Maybe it's too late at night ... and I'm surprised to not see any mention of this ...

What are the (top level) steps to switch between milling and printing?

I saw the link to the Marlin firmware but the menus seem to be only for printing.

Bob

 

Here is my cable management.


[/URL
]


[/URL
]

 

Where I can download the assembly instructions step by step. Thank you

 

Hi
I have been trying 2 different "printable" designs for the Y-Stepper mount on my Voxel OX, but I was not so happy because both where bending ;-(
I gave it a try and designed my own now. So far it seems to do the job and does not bend any more ;-)
So here is my version of the y-stepper mount:
The fusion 360 link is here Unsupported Browser ~ A360


This part in connection with the Y-Idler, and the special "extension" of the V-Slot on one side (published earlier in this thread), should increase the y-axis moveable range by at least a couple of cm ;-)
My VOXEL Y-range has increased by ~9cm!! (from 220mm to 315)

I have also designed a very simple "Out of Filament detector". .... what a name ;-)
It uses the micro-switches from the store.
The switch can be screwed onto the part but mine just clips in.


The Fusion 360 file can also be found here:
Unsupported Browser ~ A360

I am using a Smoothieboard for the Voxel and Pin 1.22 for a manual "SUSPEND" switch and the "Out of filament" detector ;-)
( Rem.: Another choice would be using the Z-MAX endstop pins)

The configuration as switch and can be found here Switch - Smoothie Project

One can easily add a couple of those switches ( e.g. for multiple extruders ) in parallel or serial connection
In parallel connection: All switches must be "open" when filament is detected ( all COM & all NC!! are connected in parallel)
In serial connection: All switches must be "closed" when filament is detected ( COM > NC > COM > NC etc)
..but then you might also need a different manual "suspend" button. (mine only have COM and NO, so I can not use them in serial connection)

Any one of the switches can now trigger a "SUSPEND" command!!

red = Reset
blue = SUSPEND
green = RESUME and Play LED

...and hopefully you will never run out of filament during a print

 

i am interested to find out where is you wheels sliding on the y axis. i can see you using a single 2020 for mounting the motor and the idler.

 

Nice one Jurgen! I too have noticed my Y axis bending, despite printing my own design to be 12-13 mm thick on each angle. I was aiming for a redesign, but maybe you've beaten me to it. is it printed in PLA?

At the moment I'm focusing on 2 major upgrades to the machine, 1, lower the weight of moving parts as much as possible, 2, extending the build plate to 300x300mm on the standard 200x200mm (8inch voxel) voxel ox.

The premise is to allow the extruder gantry to travel almost the full distance of the x axis, allowing the printer to utilise a much bigger plate. At the same time I'm also lowering the weight of the gantry. So far, I've shaved almost 400g off my extruder!!

IMAG0888 by OrigamiB posted Jun 28, 2016 at 5:30 PM

IMAG0818 by OrigamiB posted Jun 28, 2016 at 5:30 PM

This has been done by upgrading to a geared extruder (E3D titan) on a tiny 20mm nema 17, and only using one openbuilds gantry plate which has also been cut short using a dremel.

More upgrades to follow, watch this space

 

@OrigamiB
Yep I printed in PLA and if I remember correctly with 40% infill. ..Your choice ;-)

I also got a TITAN extruder which I think is really a very clever design.
To get higher torque, I also strongly believe that ANY geared extruder like the TITAN or WADE is the right thing to go.

So far I do not really like a Bowden setup and I kept the Titan also on the x-carrier.
But I still use a standard NEMA17. - pretty heavy.
I see that you are using one of these very flat NEMA17 - do you have more details on that one?

I also noted that higher speeds are degrading the print quality -
especially at corners (overshooting)
and
after wholes in the side walls ( some kind of a wave effect)
( BTW My Voxel has a ~275 x 305x >300 build area)

So I had to decrease the acceleration and max. print speeds to get good results.
You are absolutely right to decrease the weight of the x-carrier to get higher print speeds ;-)

But I also think that our VOXEL, as well as any other bigger cartesian printer, is not the right machine to get "highest" print speeds.
When it comes to "tall" prints - the parts start will eventually start swinging because of the Y-movements - and one has to take the speed down!

