April 6, 2016 at 11:563D Printer Assembly Kit Overview
Last time, I was banned for links in the material and the article went into drafts, so I reincarnate it in the corporate blog DronkRU, since the material is basically useful and causes a lot of interest.
About six months ago, I bought myself a 3D printer. Since then, I have seen how inexpensive Chinese solutions, like my constructor, are gaining popularity. And I think this is correct, with due dexterity and a little skill, such designers can give odds to eminent brands that are many times more expensive, and sometimes even orders of magnitude.
In this publication, I would like to introduce Geektimes readers to such designers and show that there is nothing to be afraid of. It’s even more pleasant to get a disassembled printer, since it’s very interesting to spend time assembling it + get an initial idea of how and what works.
Briefly about the printer - you can take it after assembly immediately prints, for those who want to know the details, I ask for cat.
Caution a lot of pictures.
I have been following the development of household 3D printers for a long time, and when their price dropped to $ 1000 (at a price of 30 per bucks) I began to monitor pricing even more closely. The price began to fall about a couple of years ago, or rather, it decreased a long time ago, but a couple of years ago it’s straight, options at prices began to appear more and more interesting. And last year (in 2015), prices reached their perigee. Chinese kits entered the market en masse, and not just from construction pins and don’t understand what, but with decent accessories.
I came across this kit from Sunhokey right there in the comments in a comment on a post about a 3D printer. From that moment I began to monitor the price. And then once the price fell immediately by $ 15, the rate at that time was not the same as now and I decided to quickly order. The price at that time was 275 bucks.
Well, as usual with me. I studied the question, the printer is OK, but delivery is unclear. In the comments to the order they wrote that someone had arrived in almost a couple of weeks. Positive feedback at the time of order was slightly less than 300.
As it turned out later, the order went on delivery in a tricky way. This is partly a plus, since I did not intersect with customs at all, or rather not me, but the package. The downside was the delivery time. Apparently, the parcel went by truck from Shenzhen to the border with Russia, there somehow it crossed the border, possibly even on pack mules (judging by the appearance of the package) and reaching Omsk, it was sent through PEK from a private person with a Russian surname , again by truck. Uh ... For almost a month I was waiting for the track to update when the Chinese track changes to Russian. And now, 24 days after payment, I receive an SMS from PEC that the goods have left me and will arrive in another 20 days.
After all the deadlines and almost 2 months of waiting, we went on our family bug to pick up the parcel.
As I noted above, the package seemed to be kicked with boots from China itself. For which I was very worried, because inside there is an acrylic frame and various shafts, which if you bend, you will not see high-quality printing. By that time I had already read that some customers received parcels with chipped acrylic parts. To the seller’s honor, such jambs were quickly settled and spare parts were sent free of charge.
In my premise there was "all the way", well, almost. 2 plastic coils were affected. One of the sides cracked in two places, while the other fell apart in half. It seems that such jambs could also be replaced, but I did not push the seller, I just glued one coil with cyanocrylate and strengthened the other with tape using several tapes through the central hole.
This photo shows that the plastic was completely unprotected, which is why it was damaged.
In general, everything was great with the packaging. The first batches were shipped in polystyrene foam. I can imagine what a nightmare it was when you take such a sandwich out of the box. I had experience with similar packages (glass Chinese table).
Concerns about acrylic have not been confirmed. Foamed polypropylene worked at 100%.
All acrylic was also in the protective film. On the one hand transparent, on the other pinkish, I suspect it is a chip specifically for laser cutting. By the way, since acrylic is cut by a laser, it has some tension on the edge. That’s the power of Luke. Therefore, in no case do not try to wipe the frame with alcohol or something similar, otherwise it will be covered with microcracks.
Here are all the details. What where, at first glance, FIG understand. Anarchy!
And this is the main largest part of the frame plus a heated table. But, by the way, a heated table is a big plus, you can already print ABS and other materials with high shrinkage.
The basis of the table. She is also acrylic. For six months of the flight, everything is fine with her, she did not break. But still, I would not really trust her. If possible, it is better to replace the entire frame with a steel one (the solution price is approximately 4000 rubles + time for disassembly / assembly).
Well, that’s it. Stop considering this disgrace, it is time for this chaos to acquire a finished look and to reveal a miracle to the car of light.
Collecting everything is easy. We simply repeat all the actions for the silent Chinese in the video. Assembly instructions + the necessary programs and pictures with settings were enclosed on the disk by caring Chinese friends. Yes, sometimes sellers with aliexpress also provide good service.
