GearHeads Corner

Hi,
I have and "extra" CNC set up that includes a computer (not the one in the photo) the motor drivers, Gecko steppers (200'2) and the CNC table.

My question - Could this be converted into a 3D printer?  I have about 3 inches vertical travel.  If it could be converted - What would I need?

I'm not an electronics guy and I have to struggle a little circuit boards and soldering,  I have done some.

I'm not looking for step by step instruction as much as simply knowing if this is a dead end street or should I pursue it.

John

I've been thinking about an extrusion head I could put on my Sherlines.

If you are just going to do the standard sliced X-Y planes, I would say it is not worth it, you can get printers pretty cheap these days.

I am still interested in making a printer that does cylindrical and spherical slices.

I tried this on my sherline and my chinese 3040  machines , the results were a little disappointing . the relatively slow travel speed of these machines (sherline 600mm/min ,3040 1200mm/min ) made print times extremely long and the slow speed meant warping and sagging really limited what could be made successfully. the other issue was getting the printed model to stick to the bed for such a long time .its really bad when the model falls off after 7 hours of a 8 hour job

I bought a upmini which I love and built a homebrew  rosstock too ,the rosstock is fast but not as good as the upmini for fine detail

John;

General consensus I'm reading is accurate to what Justin and Richard are saying, it can be done but disappointingly slow.


Cheers
Bob

Thanks for all the feed back - I'll leave it as a very nice little CNC

John

I published an article in the summer  2012 edition of Digital Machinist that explains everything about converting a cnc machine to 3d printing. You can d/l back issues directly from them. My XY are ballscre3ws with zero backlash and it runs pretty fast.
Dan Mauch
Camtronics Inc

John T wrote: Hi,
I have and "extra" CNC set up that includes a computer (not the one in the photo) the motor drivers, Gecko steppers (200'2) and the CNC table.

My question - Could this be converted into a 3D printer?  I have about 3 inches vertical travel.  If it could be converted - What would I need?

I'm not an electronics guy and I have to struggle a little circuit boards and soldering,  I have done some.

I'm not looking for step by step instruction as much as simply knowing if this is a dead end street or should I pursue it.

John

The hardest part (Which is pretty easy) is mounting the print head to Your cnc gantry. Plastic printing speed is dependent on the type of plastics and temperatures not machine speed. Printing is almost always slower than the slowest milling speed. any kind of CNC mill should be able to run faster than the required print speed.

All you have to do is mount a print head the rest is all in the print software....