Close



Page 1 of 6 123 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 51
  1. #1

    Large Delta printer build - advice and suggestions welcome

    Hi everyone, I have been given some aluminum extrusions and decided I would build a Delta printer with them.

    The extrusions are pieces of a sailboat mast that has been cut up. Each section is aproximately 1.5m tall but once they are cut square and all the same length i figure I'll probably have about 1.3M left. I have decided to cut the extrusions so the steppers and sliders will be mounted inside the extrusions. I found a 15" aluminum Mag rim from an old sports car that i plan to cut down and use as the center rim of the printer that the extrusions bolt to. The bolt holes will be used for lighting unless the face ends up being too heavy for the top of the printer. I will probably also use 20x40mm extrusions to link each upright around the outer part of the printer to form the triangle. I am hoping to be able to achieve a 500mm print bed/area.

    For electronics, I have an SKR 1.3 to use. I planned to use nema 23 motors for the sliders and I hope to use Hiwin rails and carriages if i can afford them. I am not sure what size is appropriate; I'm thinking 15mm but maybe someone can advise me on the right size? I will be liquid cooling the print head and maybe the steppers, the electronics will be underneath and cooled with fans. I would like to use the E3D Kraken 4 Head hot end with titan extruders but I may settle for the Chrimera or to start maybe even the NF W-01 with an e3d V6 block and heat break. I have the NF W-01 already.

    I don't really have much experience with delta printers but i have been working on cnc machines and printers for a number of years. I am going to start by designing the components on Fusion 360 and then creating an assembly and seeing what I can come up with. I know the minimum angle to the bed should be 15-20 Deg. besides that i don't know a lot about building this or rules of thumb for a delta.I will post pictures and 3D files as they are created. If anyone has an opinion or advice please feel free to share it. It should end up being a pretty cool looking and very sturdy printer... I hope anyways lol.


    Thanks for any input you guys have
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Last edited by Reefsider416; 09-15-2019 at 05:17 PM. Reason: spacing

  2. #2
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Posts
    8,818
    how can you have a 500mm bed with a 381mm (15inch) centre ?

    Other than that, sounds good.
    But the printer itself isn't that large - so not sure why you want nema 23 motors.

    The best thing to look at - as far as measurements go - for a delta is the smoothie ware, guide and wiki. Gives you all the rod measurements and angles, etc.
    Reall helpful.
    I presume the skyr 1.3 runs smoothieware ?

  3. #3
    Staff Engineer
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    South Florida, USA
    Posts
    1,248
    Add AutoWiz on Facebook
    The skr is a 32 bit controller that can run marlin 2.0. 32 bit controllers are great for cartesian printers also as we chase print speeds or multi filament printing or anything that requires any kind of math or thought on the part of the controller. The old controllers when they would get loaded up they would studder resulting in strange and hard to isolate and sometimes seemingly random artifacts or imperfections in our prints. Here is a very informative video on the skr 1.3 and its setup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duNHOPlh2Pg&t=

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by curious aardvark View Post
    how can you have a 500mm bed with a 381mm (15inch) centre ?

    Other than that, sounds good.
    But the printer itself isn't that large - so not sure why you want nema 23 motors.

    The best thing to look at - as far as measurements go - for a delta is the smoothie ware, guide and wiki. Gives you all the rod measurements and angles, etc.
    Reall helpful.
    I presume the skyr 1.3 runs smoothieware ?
    My design is a little hard to describe; The 15" rim will be the center hub but the towers/uprights will be bolted to the outside of the rim so they will extend beyond that by about 4-5" for each tower/upright making the usable bed area about 500-600mm I think. I will then connect the backs of the pillars with 2040 extrusions or maybe bigger depending on how much room i need under the bed. Hopefully I will be able to finish the CAD drawings soon and that will tell me exactly what the area I have to work with is. Once I finish the part designs I will post them on here. I don't have the actual rim yet as I haven't been able to meet up with my friend that grabbed it for me. I also haven't figured out what steppers and linear rails to use so I haven't found the CAD files for those yet either.

    I chose the nema 23 because after looking it seemed to be the common size for that size printer but i would rather do nema 17 if they will work just as well. I am on a budget, most of the parts have been donated by friends and keeping the cost down is important.
    On that same point, if i can use nema 17 motors does that mean 12mm linear rails are sufficient? That could reduce costs also.

    The SKR v1.3 can use a variety of different software/firmware including smoothieware. It can also run 12V or 24V so I intend to run 24V and hopefully a 120V silicone heater. They also sell 12/24V versions but if it's not too difficult 120V would heat faster. To use a 120V heater, how do i set up the temperature controls? Is there another board I will need to convert the 12/24v signal to 120V? I was thinking a simple starter solenoid/relay from a car or boat would do the job maybe, if the temperature sensor would still be read by the motherboard but it probably has to turn off and on faster than that.

