Building a printer from a kit

[PickyBiker]

I am collecting parts for a DIY 3D printer and am ready to pick a frame. I already have 5 Nema 17 stepper motors, an arduino mega 2650, a ramps 1.4, and a E3D V6. I need a frame and extruder for somewhere around 7" x 7" x 7" build volume or greater.

I am looking at the Mendelmax 1.5 RepRap kit but that is just the plastics. If the hardware isn't too difficult to find then that could be a good option.

Any other's I should be looking at?

Thanks!

[soofle616]

If all you need is a frame why not get some 80/20 or openbeam material and just make your own? you're already committed to doing all the wiring and programming on your own and imo thats the hard part. 80/20 is easy to work with and all the brackets and fasteners you could possibly need are available through their catalog. They have distribution all over the place so there's probably a local industrial supply house that you can get it all from. if not, grainger or msc will get it to your door in a couple days.

[PickyBiker]

[QUOTE=soofle616;53746] and all the brackets and fasteners you could possibly need are available through their catalog. They have distribution all over the place


Who is the "they" you are talking about?

Not a bad idea but where would I get the plans for making my own frame? I am much more comfortable with the elextronics and programminbg than designing a frame for a 3D printer.

[soofle616]

Who is the "they" you are talking about?

80/20 is easy to work with and all the brackets and fasteners you could possibly need are available through their catalog. They have distribution all over the place so there's probably a local industrial supply house that you can get it all from. if not, grainger or msc will get it to your door in a couple days.

As for the plans, i'm sure a couple minutes of google-fu with keywords like 80/20, openbeam, 3d printer, and frame would net you a fairly extensive list of printers built by others that you could draw ideas from.

[PickyBiker]

Ah, okay. I thought 80/20 was a grade of aluminum or something. I just went to their website and now I see what you were talking about. Thanks for that!

Perhaps I could get the mendelmax kit of plastic parts amd use 80/20 for the metal part. I'll look into that more.

Again,

Thanks!

[DavidS]

Or you could just use some round half inch dowls, plywood, screws, and epoxy to make a good frame. So long as you already have the rails, Linear Bearings, Motors, All thread, Nuts, Hot-End, wires, MCU, current drivers, and Zip Ties.

Making a frame is easy for a simple X/Y/Z extruded material printer.