved to Laser Printers for the next experimen tal unit. And so far, it
seems like it may be a winner. Ill post pictures eventuall y, but now I have disassemb led my laser printer, removed all mechanica l
parts , rollers, clutches, toner cartidge, heaters etc.. and with the addition of a pokeys to control the mechanica l logic sensors I have
an Infra Red scanning laser unit that responds perfectly to simple print jobs sent from a computer. My next step is to replace the IR
laser diode with a UV laser diode that Im waiting on delivery.

The same PoKeys will drive a small stepper motor to sweep the laser across a plate for hardening UV curable
resin. Im real happy so far with this contrapti on, and at about 100 bucks to build it seems plausable as a very high res 3d printer.

   I think Ive found resin that should work as low as 10 bucks a litre or so, but of course many experimen ts remain to be done. So far, Ive gone
from water spraying from a fuel injector ( cheap but not very high res..) to an Inkjet printer running linearly ( paper motor too low power and too
hard to cheat ), to inkjet running in a circle ( works well but printer firmware double striking makes it too fuzzy an image) to the current
idea of a laser printers laser scanner. Its been a fun but at times frustrati ng run, but Ill keep you informed as to how it works. At the very
least it should be one of the more interesti ng things we've built..an d its been a great excuse for me to replace my old printers with new ones
so I could play with the guts of the old ones. Studying the chemistry of photo initiator s has been interesti ng as well.
This could be a facinatin g project for the DIYer if it all works out..

Art

[danmauch]

 A few months ago there was quite a bit of info on UV cureable photo inhibitor s.
See http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/diy_3d_printing_and_fabrication/?yguid=353592670 and search for the fluids that they tested.
Dan Mauch

[ArtF]

thx Dan, Ill check it out..

Art

[RobHopeless]

I made this resin 3d printer but it is a little slow. I'm working on a redesign to speed it up but the laser printer scanner sounds like it may work better. http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Laser-3D-Printer-Stereolithography-at-Ho/

[ArtF]

Rob:

  Ive studied that quite a bit when deciding to switch to UV curable resin as a method. It really looks like
the way to go for high res stuff I want to do. Projector s look like they work well, but their spectrum is quite wrong
for the resins, so UV laser I think should work better and faster. Id also like to experimen t with the resin to see if we can
make one that has a faster exposure time, hopefully, one scan of the UV. Takes about 3 seconds to scan a page now
in infrared, but my thought is I may have to tell the scanner to print a set number of copies of each page I send. Being that
a projector is typically less than 1000 x 1000 and uses video, Im thinking a laser printers output is better controlle d and can be
used more easily as a drawing surface. Its all an open question at this point as to if a scanning UV laser has the power to cure the resin
fast enough on its scan, Ive seen multiple opinions on that. PolyVinyE ster looks promising as a medium..

Art