“Like me, being an ordinary schoolboy, I designed and assembled my own 3D printer model.”
Many of us are accustomed to look at the progress and the latest achievements of technology and science, as it were, a little from the outside - by evaluating specific products, and not the process itself. However, a student from Volgograd, Mikhail Kozenko, is not one of them. He is just those who personally prefer to go all the way from the idea to the final result. And the result of his search was a 3D printer, which brought the young inventor (he turned 15 in May) for several awards.
We met Misha by chance - news about his printer appeared on several sites, followed by invitations to the radio, there were a couple of posts in entertainment groups (this publication Misha, by the way, brought many disappointments because of too ironic comments from the public). In our VK group , Misha also had news. And, surprisingly, the author himself, without our invitation, entered into a dialogue with readers of the Public Simple Science, explained, prompted and taught. He, like us, with his book for children of 5-12 years old “Simple Science” , moves science forward not just with words, but with concrete deeds. So we had with him the idea to make a detailed post for dummies (by that I mean myself, and not respected habrovchan) how to make a 3D printer from scratch.
Further - according to the author, who will gladly take part in the discussion under this post. And if the text turns out to be useful and interesting, he will tell you about creating a “second version” of the printer.
')
So, I'll start my story by saying that I love tinkering and creating interesting things. And a few years ago I became seriously interested in 3D printing, because a 3D printer is a device for quickly producing artifacts, and in the hands of a person who has imagination, there is a whole factory. I began to be interested in this technology, I learned about the project RepRap , whose main task was to make 3D printing available, it was thanks to him that most of the cheap models appeared. I saw that people collect printers, and, in principle, there is nothing complicated about it. Then I decided that I simply had to purchase or assemble such a device for myself!
Thus, I had only the desire and financial support of the parents, to whom I spoke about my goal. It took me about a year to understand printing technologies, design and some designs. Now was the most important thing. For a start, I decided that I needed a printer that uses FDM technology (fusion modeling), it is the most common and simple, the material and parts are easy to find, and there are already experienced people in this business. Then I had to decide in what form I should buy a printer, maybe buy a ready-made device or a full set of parts, or maybe build my own? I didn’t really like ready-made solutions, so I decided that it was possible to buy electronics and mechanics, assemble a temporary frame first, and print the parts to a normal printer on the resulting device.
I decided that for the “zero model” the guide shafts of old printers with a diameter of 8mm would go, the good thing was that we had a lot of them in the garage, and the sleeves could be cut from an 8/10 aluminum tube, whose internal diameter is slightly less than 8, and then just squander it so that they fit snugly and slide easily. There was a lot of chipboard in the garage, and I decided to make a frame out of it. Everything else (namely, electronics and mechanics) I decided to buy on EBay in China. I chose the Arduino Mega 2650, Ramps v1.4, 4 drivers A4988 (although I bought 5 and then did not regret about it), 5 stepper motors of the NEMA 17 form factor, with a torque of 4 kg * cm (I took it with a power reserve just in case) , 400 watt power supply unit for 12 volts and 33 amperes, heating panel Mk2A, with glass, which, unfortunately, did not reach the whole, all-metal thermal head type Bowden Hot End, 1 m teflon tube for thermal head, monitor for the second printer, and more on small things, two pulleys for 29 teeth and a couple of meters of gt2 belt, a pair of couplings, a feed wheel with teeth for an extruder, aru small fans 30x30, pnevmofittingov couple to an external tube diameter of 4, 3, limit switches, as well as 20 pieces of bearings 608, since it is cheaper than Volgograd. All this cost about 20k.
While the parts were going, I started designing, not trying with detailed elaboration and using only dimensions, I created a project of my own printer model, which I called VolgoBot without hesitation.
Dimensional project of my printer made in CAD KOMPAS 3D Home
I decided that it would be a cube assembled from chipboard. The electronics will be placed on the right side wall, and the coil with plastic and the feed mechanism will be placed on the left wall. It will have three tiers: the lower one will perform only the carrier function, the middle one - the Z carriage, and the upper one will concentrate all the mechanics: the Z axis engines and the H-Bot positioning mechanism, which I chose because of its distinct advantages. There is only one belt in it, which means that the tensioner is also needed alone, only 2 are needed for fastening the belt ends, and in general, all engines are on the frame in this mechanism, which facilitates the carriages, and as for the firmware, in the standard Marlin to activate it you need to uncomment only one line of #define CoreXY, well, invert the axes correctly.
