My MKS SBase just arrived in the mail

 

Went ahead and ordered four 400mm MGN12H HIWIN linear rails and one 450mm rail. Was hoping to find a 560-600mm rail for the X axis but nobody has one in stock here in the US. Plan to use one rail for X, two for Y and two for the Z. Will CNC the mounts after initally confirming the design with plastic pieces so the machine should be extremely rigid.

I am hoping to improve the Z layer alignment and remove any Y axis mis-alignment introduced by the printed plastic parts and potentially wheels. Honestly it prints ok as is (see photos) but the layer alignment isnt quite as good as my mini Kossel, at least not yet . It does print at lower layer heights quite well using 1/32 stepping with 1.8 degree steppers. I am going to try out a set of 0.9 degree Nema 17's I have here after the switch to linear rails.

 

@grat
How did this system work out for you? I am looking at the triple leadscrew setup as well but trying to figure out a cheaper solution.

 

Well, I'm sorry to say that since the discussion has moved to Google+, I will no longer be able to follow this build. Google+ is even worse for discussions than the OpenBuild Forums. While it may have discussion groups, there are not individual threads still. And, at least for me, everything is just thrown together into a pile.

I wish everyone luck with their printers. I just hope a better solution can be found for the discussion.

 

Agreed. I was onboard for the move until I realized it was google+ not google groups. I will continue to update here and maybe look into google plus further. Maybe there is something we are missing but it looks completely random and reminds me of pintrest or some other image driven site.

 

I have tried following other topics in Google+ and they have all been disasters. I get no notifications when there are new topics or replies. And when I go back and check, I can't tell what has been posted. If someone makes a reply to a subject, good luck finding it. It's just a Facebook type news feed.

 

I am a bit in the same mood, and I am reluctant to touch social networks in general.

 

On the RepRap forums, they have a section called machines organized by name. Under each printer name, there is a page with subtopics based on that specific printer.
Couldn't we have a page on there called C-Bot?

RepRap Forums

 

The Google+ group is organized by category, and every post is individual, with its own lines of comments, and I haven't run into any issues with notifications for the groups that I subscribed to and enabled notifications for. The RepRap forums are organized by printer name, but under that printer category, it's just a hodgepodge of every thread posted, the posts aren't divided into categories. The home page of Google+ is kind of abnoxious, but the individual community pages are organized very similar to forums, but in a more open format.

 

openbuilds has forums too, someone just has to convince them to create a forum for it, and sticky some posts or make subforums to organize it a bit. but as long as the 'build' page is updated i don't really see what the big deal is in following along with whats happening. if its because there are different builds based on this one, just make a new openbuild project for it and link to it, problem solved.

speaking of which i think im leaning towards building a samson Samson

in particular, where he has modified it and it now looks like this

http://www.openbuilds.com/attachments/image-jpeg.15069/

http://www.openbuilds.com/attachments/image-jpeg.15175/


which is very similar to this cbot, except i don't have to rely on miniwheels, or mods to get my big wheels to 'maybe' work, and it doesn't rely on plastic parts that might melt, warp, or break, especially if i use exotic filaments.

the only tricky part is enclosing the top, which i havn't read up enough to know if just enclosing all the sides will cut it. i did have an idea on how to heat it tho based on that last picture. instead of the '2' wide extrusion, use '3' or '4' wide at the bottom so that power supply doesn't 'stick above' the extrusion for starters. then enclose the bottom, and have the power supply below the board u enclosed it with. then cut out a hole for the exhaust fan, and the hot air the power supply makes will heat the chamber. guess it depends on if that is an exhaust or intake fan but either way that can be sorted with some plastic printed parts directing the heat whereever it exits. + the heatbed heat of course.


anyways does anyone have a good source for Tslot that works well with vslot that will save money? ive been looking on ebay and the prices are almost exactly the same for metric tslot, its only the non metic that is cheaper but i have no idea what sizes and types will actually work and line up with the vslot stuff

 

If you have any plastic parts that would "melt" during normal usage, even with higher temp filaments, you have something wrong with your design.

 

What cheap imperial unit extrusions are you talking about? I'd be very interested in that if I can get my nylon sliders working

 

not from what ive read, ive heard of motor mounts melting just from non enclosed units. so enclosing it, and heating the chamber greatly increases this risk. along with warping or breaking which presents a fire risk if your machine were to say, fall apart during a long build. even just 1 corner breaking or cracking would be enough to have the printhead knock over a tall piece printing, and the top layer would be hot enough to possibly smolder certain objects into a fire

as for the cheap extrusion, basically just type " t slot" into ebay, i filter for US ONLY. and there's a guy on there selling the stuff in lots. at first glance it looks the same price, but when u look closer he is selling 4 to 6 peices and in long/different lengths. But u must read carefully because some of it is overstock, while others are 'blemished' and such which u don't want.