The components here are not bad. Here is a part of the carriage moving along the Z axis in the photo. Here are normal NEMA17 stepper motors, and not truncated versions and an 8mm long LM8LUU bearing and even a brass nut of a trapezoidal screw is also 8mm. In general, at a price in rubles of approximately 17,000, it is surprising what the seller earned. And by the time the dollar went up, the Chinese also dropped the price and in rubles the printer still costs about 17 ty.
The second part of the carriage. It can be seen that there is a belt tensioner, and such a solution is not always used. Even the inexpensive Wanhao Duplicator i3, which is used for tensioning, uses spring from clothespins as tensioners.
And this is the most interesting part of the printer is a heating element with an X axis carriage. A clone from E3D v5 is installed here. I can’t say anything bad about the Chinese E3D clones. How many tried them, always everything is OK. That's just v5 I do not like something and almost immediately I replaced it with a more compact V6, which I advise you.
It seems to be a very simple contraption, and there’s what you can do with it ... There’s nothing complicated. There is a 40W ceramic heater, a thermistor for temperature control, an aluminum cube for transferring heat to the nozzle and a steel thermal barrier enclosed in an aluminum radiator so that the heating does not go above the nozzle.
In general, I repeat again, you change this v5 to v6, you can all-metal, and you will not know the problems. The main thing is better blowing and another secret. I’ll tell you about him later.
These are the Z-axis motors. There are immediately a couple of them and each on a separate driver. I would honestly have done one driver, and freed up would put on a second nozzle. I’m already dealing with this issue, I’m waiting for the missing details ...
We are assembling the base of the table.
Another part with belt tensioner. Now for the axis along which the table travels, Y means it turns out.
An elegant solution, I believe.
Assembling the stand for the coil. This stand is compact and convenient on the one hand, and not very on the other. Remember, I wrote that the side of one coil broke off? So, if it weren’t possible to glue it, then you can’t use such a holder anymore. In the photo, a sample of PLA plastic from FL-33. Nice plastic, but I did not defeat him right away. At first, he completely blocked the nozzle. What next time.
It can be seen that bearings with a rim are used.
Moving on to the big details.
The proud name of Prusa i3.
Studs are still used here, but not simple galvanized, but normal stainless.
Gradually, the wunderwafel takes on a finished look.
The X axis has already been set in place.
Table. And here I prepared right away. The wires at the table are best replaced with a thicker one. And for this, you need to separate the insulator held on Kapton tape and solder them.
No sooner said than done. At the same time, we will put a better thermal insulator. I used a cork from a bath mat, bought in a carousel of rubles for 60 or 80. If you have recently made repairs, you will find better insulation material. An ideal thermal insulator for a warm floor, it can already be with an adhesive base, so it will be more convenient to mount it.
Time.
Two. Done. Aluminum tape also came in handy.
Half the job done. Yes, only half. By this time, it took about 6 hours to build, probably a little more. There was a break for sleep :)
We turn to the electronic-electrical part. The MKS GEN v1.1 board is installed here. In principle, it is the same arduin with RAMPS only better. Plus this is that everything is correctly wired and there are connectors on the driver. The drivers here are removable, not soldered, as on the MELZI other board often used in low-cost 3D printers.
An extruder of the Bouden type with all its drawbacks and advantages is installed here. What does it mean? This means that the head is light and will not give inertial waves with a sharp change of direction, but it is better not to fill soft materials here. FLEX will definitely not work.
This model also has a remote screen with a card reader, which means you can print without a computer. In the first week I did not know that the twist was also a button, and printing started through the computer. Then he pressed harder, and new opportunities opened up.
It remains to lay the wires neatly and you can proceed to printing. Damn, there is already not enough patience, we collect them in bunches, then I will lay it as it should.
Beauty. And, you also need to stick masking tape on the platform.
Yeah, that’s really good now.
Well, according to requests in the comments, recent printing examples:
Letter 18cm (0.2mm layer, 0.4mm nozzle): Wrist
bracelet, immediately after removing supports but still without processing ( 0.1mm layer, 0.2mm nozzle):
Figurine for a nozzle sample 0.2 height of about 10cm.
After a little processing all the “snot” was removed.
She is in the process of printing.
Parts used in the assembly:
That's all, with you there was a simple service for choosing complex Dronk.Ru equipment . Do not forget to subscribe to our blog , there will be many more interesting things.
ps * - links marked with a referral asterisk, so you can save extra by returning a cashback of up to 4%. More details at Dronk.ru/cashback/ or you can get 5% by purchasing them through the LetyShops cashback service . Read more about who such cashback services are in our article. Choose a cashback service for the 6th anniversary of Aliexpress .