In my opinion the only way to get really high speeds is to go with a:
CORE XY printer in a "Bowden setup"
AND
For Z-Lift and high speed z-movements I would love to have 2-4 Steppers with lead screw (NEMA23? , depending on the bed size)

To level the print bed I would love to use something like a BLTouch or maybe FDR sensors
and then move the 4 motors interdependently to "really level" the print bed
and then use all steppers in "sync" mode
and do a "fine tune", a standard bed "tramming" ( i hope this is the right word)

... I have started with the planning ;-)

 

My goal is to have a larger build area, without having to alter any dimensions of the machine (you have used Y axis extensions for example) and using the standard dimensions Marshall peck posted in the parts list. I find that whilst this is a great machine, it's BIG! The standard printable volume is quite small compared to the volume of the machine, so my goal is to make this as space efficient as possible, whilst not degrading print quality.

My goal is not speed, but rather quality. I'm happy to accept that my machine will never have more than 40mm/s print speed, and about 100mm/s travel speed. But the lower weight has already helped to combat ringing for me, whilst keeping speed at an acceptable value. I'm using an acceleration of 1500 in marlin, I may raise this higher now.

The nema is a 20mm nema 17 motor, with 18ncm torque (roughly 55 ncm with the 3:1 gearing of the titan). I could have gone smaller, a part of me wishes I did now as it works fine at this size.
Nema 17 Bipolar Step Motor 2.9V 0.7A 18Ncm(25.5oz.in) 17HS10-0704S|17HS10-0704S|Nema 17 Stepper Motors

 

My goal was to get the biggest possible print volume without any cutting.
Unlike most of you guys I have to pay extremely high shipping cost, import duty etc. ....and I can not just get parts over night

I did order everything in 500mm length and the only piece I did cut was from the X-carrier and that piece was exactly what I used for the Y-Extension ;-)
...NOTHING wasted, that was my goal
... and I love this machine too
(even though I already spent hours on fault finding )

With all your weight saving I would say that you can easily achieve the print speeds up to 100mm/s.
Depending on the part to print, I adjust the Slic3r speeds and go up to print speeds of 80mm/s.
It always depends on the shape and actual use of the part!

Thanks for the stepper info!

 

has everyone read up on lead screws before? one thing neglected in almost all of these builds on here is a few details which may be on purpose but leaves new people to this hobby out in the dark. Lead Screws: Starts, TPI, Threads and Linear Motion for CNC Machines

for example lead screws have different pitches and 'starts', which affect speed and accuracy, so if everyone is buying different lead screws then different results! I myself am left wondering what the best pitch and start is.

next is motor angle, they come in different angles, which again affections speed and accuracy. the common one is 1.8, and i see most people are wanting speed but some have accuracy issues as well, so again the question is raised which is better. they might even make one higher than 1.8 angle for more speed maybe?

lastly how hard is it to get a lead screw setup for the 'head' movement rather than belts, or do people not do that because belts give more speed?

oh and with that small 20mm nema, isn't alot of torque required to run the fancy filaments? have u tried any of those, id be careful of going too small

 

Lead screws can be bought in any manner of shapes and sizes. most people use the fairly standard acme screw, tr8*8 4 start screw. This gives a good compromise between speed and accuracy. If you want to use it for Y or X, I would suggest looking into a higher pitch screw for the speed, or looking into ball screws. ball screws have very little friction, and can move much faster and generally with more accuracy too. I have found belts are fine as long as you can keep them under tension, and they are kept on a straight path to avoid bending/rubbing. Setting up a lead screw for any axis is relatively easy, especially if you use V-slot. follow any of the hundreds of videos made by openbuilds.

You can get nema 17's in 0.9 degree steps. A lot of people use these for deltas now, not sure they are needed as much for cartesian. A 20 tooth pulley + 1.8 degree stepper + gt2 belt gives 12.5 micron accuracy (in theory).

Do you mean torque or grip for fancy filaments? More torque will be needed if your spool holder is not allowing the filament to flow nicely. Higher torque often leads to the filament being stripped on retractions, in fact it is better to have a lower torque motor that will skip steps rather than strip filament. This means long prints are less likely to fail. skipped steps from a temporary jam are easier to recover from than a divot being ground into the filament. Ninjaflex and the like don't need more torque, in fact they need very low speed in order to stop the filament buckling. If you need more torque for the melting point to push filament out of your nozzle, try upping the temps for an easier flow.

Grip is much more important, having a good hobbed bolt or similar to grip the filament and push it into the hotend, preferably with a design that minimises 'cutting' the filament. The Mk8 is very good for this. The E3D titan performs similarly.
Interestingly, my e3D titan has more power than my direct drive did, despite running a smaller motor. This is probably because my drivers could not run the beefy 55ncm (2a nema 17) motor at full power. Also, the gearing of the E3D titan is spectacular, the gears mesh perfectly giving a very high gear efficiency. I think very little power is lost.

