Rigid Delta

One of the biggest remaining issues with FDM printers is rigidity (including backlash & belt-stretch) resulting in motion artifacts in the print.

I adapted my Mill (A Bridgeport Interact 1 Mk2) to 3D Print - and the quality was markedly better than my Ultimaker 2 running at the same speed. It was particularly visible on curved walls & corners. A Bridgeport is not as practical as a printer however (and I use it for other stuff). So I decided to build as rigid a printer as I could manage!

At the moment it only exists on Solidworks - though I've ordered the Laser Cutting and the C-Beam Actuators arrived yesterday so it's in progress!

Space is limited so I've opted for a small build volume (300mm diameter x 200mm Z Height). Also, I've never needed to build anything taller than 150mm so it should be sufficient. If I ever need to upgrade it for taller objects, I just need to replace the 500mm C-Beam actuators with longer ones. The 1m versions would give 700mm Build Height.

I've opted for the Duet WiFi controller as it seems to be about the best at the moment, allowing the steppers to run at high speeds. I aim to be able to achieve 150mm/s with high quality. Only time will tell!

I've ordered a 220v, 500W Silicone heat pad for the underside of the Aluminium build plate and will use build-tak or similar on top. I've also backed the Prometheus Dual Filament system on Kickstarter which includes 5:1 geared extruders. The Feeder mountings should work with whatever you have and the Prometheus hot-end is very similar to E3D in mounting.

The rods are 304mm Magnetic / Carbon Fibre from Blue Eagle - again these seem the best option currently.

The whole frame is made from 3mm Mild Steel plate with some parts folded. This might be a tiny bit OTT - but cutting 3mm is low cost due to the volume most shops cut. The whole thing will weigh in at around 24kg and fit into a volume of 500x500x700mm.

I'll include DXF's for cutting & PDF Drawings for Folding as well as the Solid Model files. [It appears I cannot upload the Solidworks Files (too many? too large??). Mail me if you want them. They are in SW 2015 format]

I've not designed the hot-end fan mounts yet - but these will be printed. I intend using 40mm Snail Fans and a relatively simple duct arrangement to direct the air.