Our other publications
About six months ago, I bought myself a 3D printer. Since then, I have seen how inexpensive Chinese solutions, like my constructor, are gaining popularity. And I think this is correct, with due dexterity and a little skill, such designers can give odds to eminent brands that are many times more expensive, and sometimes even orders of magnitude.
In this publication, I would like to introduce Geektimes readers to such designers and show that there is nothing to be afraid of. It’s even more pleasant to get a disassembled printer, since it’s very interesting to spend time assembling it + get an initial idea of how and what works.
Briefly about the printer - you can take it after assembly immediately prints, for those who want to know the details, I ask for cat.
Caution a lot of pictures.
I have been following the development of household 3D printers for a long time, and when their price dropped to $ 1000 (at a price of 30 per bucks) I began to monitor pricing even more closely. The price began to fall about a couple of years ago, or rather, it decreased a long time ago, but a couple of years ago it’s straight, options at prices began to appear more and more interesting. And last year (in 2015), prices reached their perigee. Chinese kits entered the market en masse, and not just from construction pins and don’t understand what, but with decent accessories.
I came across this kit from Sunhokey right there in the comments in a comment on a post about a 3D printer. From that moment I began to monitor the price. And then once the price fell immediately by $ 15, the rate at that time was not the same as now and I decided to quickly order. The price at that time was 275 bucks.
Well, as usual with me. I studied the question, the printer is OK, but delivery is unclear. In the comments to the order they wrote that someone had arrived in almost a couple of weeks. Positive feedback at the time of order was slightly less than 300.
As it turned out later, the order went on delivery in a tricky way. This is partly a plus, since I did not intersect with customs at all, or rather not me, but the package. The downside was the delivery time. Apparently, the parcel went by truck from Shenzhen to the border with Russia, there somehow it crossed the border, possibly even on pack mules (judging by the appearance of the package) and reaching Omsk, it was sent through PEK from a private person with a Russian surname , again by truck. Uh ... For almost a month I was waiting for the track to update when the Chinese track changes to Russian. And now, 24 days after payment, I receive an SMS from PEC that the goods have left me and will arrive in another 20 days.
After all the deadlines and almost 2 months of waiting, we went on our family bug to pick up the parcel.
As I noted above, the package seemed to be kicked with boots from China itself. For which I was very worried, because inside there is an acrylic frame and various shafts, which if you bend, you will not see high-quality printing. By that time I had already read that some customers received parcels with chipped acrylic parts. To the seller’s honor, such jambs were quickly settled and spare parts were sent free of charge.
In my premise there was "all the way", well, almost. 2 plastic coils were affected. One of the sides cracked in two places, while the other fell apart in half. It seems that such jambs could also be replaced, but I did not push the seller, I just glued one coil with cyanocrylate and strengthened the other with tape using several tapes through the central hole.
This photo shows that the plastic was completely unprotected, which is why it was damaged.
In general, everything was great with the packaging. The first batches were shipped in polystyrene foam. I can imagine what a nightmare it was when you take such a sandwich out of the box. I had experience with similar packages (glass Chinese table).
Concerns about acrylic have not been confirmed. Foamed polypropylene worked at 100%.
All acrylic was also in the protective film. On the one hand transparent, on the other pinkish, I suspect it is a chip specifically for laser cutting. By the way, since acrylic is cut by a laser, it has some tension on the edge. That’s the power of Luke. Therefore, in no case do not try to wipe the frame with alcohol or something similar, otherwise it will be covered with microcracks.
Here are all the details. What where, at first glance, FIG understand. Anarchy!
And this is the main largest part of the frame plus a heated table. But, by the way, a heated table is a big plus, you can already print ABS and other materials with high shrinkage.
The basis of the table. She is also acrylic. For six months of the flight, everything is fine with her, she did not break. But still, I would not really trust her. If possible, it is better to replace the entire frame with a steel one (the solution price is approximately 4000 rubles + time for disassembly / assembly).
Well, that’s it. Stop considering this disgrace, it is time for this chaos to acquire a finished look and to reveal a miracle to the car of light.
Collecting everything is easy. We simply repeat all the actions for the silent Chinese in the video. Assembly instructions + the necessary programs and pictures with settings were enclosed on the disk by caring Chinese friends. Yes, sometimes sellers with aliexpress also provide good service.
The components here are not bad. Here is a part of the carriage moving along the Z axis in the photo. Here are normal NEMA17 stepper motors, and not truncated versions and an 8mm long LM8LUU bearing and even a brass nut of a trapezoidal screw is also 8mm. In general, at a price in rubles of approximately 17,000, it is surprising what the seller earned. And by the time the dollar went up, the Chinese also dropped the price and in rubles the printer still costs about 17 ty.