    I also picked up some TMC2209 V2 stepper drivers, an E3D Titan extruder and bigtreetech TFT35 V2 screen.

    I see on the smoothieware wiki they have calculations for the arms but its more for the programming. could you possibly send a link to the page you are talking about? Is there a rule of thumb for the effector? should it be as small as possible or a min/max size or anything?


    Thanks for the input, its really appreciated
    Last edited by Reefsider416; 09-22-2019 at 12:37 PM.

  5. #5
    Staff Engineer
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    South Florida, USA
    Posts
    1,248
    Add AutoWiz on Facebook
    Quote Originally Posted by Reefsider416 View Post
    I was thinking a simple starter solenoid/relay from a car or boat would do the job maybe...
    MOSFET is the name of the correct part you need here. Because PWM circuits need to be solid state or they will wear out and fail. And solenoids are mechanical in nature so they will not respond well to the pulses of power. I personally am a big fan of the ones made by MKS as they seem to come with the largest heatsinks. You can also use one to drive a heater cartridge for your extruder if you like. They are cheap. Here is a fleabay ad for one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/3D-Printer-...UAAOSwv-ZZ5lXX

  6. #6
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Posts
    8,818
    They also sell 12/24V versions but if it's not too difficult 120V would heat faster. To use a 120V heater, how do i set up the temperature controls?
    I know this one !
    lol
    You use a mosfet. basically mains is connected directly to the mosfet, that is then connected to the correct connectors on the motherboard. So the controls go thorugh the usual places on the board, but the power comes direct from the mains.
    this type of thing: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3D-Printe...item59348496c0
    Also lets you run a 24v bed through mains, so you don't overload the motherboard.

  7. #7
    Technologist
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Posts
    184
    Quote Originally Posted by AutoWiz View Post
    MOSFET is the name of the correct part you need here. Because PWM circuits need to be solid state or they will wear out and fail. And solenoids are mechanical in nature so they will not respond well to the pulses of power. I personally am a big fan of the ones made by MKS as they seem to come with the largest heatsinks. You can also use one to drive a heater cartridge for your extruder if you like. They are cheap. Here is a fleabay ad for one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/3D-Printer-...UAAOSwv-ZZ5lXX
    You can actually use a solenoid relay, it uses what's sometimes called Bang-Bang control rather than a PID loop with PWM. It basically involves turning the heater fully on and switching it off as it approaches the target temperature, then switching it on as the temperature drops. It's a lot cruder and the temperature is less stable since the heater is either off or going full tilt, you can't turn it on just a little for fine adjustment. It is usable if you're on a tight budget like OP says they are, but they're also wanting to use profiled linear rails so that's sending some mixed messages.

  8. #8
    Staff Engineer
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    South Florida, USA
    Posts
    1,248
    Add AutoWiz on Facebook
    Quote Originally Posted by Trakyan View Post
    You can actually use a solenoid relay, it uses what's sometimes called Bang-Bang control rather than a PID loop with PWM. It basically involves turning the heater fully on and switching it off as it approaches the target temperature, then switching it on as the temperature drops. It's a lot cruder and the temperature is less stable since the heater is either off or going full tilt, you can't turn it on just a little for fine adjustment. It is usable if you're on a tight budget like OP says they are, but they're also wanting to use profiled linear rails so that's sending some mixed messages.
    So for those who understand electronics when we energize a coil and then release the power what we get is a serious voltage spike. This effect is called a "collapsing field" and it is the stored energy in the windings of the coil quickly searching for a path to ground. It is also how spark plugs get their power to bridge an air gap in an engine's combustion chamber. It's how we can achieve Kv from 12v. By energizing a coil and then releasing the ground. And that collapsing field can generate so much power it can jump an air gap, or arc through plastic or an ignition wire if it needs to but that spike is so powerful it will find ground. To PWM or otherwise rapidly switch power to a coil is to constantly and repeatedly in fast or even a less fast fashion apply this affect to the controlling circuit. And it won't live long. We don't PWM solenoids or relays with coils. Solid State Relays ONLY for PWM, pal.
    Last edited by AutoWiz; 09-25-2019 at 08:20 PM.

  9. #9
    Technologist
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Posts
    184
    Quote Originally Posted by AutoWiz View Post
    We don't PWM solenoids or relays with coils. Solid State Relays ONLY for PWM, pal.
    My first sentence was saying that it does NOT use PWM.

  10. #10
    Staff Engineer
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    South Florida, USA
    Posts
    1,248
    Add AutoWiz on Facebook
    Quote Originally Posted by Trakyan View Post
    My first sentence was saying that it does NOT use PWM.
    But slowly switching on and off IS pulse width modulation just at a slow frequency.

Page 1 of 6 123 ... LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •