Hi Indieflow,

Great build, this simple design has enspired me to build one of my first 3D printer, but slightly modify the aluminium plates for maximum support, luckily I have disposal to a cnc machine at work so can manufacture most of the stuff there other than the 3D printer.. though I'm going to model up a design spec first..

I'm currently using Catia V5 but the STL files aren't the best format as they come with dodgy surfaces as some of you may be aware.. is there any chance you could upload the STL files as STEP so I can model and adapt where I see fit? Additionally would it be possible to have the complete assembly in STEP of your current indie so I can use it as reference as I'm obviously new to this

Thanks and keep up the good work! I'll be lurking around asking questions as I'm a noob in this department (mainly all the electrical side and printer head)

Connor

 

Thanks for the reply, no problem don't expect anyone to bend over backwards for me, I'm a design engineer anyway so I can remodel stuff up as and if I need them anyway, just thought if you already had the files itd save me doing so..

I've found all the openbuild models etc on the resource section which I have downloaded but what gets me is where do people get all the electronic models from for their design without actually buying the electronics first? As I'd like to make all the wires tidy obviously and brackets casings etc for it all to be housed in.

Thanks
Connor

 

Hello dear geeks, freaks and printerfriends (ツ)!
Today i'm updating the status on my mod-build here.




Let's dive right in and start with some of the old issues i had:

★ Heated bed carriage / Y-carriage

Luckily and with loads of test prints it seems like i found the sweet spot when it comes to acceleration and max speeds. Mainly due the "heavy" bed i had to decrease the acceleration values in general, jumping from 3000 to 2000:

Code:

M204 S2000.00000 Z500.00000

★ Also related: Motors

I also was messing with junction and co - but matching the acceleration seemed to fix it completely. I also tuned down the motor currents as much as i could. Somehow they all ended up equal:

Code:

M907 X0.67500 Y0.67500 Z0.67500 E0.67500

I tried different extruders. Had some Wades with a Nema14 and even a direct one in testing. But i really really like the design Simon came up with so i wanted to make this work. Keeping the Motor running with the currents stated above seemed to create a small heat problem, Extruder started skipping therefore. The solution now for me is pretty simple: Another Fan. I'll add the STL to the git-repo while listing all new links on the bottom of this post. Oh, yes - the Fan looks like:



★ Probing via BLTouch - or such...

Well, i got my hands on a BLTouch (think its a clone ) which i wanted to implement. It turned out to be much easier than i thought - once i had a plan - and it delivers nice results for most of my cases. Let's set the target first here: I don't want my printer to be Z-leveled via BLTouch. I wanted to use it in combination of smoothieware's z-probing to create a printing-plane to fix small leveling problems. Therefore i wanted to keep the hall-o as my Z-endstop and to level out completely (also i trust the hall-o more than the BLTouch). This should keep the ability of manually leveling out Z0 on material-changes. This worked out great. I wrote a small G-Code-Scriptset which i can run to probe, level-out an Z0'ing. I may upload uploaded a (shabby, sorry!) video to demonstrate.



Lastly we need to mount the BLTouch. I created a small mount which i dovetailed together from 2 sub-pieces to get a proper 90° connection (dovetailing worked, the 90° not really...). STLs will be on github. There are some pictures of course:



If anyone is interrested in detailed configs i'm happy to share octoprint-customizations i made, start- &end-gcodes or anything else. just let me know - i don't want to spam.

★ Github Changes

BLTouchMount_indiei2.stl
Nema14Fanadapter-v3.stl

If anyone needs the SketchUP-Files they're here as well.

Let there be rock!

 

very nice design I want to go after him build,
the DFX files. anyone here has Gcode for or STL

 

the stl ant the gcode the gcode for 3mm tool

 

Did you ever find a way to make a quick release?

 

What metal model (or rail) are you using in construction?

 

I'm starting with this build as a summer project for my first ever experience with a fdm printer.