Wiring diagram of electronics to Ramps v1.4, as you can see there is nothing complicated
When I became confident in my project, hell began for everyone who lives side by side, because for about two weeks I worked as an electric jigsaw, electric drill, and hand tools on the balcony. Every day, from morning to evening. Some details just did not work out the first time, I had to make some changes to the design and redo them. And finally, all the original parts for the printer were ready!
Without losing time, I proceeded with setting up the firmware. I will not take a lot of space here on the instructions for setting up, I will say that I used this article, everything is very clearly, clearly and clearly described in it. Just need to pay attention to the fact that it is for my printer to uncomment the line #define CoreXY, which I have already mentioned.
And here came the components from China, as it turned out, not very well, the Teflon tube did not come, and two more pulleys and 3 meters of the GT5 belt were sent instead, I did not clarify the relationship. And so I had to order already in the domestic store.
Almost everything to build there
In the meantime, there was a pipe, I began to put everything together, it was not particularly difficult, the most important thing is to fulfill some requirements so that everything was fixed very firmly and securely, and the guides were parallel so as not to jam the carriages, and , it follows that the axes themselves are perpendicular. So, the printer was completely ready, except for the Teflon tube.
Assembled H-Bot
In the process...
So, we wait bowden tube
I was very impatient to try it out and I decided to set up the systems for the time being, and then print when the phone was up. At the first connection, everything almost burned down, I found that it was in a faulty stepper motor driver, it was badly soldered.
Greased ration almost ruined the whole thing
I replaced it, and then everything was connected well, then, of course, fixed the defect on this driver and left it as a spare, but the matter remained to be set up! I downloaded the already prepared firmware via the Arduino IDE into my printer, connected to it via Repetier-Host, and sent the first commands. It turned out that some axes were confused and had to be inverted in the firmware. It was already evening, and I didn’t do it, but in the morning, with a fresh head, I quickly figured out the problem, set it up correctly, reshooted it, and again tried to give commands. This time, everything more or less worked well, but sometimes there was not enough power to the motors, then I tuned the current with the help of variable resistors on the drivers of the stepper motors. And so! All the teams went right, it turned out even on the first attempt to correctly calculate the steps of the engines, their speed, and everything! It remained only to try to print, but everything was not the tube. So I had to go for a very stupid decision: let the printer print, and I will feed the plastic bar by hand, about as much as the extruder supplies. Although it is very stupid, but the first seal of the washer and the pendant for the parents as a souvenir was not so bad, after a few such tests I trained myself and gave it quite cleverly.
The first seal. Parents are asked to make a keepsake
Hooray! The tube came, I set it up, but the seal did not want to move forward in any way. The fact is that instead of a cog wheel, I decided to use a rubber one, and it just slipped, since I had a real one, and I quickly designed another feed mechanism, spent about an hour or so on printing. And again: the printer printed, and I handed plastic, this time through a tube, but everything turned out quite well. I assembled a new extruder without any problems, I re-flashed the printer for a new feed wheel, and this time it all worked just fine!
The first extruder. Dinosaur, is not it?
Version # 2 of an extruder with a conventional feed wheel
Second extruder As it turned out, the spring is superfluous
The first thing I tried was to print Lenin’s bust, then the well-known owl model, now I tweaked the settings a bit and printed another owl, this time I was completely satisfied with the quality!
The first real seal, nozzle 0.5, layer thickness 0.4
The second real seal, nozzle 0.5, layer thickness 0.4
Reprinted owl, this time nozzle 0.5, layer 0.3
Thus, VolgoBot 0.0 turned out to be complete and completely ready for printing parts for VolgoBot 0.1, which I, without losing time, began to design!