So yeah, the extruder runs brilliantly I highly suggest getting a Titan and a short stack motor.

 

Marshall - did you ever get the mill version of your design running?

How are you controlling the two Z axis steppers? Two ports off the controller, wiring them in parallel (one stepper driver), two drivers that are driven off one port, ...

I just started playing with GRBL on my controller (also 2650 based) and I'm hoping you've already done the hard work.

Bob

 

Man this thing is amazing. Marshall and many others put many hours into making this absolute tank of a printer.

I have had a running printer for 6 days.
Once calibrated you can see that this was crafted and designed by people who want nothing but quality and reliability.

I will continue to add photos of parts I have created with this amazing machine!

 

Marshall - just in case you're still thinking of using your design as a CNC mill ...

I've created an Excel file that'll take in the SketchUcam gcode and convert it to the format that the Marlin firmware uses.

I've put it in the resources area.
SketchuCam to Marlin gcode postprocessor 1.0

 

Hey, just in case anyone is having trouble with jamming, i have found that this filament oil filter is a great way to keep the inside heat sink lubricated, and really helps with any jams around the hobbed bolt.

Hope I could help someone!

 

Hey guys I am in the process of building this and am getting heavy vibrations on the Z axis with the delrin blocks... any thoughts?
Its not incredibly bad its just not butter like my other builds....(sells, Prusa's and MM's)

 

Thanks for the reply.. I am waiting on a few more parts (my goal is zero mechanical printed parts except for extruder) and I'll post a vid with the sound if I cannot get it to go away.

 

I have noticed that in all the 3D printer builds have seen, the Z axis is always lead screw driven. Is there some specific reason why it can not be belt driven?

 

Thanks for the explanation Marshall. It makes sense to me. I will just use some lead screws.

 

10x10x16 robot
Cable chain looks good but i used the 10x10mm and is pretty tight (I.D. wise) maybe 10x15mm. Not sure if ill like the cable chain yet guess ill find out when it breaks down.Love the printer big upgrade from a Replikeo Prusa I3. Built like a tank

 

Good job Marshall........this printer looks robust.

 

If I wanted to make a Voxel that would have a 12 x 12 x 12 print area, what dimensions would I use for each axis? (Is 16 X 16 X 16 doable as well? Never had a printer larger than 200mm X 200mm X 180mm)

 

Hi.
Have a look at my Voxel and of course of all the others here and the special parts we designed
I really love the design and I have pushed already at least 20-30kgs of PLA through the E3D nozzle

To save on shipping I used all standard 500mm length from the store and with some small modifications I got ~310x270x320.
With some more small mods (e.g. moving the z-motor and the x-motor to the outside) you can easily get the X- to 300 as well.
...and you do not waist any of the good v-slot stuff ;-)

For the height I would not go much higher than that.
With the Cartesian setup, depending on the part design,
some higher parts will eventually start swinging when the Y-axis is moving (or one has to reduce the printing speed to a crawl)

I believe for the higher parts, the build platform should move in Z-direction.( Look at Makerboot & Ultimaker, but I do not like the cantilever design )

Therefore I am currently building a big CORE-XY with 500x500x420mm print volume
with 4x NEMA 23 as Z-Steppers using C-Beam as corner poles
and 2x 0.9 degree NEMA 17 as XY steppers
and 2-5? NEMA 17 with E3D TITAN extruder in Bowden setup
or 1-2 direct extruders with very thin NEMA 17 (also with E3D TITAN)
and smoothieboard ( the motors are already moving ;-)

Keeping in mind that printing a part twice the size (with the same setup like nozzle,layer-hight,speeds etc.) takes 8x the time
So nozzle size has most likely to go up to 1 - 1.2 mm. ( E3D volcano! needed)
So larger prints will not take forever to print. Unfortunately this will also mean that finer details will be lost ;-(

I hope you are well again ;-)
Best regards from Namibia
Jürgen

 

Second print...
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff144/MADMAN770/Mobile Uploads/20161021_000122_zpsea2a9rp9.jpg

 

I am really interested in building my first 3D printer. Is this a good design to start off with as a newbie?

 

Finished building my VoxelOx. I have to add extra Alu Profile below the Y axis front and backside as with printed supports, they were simply not enough and gave me ringing artifacts when printing 80mms or above. The stock Z rod nuts introduced mirroring on the Zrods quality