A master class from a Volgograd schoolboy: we continue to make our 3D printer, or From RepStrap to RepRap
- Tutorial
History, as you know, has the property of repeating itself. In August, we already wrote on Habré about the Volgograd schoolboy Mikhail Kozenko, who assembled his 3D printer. Over the past five months, the young inventor has become proficient in his business and has prepared for us the next photo and text report.
Warm greetings to all from Volgograd! In August of last year, I already talked about how I assembled my first 3D printer, and how I came up with this idea. In short, I am constantly engaged in various kinds of projects and several years ago I realized that I just needed a 3D printer for further research and projects. After that, I began to study the appropriate materials for assembling a 3D printer at home. I realized that I can use some ready-made components, which is first logical to assemble a temporary structure, and then print the parts to a new, already “normal” printer using the resulting device. Actually, this is a typical transition from printers created according to the RepStrap concept to RepRap printers.
Participating in discussions on various portals and forums, I, unfortunately, faced with such a problem that many people do not know or know, but do not understand, what 3D printers, RepRap, RepStrap, RepRap 1.0 (Darwin) and RepRap 2.0 are (Mendel), let's figure these things out.
So what is a 3D printer? A 3D printer is a peripheral device that uses the method of layer-by-layer creation of a physical object using a digital 3D model. Moreover, very often the process of three-dimensional printing is called Rapid Prototyping, since 3D printers were originally created for this very purpose. There are several basic 3D printing technologies, you can read more about them in this article, but I’ll just say that I use FDM technology (fused deposition modeling) in my printer.
In 2005, Adrian Bower, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Bath in the UK, founded the RepRap project (Replicating Rapid Prototyper - a self-reproducing mechanism for rapid prototyping), which aimed to distribute 3D printing using self-reproducing devices. That is, you can ask a friend who has a RepRap device to play it to you. 3D printing was very helpful here. In early 2008, the first model of such a device appeared, which was called RepRap 1.0 (Darwin), it was a 3D printer capable of printing many plastic parts for its own design. In shape, it was a cube with a thermal head moving along the X and Y axes, and a desktop moving along the Z axis. In 2009, the second model RepRap 2.0 (Mendel) appeared it was already a prism with an extruder moving along the X and Z axes, and a desktop moving along the Y axis. Further from third-party enthusiastic developers, different printer models began to appear, which were mainly improvements to the first two devices. At the moment, the project has not made much progress in the field of printing of electrical components, as planned, but, nevertheless, it has greatly developed and advanced 3D printing in everyday life. Some of the major manufacturers of personal 3D printers now quit the RepRap project and took the path of commercialization. Many people, who did not have 3D printer owners in their friends, began to create devices for printing RepRap printers from improvised materials, and this approach was called RepStrap. Further from third-party enthusiast developers, different printer models began to appear, which were mainly improvements to the first two devices. At the moment, the project has not made much progress in the field of printing of electrical components, as planned, but, nevertheless, it has greatly developed and advanced 3D printing in everyday life. Some of the major manufacturers of personal 3D printers now quit the RepRap project and took the path of commercialization. Many people, who did not have 3D printer owners in their friends, began to create devices for printing RepRap printers from improvised materials, and this approach was called RepStrap. Further from third-party enthusiast developers, different printer models began to appear, which were mainly improvements to the first two devices. At the moment, the project has not made much progress in the field of printing of electrical components, as planned, but, nevertheless, it has greatly developed and advanced 3D printing in everyday life. Some of the major manufacturers of personal 3D printers now quit the RepRap project and took the path of commercialization. Many people, who did not have 3D printer owners in their friends, began to create devices for printing RepRap printers from improvised materials, and this approach was called RepStrap. as planned, but, nevertheless, he greatly developed and promoted 3D printing in everyday life. Some of the major manufacturers of personal 3D printers now quit the RepRap project and took the path of commercialization. Many people, who did not have 3D printer owners in their friends, began to create devices for printing RepRap printers from improvised materials, and this approach was called RepStrap. as planned, but, nevertheless, he greatly developed and promoted 3D printing in everyday life. Some of the major manufacturers of personal 3D printers now quit the RepRap project and took the path of commercialization. Many people, who did not have 3D printer owners in their friends, began to create devices for printing RepRap printers from improvised materials, and this approach was called RepStrap.
RepRap 1.0 (Darwin)
RepRap 2.0 (Mendel)
Now back to my project. After I finished my first printer in early August, I immediately started working on a second printer, VolgoBot 0.1. I designed it in such a way that, if necessary, it will be possible to redo and modify its design without much difficulty. The layout remained almost the same as the first: the printer is a cube with a thermal head moving along the X and Y axes and positioned using a mechanism called H-bot and a desktop moving along the Z axis. My printer uses the form of an extruder - Bowden-extruder. The frame of the printer is assembled from an aluminum profile of square section 25x25. As guides, polished cylindrical shafts with a diameter of 8 mm and linear bearings LM8UU are used. As a thermal head, the e3D v6 model is used. Electronics remained the same: Arduino Mega 2560 + Ramps v1.4 + 4 drivers A4988 + 400 W power supply and Smart Controller printer stand-alone board. The firmware also remained the same - Marlin, but slightly configured for a specific printer.
I planned to finish the printer by the beginning of the school year, but by the end of the summer I only had a designed printer, and it still had to be translated into something tangible. Studying at school began, and my free time was almost gone, however, by early October, the printer was almost finished. I tried to run it, and ... crash! The extruder did not want to work in any way, but after 3 hours I had to go to St. Petersburg! The trip took two weeks, but after returning, I still figured out the problem. It consisted of an improperly manufactured thermal head of a thermal head. Because of this, the plastic bar is constantly stuck in it. A week of unsuccessful struggle with the problem did not bring results. Then it was decided not to save on an extruder and immediately buy the English original e3D v6 thermal head, with which, in fact, and copy Chinese manufacturers. The original costs almost 40 pounds, and this, in my opinion, is very expensive - in China you can find solutions that are much cheaper, but it will require a long search and constant testing until you find a high-quality and at the same time cheap option. In fairness, I note that for the entire time using the new thermal head there was not a single problem.
But the law of meanness worked here too: as soon as my order was sent, I managed to get the “old” extruder to work - albeit not perfect. I printed the case for the electronics, and the printer was outwardly finished, in this state it had to be shown on television. When in November a thermal head came from England (with marmalades in a box, as a bonus, and in general it should be noted that it was made extremely high quality and in good faith), I installed it (and again, as evil, I need less than a day fly to Yaroslavl) and everything went just fine! Having returned a week later, he began to pick up the settings and improve the quality, redid the cooling of the printed part a little, and as a result, by early December, the printer was completely ready.
And in this New Year period, it seems, endless control began, in the end I just managed to post a photo of the finished printer in my blog on the 3dtoday.ru portal.
At the end of my humble story, perhaps I will repeat the words that I said in the first article:
To implement my VolgoBot 0.1, I needed:
1. Desire and clear goal to get a convenient and reliable device;
2. Some amount of money (for my second printer I needed about 31 thousand rubles in total);
3. Good CAD and ability to work in it (I used the home version of KOMPAS 3D and student Autodesk Inventor);
4. Design time (it took me a month);
5. Time to assemble the printer itself (unfortunately, I can’t say for sure, since I studied at the school and was away);
6. Time to set up the printer itself (taking into account the experience gained when creating the first printer, it took me only 3 days).
I am not going to stop there, as I still have a lot of ideas that I want to implement, for example, to remake the Z-axis drive from screw to belt. It is very interesting what will come out, so I do not say goodbye! If there are objective comments and criticism, then I will be sincerely glad to listen and discuss. In the meantime, here is a short video about my project:
3D model VolgoBot 0.1
Light at the beginning of 3D printer -building road
Ready printer frame
Z-carriage
Just go!
Carriage X
Printed part for a new printer
X axis and carriage Y
After 3 hours I will go to
St. Petersburg Set up a print, we make a housing for electronics
In this form, and on TV you can!
Hurrah! A new thermal head has arrived!
Lenin again, but this time a classmate asked him to print. ABS plastic, nozzle 0.4, layer thickness 0.2
See you again! In the next post, just a few days later, I will show how it will be possible to print the cover of the book “Simple Science” on a 3D printer .Why this particular book? Because the guys from this company helped me get to Habr six months ago, and now to Giktayms.
Note author: I immediately answer a possible question: Misha Kozenko (@ kozenkomichael99) after innovations on Habr’s account does not allow writing materials, as well as on Giktayms. Therefore, as in August of last year, we publish the material in our blog, and in the comments to the discussion Misha himself will connect in the hope that someone will give him an invite (we, unfortunately, do not have a rating to provide him with such a presentation) .
Warm greetings to all from Volgograd! In August of last year, I already talked about how I assembled my first 3D printer, and how I came up with this idea. In short, I am constantly engaged in various kinds of projects and several years ago I realized that I just needed a 3D printer for further research and projects. After that, I began to study the appropriate materials for assembling a 3D printer at home. I realized that I can use some ready-made components, which is first logical to assemble a temporary structure, and then print the parts to a new, already “normal” printer using the resulting device. Actually, this is a typical transition from printers created according to the RepStrap concept to RepRap printers.
Participating in discussions on various portals and forums, I, unfortunately, faced with such a problem that many people do not know or know, but do not understand, what 3D printers, RepRap, RepStrap, RepRap 1.0 (Darwin) and RepRap 2.0 are (Mendel), let's figure these things out.
So what is a 3D printer? A 3D printer is a peripheral device that uses the method of layer-by-layer creation of a physical object using a digital 3D model. Moreover, very often the process of three-dimensional printing is called Rapid Prototyping, since 3D printers were originally created for this very purpose. There are several basic 3D printing technologies, you can read more about them in this article, but I’ll just say that I use FDM technology (fused deposition modeling) in my printer.
In 2005, Adrian Bower, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Bath in the UK, founded the RepRap project (Replicating Rapid Prototyper - a self-reproducing mechanism for rapid prototyping), which aimed to distribute 3D printing using self-reproducing devices. That is, you can ask a friend who has a RepRap device to play it to you. 3D printing was very helpful here. In early 2008, the first model of such a device appeared, which was called RepRap 1.0 (Darwin), it was a 3D printer capable of printing many plastic parts for its own design. In shape, it was a cube with a thermal head moving along the X and Y axes, and a desktop moving along the Z axis. In 2009, the second model RepRap 2.0 (Mendel) appeared it was already a prism with an extruder moving along the X and Z axes, and a desktop moving along the Y axis. Further from third-party enthusiastic developers, different printer models began to appear, which were mainly improvements to the first two devices. At the moment, the project has not made much progress in the field of printing of electrical components, as planned, but, nevertheless, it has greatly developed and advanced 3D printing in everyday life. Some of the major manufacturers of personal 3D printers now quit the RepRap project and took the path of commercialization. Many people, who did not have 3D printer owners in their friends, began to create devices for printing RepRap printers from improvised materials, and this approach was called RepStrap. Further from third-party enthusiast developers, different printer models began to appear, which were mainly improvements to the first two devices. At the moment, the project has not made much progress in the field of printing of electrical components, as planned, but, nevertheless, it has greatly developed and advanced 3D printing in everyday life. Some of the major manufacturers of personal 3D printers now quit the RepRap project and took the path of commercialization. Many people, who did not have 3D printer owners in their friends, began to create devices for printing RepRap printers from improvised materials, and this approach was called RepStrap. Further from third-party enthusiast developers, different printer models began to appear, which were mainly improvements to the first two devices. At the moment, the project has not made much progress in the field of printing of electrical components, as planned, but, nevertheless, it has greatly developed and advanced 3D printing in everyday life. Some of the major manufacturers of personal 3D printers now quit the RepRap project and took the path of commercialization. Many people, who did not have 3D printer owners in their friends, began to create devices for printing RepRap printers from improvised materials, and this approach was called RepStrap. as planned, but, nevertheless, he greatly developed and promoted 3D printing in everyday life. Some of the major manufacturers of personal 3D printers now quit the RepRap project and took the path of commercialization. Many people, who did not have 3D printer owners in their friends, began to create devices for printing RepRap printers from improvised materials, and this approach was called RepStrap. as planned, but, nevertheless, he greatly developed and promoted 3D printing in everyday life. Some of the major manufacturers of personal 3D printers now quit the RepRap project and took the path of commercialization. Many people, who did not have 3D printer owners in their friends, began to create devices for printing RepRap printers from improvised materials, and this approach was called RepStrap.
