Just a quick update on the 3D printer. I printed some of the last critical parts for the printer. In this case it was the spool holders that not only hold the filament spools but also mount the dryboxes to the Polycarbonate back plate on the printer.
The Spool holder is a modification of one meant for a 3030 extrusion on a Hypercube via thingiverse – https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3155344 I converted the STL for it into a solid and them added a backing plate to it for 4x 5mm bolts to secure it. The spool holder gets fitted with 3 bearings and was the perfect design for what I needed.
I took some of my dry boxes I’ve been keeping filament in and matched them up with the .25″ thick polycarbonate panel that will cover the back of the printer.
From the beginning of the design of the printer I knew I wanted the filament to be stored in a dry boxes, inside or on the side of the printer. Dry boxes because most of the filament I print like PETG, Nylon, TPU, PVA, etc… are all very water absorbent and can go bad in the open air easily.
In testing loading and and removal of the filament is actually easier than I thought it would be. The clearance from the heated bed and the dry boxes is better than I thought there would be.
You may notice the boxes aren’t level and aren’t centered in the back. They are off set to make room for the Z Table cable chain, and also one is higher to clear the SSR mounted to the back. It probably would have been easier to move the SSR but I couldn’t find a place to put it. The placement of the dry boxes also keeps the bowden runs as short as possible.
Overall this is one of the last structural and functional parts that I needed to print for the printer.
Replacing the Y Carriages
Speaking of printing things for the printer… the printer printed its own replacement parts last week. Each Y Carriage took ~6.5hrs to print at 90mm/sec print speeds. They were printed at 50% infill, and 4 walls on all sides and 0.24 layer height. (Last ones were at 35% and .2 layer height)
Because the Y Carriages were warping (as covered in a past post, believing they were not carbon nylon as I was sold). I reprinted both much more sturdy and redesigned Y Carriages in NylonX. This required flipping the printer over, moving the Z Table to its max end stop, and moving the side braces (that hold the Z Min 12mm rail clamps) all the way down. P
The process to do this took about 4+ hours to take the X Gantry apart, and reassemble everything. I did find some issues with how much the screws loosened in the Y Carriages. I used some longer screws to mount the Y Carriages to the MGN15 rails this time and a higher end thread lock compound. I will be checking these often to make sure they stay solid.
I believe the screws loosening was due to the plastic deforming more than expected. The new carriages shouldn’t have this problem.
Next up is testing dual color/material printing and finishing the calibration of the tools.
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