I already got my 3d printed parts produced by a friend of mine and I'm facing the decision on where to source the Alu plates from. I wanted to see if I could find something locally but it looks like I'll be ordering the parts straight from you, because even with shipping to Spain the price is under the quotes I've been getting from local fabrication shops. I wanted to enlarge the printing area a bit but seeing as how I'm gonna be tackling this project away from my main computer rig and I've only got my phone and a netbook to mess around I feel like sticking with your current design is gonna be much easier for me, and I can always build something bigger and different in the future. Something of a more stationary nature perhaps...

Been taking a look at this project for a while now and with the break on the studies season i'm excited for the chance of getting a go on this.

Thanks for sharing your work!

 

Indieflow,

Just wanted to say hi! I took some inspiration from your printer and make my own. I did have to modify some of your STLs thx.

ZideX

 

well your rendering itself is exemplary and got me into learning how to do one

 

For anyone in the UK looking to build one of these, I found these on ebay which have a very similar part number to the ones recommended...

4pcs NEMA 14 stepper motors 14Ncm 1.0A 1.8deg 300mm lead for CNC RepRap printer | eBay

edit: They aren't D Shaft's, time to get the dremel out.

 

with regards the Indie-i2...

am I being really blind: are there any drawings (with parts lists) for the X and Z axis?

 

Super late reply but I'm working on this at a very slow pace myself, there are no exploded diagrams for those parts but thanks to some of the photos of the build posted by bad sequel and indie himself I think i have those parts, or at least the one that shouldn't be obvious enough from the 360 assembled. Attached at the end are a couple pics showing the assembly itself.

For the z gantry plates you want to use the 40mm M5 screws and do: spacer/eccentric spacer, shim, wheel (with a shim inside) a shim and 6mm spacer/eccentric nut again, secured by a m5 nylock nut. That assembly in turn has the 20x20 vslot attached by three tnuts and the 10 mm M5 screws, the other 2 holes left on that assembly are for the nut block.

For the x gantry, you'll want to do exactly the same you did for the bed one, use the 25mm M5 screws and the top wheels will just use a 6mm spacer, shim, wheel (again with a shim in the middle of it's bearings) and the nylock M5 nut, the bottom one is exactly the same but with an eccentric spacer instead of the normal 6mm one. I tried to fit a second shim in there between the wheel and the nylock nut but doing so makes the assembly too long and it will hit the z axis gantry.

Now this might not be the correct way to do these but that's how I've done em.

 

Congrats on finishing your model. Are you able to share your raspberry pi modifications and software to use the BLTouch? I have one and am trying to make it work on octoprint. I just don't know what pins or what software to use/write. Any help will be much appreciated. You can send files to [email protected]

Thanks!

 

Thanks Indieflow. A great looking printer. I am a college student (Camosun College) taking the Graphics Tech course. For our final project we need to take a set of drawings and, using SolidWorks, create parts and assemblies along with a BOM. do you have any way to export these drawings to a compatible .SAT or .DRW format?? Even a PDF would make things a bit easier if all the measurements are in it. Please? I have 7 weeks to get this done and it's 80% of my mark.

 

@Indieflow - are you still doing parts for your indie i2?, the other thing I'm trying to do is work out roughly what the total cost is likely to be - it looks like somewhere in the region of £400? the big bits being the heated head, the controller - I've been looking at building something that could be packed away and haven't seen anything I like more than your design.

 

You could start by buying a 3d printer on Aliexpress for way less than $200 shipped. Something like this for example. The electronics and many other parts work just fine with the Indie than all you have to buy is a few specific parts and they should not cost more than £100 and there you have a printer for just above £200.

 

Very impressive work @Indieflow !

 

Did you have to machine the Hobbit screw extruder or bought ready? How did you get the Hobbit bolt? Can you tell me about his measurements of him?

 

Yes! I need 2. Can you show me a picture of them?

 

any chance of it having nema17 motor instead, I've got a bunch of them laying around