The second part of the carriage. It can be seen that there is a belt tensioner, and such a solution is not always used. Even the inexpensive Wanhao Duplicator i3, which is used for tensioning, uses spring from clothespins as tensioners.
And this is the most interesting part of the printer is a heating element with an X axis carriage. A clone from E3D v5 is installed here. I can’t say anything bad about the Chinese E3D clones. How many tried them, always everything is OK. That's just v5 I do not like something and almost immediately I replaced it with a more compact V6, which I advise you.
It seems to be a very simple contraption, and there’s what you can do with it ... There’s nothing complicated. There is a 40W ceramic heater, a thermistor for temperature control, an aluminum cube for transferring heat to the nozzle and a steel thermal barrier enclosed in an aluminum radiator so that the heating does not go above the nozzle.
In general, I repeat again, you change this v5 to v6, you can all-metal, and you will not know the problems. The main thing is better blowing and another secret. I’ll tell you about him later.
These are the Z-axis motors. There are immediately a couple of them and each on a separate driver. I would honestly have done one driver, and freed up would put on a second nozzle. I’m already dealing with this issue, I’m waiting for the missing details ...
We are assembling the base of the table.
Another part with belt tensioner. Now for the axis along which the table travels, Y means it turns out.
An elegant solution, I believe.
Assembling the stand for the coil. This stand is compact and convenient on the one hand, and not very on the other. Remember, I wrote that the side of one coil broke off? So, if it weren’t possible to glue it, then you can’t use such a holder anymore. In the photo, a sample of PLA plastic from FL-33. Nice plastic, but I did not defeat him right away. At first, he completely blocked the nozzle. What next time.
It can be seen that bearings with a rim are used.
Moving on to the big details.
The proud name of Prusa i3.
Studs are still used here, but not simple galvanized, but normal stainless.
Gradually, the wunderwafel takes on a finished look.
The X axis has already been set in place.
Table. And here I prepared right away. The wires at the table are best replaced with a thicker one. And for this, you need to separate the insulator held on Kapton tape and solder them.
No sooner said than done. At the same time, we will put a better thermal insulator. I used a cork from a bath mat, bought in a carousel of rubles for 60 or 80. If you have recently made repairs, you will find better insulation material. An ideal thermal insulator for a warm floor, it can already be with an adhesive base, so it will be more convenient to mount it.
Time.
Two. Done. Aluminum tape also came in handy.
Half the job done. Yes, only half. By this time, it took about 6 hours to build, probably a little more. There was a break for sleep :)
We turn to the electronic-electrical part. The MKS GEN v1.1 board is installed here. In principle, it is the same arduin with RAMPS only better. Plus this is that everything is correctly wired and there are connectors on the driver. The drivers here are removable, not soldered, as on the MELZI other board often used in low-cost 3D printers.
An extruder of the Bouden type with all its drawbacks and advantages is installed here. What does it mean? This means that the head is light and will not give inertial waves with a sharp change of direction, but it is better not to fill soft materials here. FLEX will definitely not work.
This model also has a remote screen with a card reader, which means you can print without a computer. In the first week I did not know that the twist was also a button, and printing started through the computer. Then he pressed harder, and new opportunities opened up.
It remains to lay the wires neatly and you can proceed to printing. Damn, there is already not enough patience, we collect them in bunches, then I will lay it as it should.
Beauty. And, you also need to stick masking tape on the platform.
Yeah, that’s really good now.
Well, according to requests in the comments, recent printing examples:
Letter 18cm (0.2mm layer, 0.4mm nozzle): Wrist
bracelet, immediately after removing supports but still without processing ( 0.1mm layer, 0.2mm nozzle):
Figurine for a nozzle sample 0.2 height of about 10cm.
After a little processing all the “snot” was removed.
She is in the process of printing.
Parts used in the assembly:
- Prusa i3 Kit * printer itself
- Nozzles: Nozzles 0.3 / 0.4 / 0.5 mm *
- Head: E3D v6 head *
That's all, with you there was a simple service for choosing complex Dronk.Ru equipment . Do not forget to subscribe to our blog , there will be many more interesting things.
ps * - links marked with a referral asterisk, so you can save extra by returning a cashback of up to 4%. More details at Dronk.ru/cashback/ or you can get 5% by purchasing them through the LetyShops cashback service . Read more about who such cashback services are in our article. Choose a cashback service for the 6th anniversary of Aliexpress .
Our other publications
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