3D ewaste printer

A site dedicated to Twichels, and things they (ok mostly me) are interested in.

Yet Another 3D printer from Scrap

2-3-15 Post

The end of Version 2:
It has been a challenging go since my last post. I managed to burn up the motor in my Y axis. Despite having many CD/DVD ROM drives to pull motors from, the one on the sled I epoxied into place seems to be unique. I decided to use one where the mount on the motor fit even though the ball screw had a finer pitch. I moved the follower 'nut' to the new sled with it, but I could never get it to follow consistently. Though I could cut more wood and use a different sled for the Y axis, I think I will be wanting a printer with a larger build area anyway. I'm now officially bailing on version 2 and clearing the bench for the upcoming Version 3.

More Parts:
Oh yeah, I now think I have toasted a total of 5 stepper driver boards (I have not tested suspected boards yet). I ordered a few more. I am trying 5 of the TI version to see if they will be more durrable the DRV8825 boards $12.75 shipped from EBay, and 5 more A4988 boards like I have been using (destroying?) $11.98 shipped from EBay. My new total for parts is $187.40. It will be interesting to see if a kit would have been cheaper by the time I am done.

The beginning of version 3:
It just happens that I have three large, dead, flatbed scanners. They have been stripped of most electronics for use in other projects, but the sleds, rails and motors are all intact. Yes, being a packrat pays off yet again. I think I should be able to create a build area of 20" x about 14" x whatever I come up with for the Z axis. This might not jive too well with the 0.3mm extruder nozzle that I have. Maybe if I am willing to wait a few weeks for a print to finish. Another potential issue is the fact that the sleds are belt driven I'm worried about repeatability, especially with a small extruder. I guess I will find out. At least I hope with Version 3 I will finally print something to find out.

I am still brainstorming about what form I want this thing to take. My first thought, and the one I will probably go with is to mount the Y axis on the table of the X axis. I think the motor on the X axis is strong enough to handle this. This Scanner strap project, from the Reprap page, has a flying Y axis. That would work, but I would like to keep as much weight as low as I can. I'm not sure of all the reasons why, but it intuitively seems like a good idea. Eventually a person could have a fourth axis with an X-Y table, Z axis and mount a board with the fourth axis on the Z axis that has multiple extruders on it. Just move the 4th axis until the correct extruder was in position and start printing. Maybe I should save that for version 4.

Regardless of what format I choose, the X axis will need to move. I took the biggest, heaviest scanner carcass and found a 6 wire stepper motor driving it. I metered out the leads to find the pairs and soldered it up to use in a 4 wire bipolar stepper configuration. I connected it to the RAMPS X axis (from Version2 printer) and moved it back and forth with Reptrian software. much smoother than the DVDROM motors ever were in Version 2. I am optimistic about the project again.