Nice build. I have a similar setup, based on evilc66 design. Piece of advice : make sure your moving heated bed is the lightest possible. Mine is too heavy (my design is not as clean as the one of evilc66), and I have ringing/ghosting problems on the Y axis... I will have to change my design, but I already spent a lot of (too much?) money on this printer so I will wait a little...
Thanks for the encouragement and advice. I'm not a fan of the moving Y-axis personally but this structure is appealing and like the evilc66 design write-up this build allows for minimal custom or printed parts. Something I was aiming for as well. Really hoping to making it a bolt together as much as possible.
That's exactly the reason why I chose evilc66 design. The only printed part I had to do was the support for the direct extruder and hot end. The build is super stiff, although that does not elimate ringing/ghosting on my prints... But it's all my fault.
Have you attempted to change tools to use the frame for light CNC work? Which controller board did you go with? And other than making the bed lighter are there other things you think could be done to minimize ringing in the y-direction?
No I haven't change tools. And I have no experience in CNC so I cannot give you any advice on that. I think the chassis could be stiff enough for light and/or slow work. But then again, I have no experience in CNC... Regarding the board, I have a Rumba board. Good board, but if I had to do it again, I would either go for a smoothieboard like evilc66 (about the same price as Rumba), or for a cheaper Ramps 1.4. Not sure smoothieboard or Rumba could deal with CNC works. Ramps 1.4 probably can (again, I don't know anything about CNC so check that info ) Regarding ghosting: slowing speed, jerk and acceleration settings reduces it. Basically if I want a nice beautiful print, I will print slowly (I haven't found the perfect setting yet). Otherwise, I print at speed 50mm/s, jerk 10mm/s, accel 1000mm/s/s. These jerk/acceleration settings are already slower than evilc66 ones (which are at 20/2000 I believe) and I still get ghosting... EDIT : note that my moving bed is really heavy. Probably close to 10kg. My first bed was twice as light and I had no ghosting. But i had a lot of other problems (in particular : "breathing" heatbed, shattered glass due to heat). When I changed the design I went for strong reliable bed. But I went too far I guess...
All very helpful information. Thank you!! I'm waiting on my first C-Beam so I can start this project. Will keep things updated.
FYI, smoothie board has a dedicated CNC mode for CNC routers/mills/lasers. I do not know anything about Rumba.
Yes. Smoothie is definitely in the running for controllers. I really like the DuetWifi, and it does also appear to have the CNC support (at least per the forums). But the dual extrusion hotend (Prmetheus System) doesn't list the DuetWifi currently and does have a Smoothie section. So, long story short, haven't made a final determination on controller board yet but it's between Smoothie and Duet at this point.