RepRap 1.0 (Darwin)
RepRap 2.0 (Mendel)
Now back to my project. After I finished my first printer in early August, I immediately started working on a second printer, VolgoBot 0.1. I designed it in such a way that, if necessary, it will be possible to redo and modify its design without much difficulty. The layout remained almost the same as the first: the printer is a cube with a thermal head moving along the X and Y axes and positioned using a mechanism called H-bot and a desktop moving along the Z axis. My printer uses the form of an extruder - Bowden-extruder. The frame of the printer is assembled from an aluminum profile of square section 25x25. As guides, polished cylindrical shafts with a diameter of 8 mm and linear bearings LM8UU are used. As a thermal head, the e3D v6 model is used. Electronics remained the same: Arduino Mega 2560 + Ramps v1.4 + 4 drivers A4988 + 400 W power supply and Smart Controller printer stand-alone board. The firmware also remained the same - Marlin, but slightly configured for a specific printer.
I planned to finish the printer by the beginning of the school year, but by the end of the summer I only had a designed printer, and it still had to be translated into something tangible. Studying at school began, and my free time was almost gone, however, by early October, the printer was almost finished. I tried to run it, and ... crash! The extruder did not want to work in any way, but after 3 hours I had to go to St. Petersburg! The trip took two weeks, but after returning, I still figured out the problem. It consisted of an improperly manufactured thermal head of a thermal head. Because of this, the plastic bar is constantly stuck in it. A week of unsuccessful struggle with the problem did not bring results. Then it was decided not to save on an extruder and immediately buy the English original e3D v6 thermal head, with which, in fact, and copy Chinese manufacturers. The original costs almost 40 pounds, and this, in my opinion, is very expensive - in China you can find solutions that are much cheaper, but it will require a long search and constant testing until you find a high-quality and at the same time cheap option. In fairness, I note that for the entire time using the new thermal head there was not a single problem.
But the law of meanness worked here too: as soon as my order was sent, I managed to get the “old” extruder to work - albeit not perfect. I printed the case for the electronics, and the printer was outwardly finished, in this state it had to be shown on television. When in November a thermal head came from England (with marmalades in a box, as a bonus, and in general it should be noted that it was made extremely high quality and in good faith), I installed it (and again, as evil, I need less than a day fly to Yaroslavl) and everything went just fine! Having returned a week later, he began to pick up the settings and improve the quality, redid the cooling of the printed part a little, and as a result, by early December, the printer was completely ready.
And in this New Year period, it seems, endless control began, in the end I just managed to post a photo of the finished printer in my blog on the 3dtoday.ru portal.
At the end of my humble story, perhaps I will repeat the words that I said in the first article:
“My story is rather not a story about some school genius who invented a bicycle, but simply proof that if there is a desire and a little money, everyone can assemble a 3D printer!”
To implement my VolgoBot 0.1, I needed:
1. Desire and clear goal to get a convenient and reliable device;
2. Some amount of money (for my second printer I needed about 31 thousand rubles in total);
3. Good CAD and ability to work in it (I used the home version of KOMPAS 3D and student Autodesk Inventor);
4. Design time (it took me a month);
5. Time to assemble the printer itself (unfortunately, I can’t say for sure, since I studied at the school and was away);
6. Time to set up the printer itself (taking into account the experience gained when creating the first printer, it took me only 3 days).
I am not going to stop there, as I still have a lot of ideas that I want to implement, for example, to remake the Z-axis drive from screw to belt. It is very interesting what will come out, so I do not say goodbye! If there are objective comments and criticism, then I will be sincerely glad to listen and discuss. In the meantime, here is a short video about my project:
And here is a small photo report on the work done:
3D model VolgoBot 0.1
Light at the beginning of 3D printer -building road
Ready printer frame
Z-carriage
Just go!
Carriage X
Printed part for a new printer
X axis and carriage Y
After 3 hours I will go to
St. Petersburg Set up a print, we make a housing for electronics
In this form, and on TV you can!
Hurrah! A new thermal head has arrived!
Lenin again, but this time a classmate asked him to print. ABS plastic, nozzle 0.4, layer thickness 0.2
See you again! In the next post, just a few days later, I will show how it will be possible to print the cover of the book “Simple Science” on a 3D printer .Why this particular book? Because the guys from this company helped me get to Habr six months ago, and now to Giktayms.
Note author: I immediately answer a possible question: Misha Kozenko (@ kozenkomichael99) after innovations on Habr’s account does not allow writing materials, as well as on Giktayms. Therefore, as in August of last year, we publish the material in our blog, and in the comments to the discussion Misha himself will connect in the hope that someone will give him an invite (we, unfortunately, do not have a rating to provide him with such a presentation) .