80/20 Inc 1.5 x 1.5 T-Slot Aluminum Extrusion 15 Series 1515-Lite Lot 29 (4pcs)

since you are looking for the stuff, i assume u know how and which ones will work with vslot? care to fill me in ? it appears to me that the extrusion slots will be in different places, which means to get them connected everything will be 'off center' which seems like alot of problems to deal with

 

another place is also MISUMI USA: Industrial Configurable Components Supply + 30% off first order

 

Ya, that's probably a better bet. Much more compatible with v slot too if you decide to mix and match

 

misumi is compatible with v slot, you would want to use the 20mm 5 series, the 2020, 2040, and 2060 all match in dimensions and slots, they are often used together in some builds

 

Not compatible for wheels though.. I think there's wheels for misumi T slot, but they cost more

 

i can't tell but it almost looks like he is using wheels on t slot in that samson build i posted. the parts and build on that machine is really really hard to follow tho, but i think if i just eyeball it i can build it using 'similar' stuff

Edit: nvm, i could have sworn i seen him mention using some extrusion he had laying around, but i guess thats all 40mm x40mm vslot he is using

 

Like I said, if any part would melt in these conditions, there is something wrong with your design. First, you should be using ABS or PETG for the parts. The glass temperature for them is high enough that even in a heated chamber, the temps should never be reaching that point. If the piece breaks during usage, it wasn't designed or printed correctly.

As for the top layer being hot enough to possibly start a fire if knocked over, the temps are not that high and the plastic cools fast enough that you are not even close the the flash point of any material used in printing. The only time I have heard of a fire starting was when a heater was pulled out of the heat block and sat on the plastic because the controller didn't see it the temp change. But again, this only happened because of a bad design and not because of the use of plastic parts.

 

I get to each their own and all, and I know my opinion isn't going to sway someone already set against something, but I've always found google+ simple to follow and mentally digest. These are the reasons I promoted it:

• All posts are listed in order. There are two staggered columns, but they're still in order from top to bottom.
• There are user-defined categories on the side you can click on (just like forum categories) to filter the view.
• It's easily searchable.
• Good at displaying\embedding imagery.
• Is super-easy to browse on your phone (compared to many forums that are a nightmare on mobile devices, including this page).

I hear the arguments against it, but in reality I don't see any of the problems described. FYI I'm no uber-proponent/evangelist of g+ or anything, but it's far, far better than this (now 104 page) list, and IMO, the next best thing sort of a full-blown forum (that would take actual work by real humans to maintain\setup\host\etc).

2c. Off my tiny soapbox.

Join us... drink the kool-aid.....+....

 

Kinda makes me pine for the old days of message boards with an indention for each reply.. Those were really easy to navigate.

 

I just learned that if you don't like the Google+ 2-column staggered view (which I don't actually), you can go to your prefs here: Google+ Under "Accessibility" and check *on* 'Change the presentation of some pages to work better with screen readers and other assistive tools.' Single column view now.

 

While I'm glad to see an effort to get away from the 104 (currently) page single thread for the C-Bot, I just don't see the google+ community page scaling the same way that the Google Group pages I follow do. I can search through hundreds, if not thousands of posts, going back several years in what to me, is a much more intuitive (if less flashy) interface.

I'm a fan of Google+ in general, because I think it addresses some issues that Facebook (for instance) never really considered-- which is I have different groups of friends that I might want to share information with, rather than considering "the world" my best and closest friend. But I don't think it's going to do as well as this site has as an information repository, let alone be *better*.

But that's just my opinion. I'll try to follow along anyway.

 

Apologies for the slow reply-- I hate to admit it, but I've been completely ignoring my C-Bot build for some time. I need to re-cut some extrusions, and I've had to reprint the structural pieces (this time in PETG), but I only have one printer that will do PETG-- and it's been... "peculiar". In the meantime, I've been working on evaluating a beta project for a low-cost Delta printer, and that's consumed all of my time labelled "3D printing". Since the new printer is "low cost", it doesn't have a hot end that plays well with PETG.

 

Work progresses on my version of the cbot.

I'm using a cbeam kit for the Z. Ended up needing the extra large plate ( C-Beam™ Gantry Plate - XLarge ) so I could mount the 20x40 to it. Note that switching to the cbeam xlarge plate you need the full-size wheels ( luckily I already had 'em on-hand! ).

So far nothing has been wired up yet - just tested in-place but so far so good on the x/y stage.

The rest of the printer is pretty much stock from the original cbot bom so far. I've added a few bits from thingiverse ( titan extruder, controller mount and power supply mount are it so far ). Really excited with this build so far.

build space should be 290x290 or so ( maybe all 300 but doubtful ). The Z is still somewhat in question. There is clearance to go all the way to the bottom of the cbeam so I may end up with a 400mm z +/-

Heated bed is the lulzbot heatbed kit and bed mount for those curious.

 

Is this the first 300x300 bed on a cantilever Z stage?

I'd be really interested to see how you get on with how rigid the set-up is

 

yea that is part of why I went with this setup vs the original. I put my laptop on the build plate ( likely more heavy than most prints I will be doing ) and did not notice any flex but I was not do any measurements.

 

My build still has a way to go. Its assembled but likely the Z is a little out of alignment ( guessing its leaning a little to the right - I need to get an angle and true it up )

As far as assembly there is a 20x40 bolted to the xlarge cbeam plate. The 2 * 20x40 are connected with 2 l brackets each, not printed brackets. I don't know the deflection of this setup but I imagine I could put a good bit of weight on there before there is any issue.

I used the xtreme solid wheels so I don't think those will have much of an issue there either.

I hope to have the Z motor wired in tonight and get endstops connected, then it should pretty much be ready to rock. I'll post more updates once I get the rest put in place.