Here, by the way, the video on VolgoBot 0.0:
My article is, rather, not a story about some school genius who invented the bicycle, but simply proof that if there is a desire and some means, then everyone can assemble a 3D printer! To implement my project, I needed:
1. Desire and a clear goal to get a 3D printer as a result
2. Time to study the topic and open project RepRap (I spent a year)
3. Some amount of money (for my project it took about 23 thousand rubles)
4. Good CAD and ability to work in it (I used the home version of KOMPAS 3D)
5. Design time (I needed a week)
6. Time to create the printer itself (it took me 2 weeks)
7. Time to set up the printer itself (it took me a week)
If this article is of interest, then in the next section I will talk about the creation of VolgoBot 0.1 already. If there are objective comments and criticism, then I will be glad to listen, as I am writing material for HabraHabr for the first time. For now, here is the layout geometry for the second printer model:
Not yet complete layout geometry printer VolgoBot 0.1
We met Misha by chance - news about his printer appeared on several sites, followed by invitations to the radio, there were a couple of posts in entertainment groups (this publication Misha, by the way, brought many disappointments because of too ironic comments from the public). In our VK group , Misha also had news. And, surprisingly, the author himself, without our invitation, entered into a dialogue with readers of the Public Simple Science, explained, prompted and taught. He, like us, with his book for children of 5-12 years old “Simple Science” , moves science forward not just with words, but with concrete deeds. So we had with him the idea to make a detailed post for dummies (by that I mean myself, and not respected habrovchan) how to make a 3D printer from scratch.
Further - according to the author, who will gladly take part in the discussion under this post. And if the text turns out to be useful and interesting, he will tell you about creating a “second version” of the printer.
')
So, I'll start my story by saying that I love tinkering and creating interesting things. And a few years ago I became seriously interested in 3D printing, because a 3D printer is a device for quickly producing artifacts, and in the hands of a person who has imagination, there is a whole factory. I began to be interested in this technology, I learned about the project RepRap , whose main task was to make 3D printing available, it was thanks to him that most of the cheap models appeared. I saw that people collect printers, and, in principle, there is nothing complicated about it. Then I decided that I simply had to purchase or assemble such a device for myself!
Thus, I had only the desire and financial support of the parents, to whom I spoke about my goal. It took me about a year to understand printing technologies, design and some designs. Now was the most important thing. For a start, I decided that I needed a printer that uses FDM technology (fusion modeling), it is the most common and simple, the material and parts are easy to find, and there are already experienced people in this business. Then I had to decide in what form I should buy a printer, maybe buy a ready-made device or a full set of parts, or maybe build my own? I didn’t really like ready-made solutions, so I decided that it was possible to buy electronics and mechanics, assemble a temporary frame first, and print the parts to a normal printer on the resulting device.
I decided that for the “zero model” the guide shafts of old printers with a diameter of 8mm would go, the good thing was that we had a lot of them in the garage, and the sleeves could be cut from an 8/10 aluminum tube, whose internal diameter is slightly less than 8, and then just squander it so that they fit snugly and slide easily. There was a lot of chipboard in the garage, and I decided to make a frame out of it. Everything else (namely, electronics and mechanics) I decided to buy on EBay in China. I chose the Arduino Mega 2650, Ramps v1.4, 4 drivers A4988 (although I bought 5 and then did not regret about it), 5 stepper motors of the NEMA 17 form factor, with a torque of 4 kg * cm (I took it with a power reserve just in case) , 400 watt power supply unit for 12 volts and 33 amperes, heating panel Mk2A, with glass, which, unfortunately, did not reach the whole, all-metal thermal head type Bowden Hot End, 1 m teflon tube for thermal head, monitor for the second printer, and more on small things, two pulleys for 29 teeth and a couple of meters of gt2 belt, a pair of couplings, a feed wheel with teeth for an extruder, aru small fans 30x30, pnevmofittingov couple to an external tube diameter of 4, 3, limit switches, as well as 20 pieces of bearings 608, since it is cheaper than Volgograd. All this cost about 20k.
While the parts were going, I started designing, not trying with detailed elaboration and using only dimensions, I created a project of my own printer model, which I called VolgoBot without hesitation.
Dimensional project of my printer made in CAD KOMPAS 3D Home
I decided that it would be a cube assembled from chipboard. The electronics will be placed on the right side wall, and the coil with plastic and the feed mechanism will be placed on the left wall. It will have three tiers: the lower one will perform only the carrier function, the middle one - the Z carriage, and the upper one will concentrate all the mechanics: the Z axis engines and the H-Bot positioning mechanism, which I chose because of its distinct advantages. There is only one belt in it, which means that the tensioner is also needed alone, only 2 are needed for fastening the belt ends, and in general, all engines are on the frame in this mechanism, which facilitates the carriages, and as for the firmware, in the standard Marlin to activate it you need to uncomment only one line of #define CoreXY, well, invert the axes correctly.
Wiring diagram of electronics to Ramps v1.4, as you can see there is nothing complicated
When I became confident in my project, hell began for everyone who lives side by side, because for about two weeks I worked as an electric jigsaw, electric drill, and hand tools on the balcony. Every day, from morning to evening. Some details just did not work out the first time, I had to make some changes to the design and redo them. And finally, all the original parts for the printer were ready!
Without losing time, I proceeded with setting up the firmware. I will not take a lot of space here on the instructions for setting up, I will say that I used this article, everything is very clearly, clearly and clearly described in it. Just need to pay attention to the fact that it is for my printer to uncomment the line #define CoreXY, which I have already mentioned.
And here came the components from China, as it turned out, not very well, the Teflon tube did not come, and two more pulleys and 3 meters of the GT5 belt were sent instead, I did not clarify the relationship. And so I had to order already in the domestic store.
Almost everything to build there
In the meantime, there was a pipe, I began to put everything together, it was not particularly difficult, the most important thing is to fulfill some requirements so that everything was fixed very firmly and securely, and the guides were parallel so as not to jam the carriages, and , it follows that the axes themselves are perpendicular. So, the printer was completely ready, except for the Teflon tube.
Assembled H-Bot
In the process...
So, we wait bowden tube
I was very impatient to try it out and I decided to set up the systems for the time being, and then print when the phone was up. At the first connection, everything almost burned down, I found that it was in a faulty stepper motor driver, it was badly soldered.
Greased ration almost ruined the whole thing
I replaced it, and then everything was connected well, then, of course, fixed the defect on this driver and left it as a spare, but the matter remained to be set up! I downloaded the already prepared firmware via the Arduino IDE into my printer, connected to it via Repetier-Host, and sent the first commands. It turned out that some axes were confused and had to be inverted in the firmware. It was already evening, and I didn’t do it, but in the morning, with a fresh head, I quickly figured out the problem, set it up correctly, reshooted it, and again tried to give commands. This time, everything more or less worked well, but sometimes there was not enough power to the motors, then I tuned the current with the help of variable resistors on the drivers of the stepper motors. And so! All the teams went right, it turned out even on the first attempt to correctly calculate the steps of the engines, their speed, and everything! It remained only to try to print, but everything was not the tube. So I had to go for a very stupid decision: let the printer print, and I will feed the plastic bar by hand, about as much as the extruder supplies. Although it is very stupid, but the first seal of the washer and the pendant for the parents as a souvenir was not so bad, after a few such tests I trained myself and gave it quite cleverly.
The first seal. Parents are asked to make a keepsake
Hooray! The tube came, I set it up, but the seal did not want to move forward in any way. The fact is that instead of a cog wheel, I decided to use a rubber one, and it just slipped, since I had a real one, and I quickly designed another feed mechanism, spent about an hour or so on printing. And again: the printer printed, and I handed plastic, this time through a tube, but everything turned out quite well. I assembled a new extruder without any problems, I re-flashed the printer for a new feed wheel, and this time it all worked just fine!
The first extruder. Dinosaur, is not it?
Version # 2 of an extruder with a conventional feed wheel
Second extruder As it turned out, the spring is superfluous
The first thing I tried was to print Lenin’s bust, then the well-known owl model, now I tweaked the settings a bit and printed another owl, this time I was completely satisfied with the quality!
The first real seal, nozzle 0.5, layer thickness 0.4
The second real seal, nozzle 0.5, layer thickness 0.4
Reprinted owl, this time nozzle 0.5, layer 0.3
Thus, VolgoBot 0.0 turned out to be complete and completely ready for printing parts for VolgoBot 0.1, which I, without losing time, began to design!
Here, by the way, the video on VolgoBot 0.0:
My article is, rather, not a story about some school genius who invented the bicycle, but simply proof that if there is a desire and some means, then everyone can assemble a 3D printer! To implement my project, I needed:
1. Desire and a clear goal to get a 3D printer as a result
2. Time to study the topic and open project RepRap (I spent a year)
3. Some amount of money (for my project it took about 23 thousand rubles)
4. Good CAD and ability to work in it (I used the home version of KOMPAS 3D)
5. Design time (I needed a week)
6. Time to create the printer itself (it took me 2 weeks)
7. Time to set up the printer itself (it took me a week)
If this article is of interest, then in the next section I will talk about the creation of VolgoBot 0.1 already. If there are objective comments and criticism, then I will be glad to listen, as I am writing material for HabraHabr for the first time. For now, here is the layout geometry for the second printer model:
Not yet complete layout geometry printer VolgoBot 0.1
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/233559/
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