Technical progress in the open-source self replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap) community has enabled a distributed form of additive manufacturing to expand rapidly using polymer-based materials. However, the lack of an open-source metal alternative and the high capital costs and slow throughput of proprietary commercialized metal 3-D printers has severely restricted their deployment. The applications of commercialized metal 3-D printers are limited to only rapid prototyping and expensive finished products. This severely restricts the access of the technology for small and medium enterprises, the developing world and for use in laboratories. This paper reports on the development of a <$2000 open-source metal 3-D printer. The metal 3-D printer is controlled with an open-source micro-controller and is a combination of a low-cost commercial gas-metal arc welder and a derivative of the Rostock, a deltabot RepRap. The bill of materials, electrical and mechanical design schematics, and basic construction and operating procedures are provided. A preliminary technical analysis of the properties of the 3-D printer and the resultant steel products are performed. The results of printing customized functional metal parts are discussed and conclusions are drawn about the potential for the technology and the future work necessary for the mass distribution of this technology.
Hydro: The First Low Cost Waterjet
Senior Design Project -- University of Pennsylvania (2012)
Adam Libert - www.AdamLibert.com
Objective:
My team of five decided to create the first ever, small-scale, low-cost, and easy-to-use waterjet cutter, finally making this great technology available to hobbyists and small businesses on a budget.
Project Details:
I was the lead mechanical designer on this project and custom designed a fully waterproof and environmentally sealed XY gantry that would be able to withstand the water and abrasive from the waterjet. The waterjet has a cutting work space of 12"x14" and yet the machine is entirely self-contained to a footprint of only 2 feet by 2 feet, meaning that it can be easily rolled through a doorway and fit in the corner of any room. As well, it requires only a typical electrical outlet and shop air supply to run, making it a feasible option for universities, hobbyists, and small businesses with a budget of $5000 or less. The waterjet is low maintenance, requires only minimal training to run, and is able to cut through 1/4" aluminum and 1/8" steel to a tolerance of 0.005".
Results:
This project won the Mechanical Engineering Senior Design competition, and each of us on the team was presented with the Gemmill Award for Outstanding Creativity.
Just before Thanksgiving 2013, Not Impossible's Mick Ebeling returned home from Sudan's Nuba Mountains where he set up what is probably the world's first 3D-printing prosthetic lab and training facility. More to the point of the journey is that Mick managed to give hope and independence back to a kid who, at age 14, had both his arms blown off and considered his life not worth living.Low cost easy to deploy technology that empowers and helps people directly. Strong STRONG example of impact of DIY 3d printing.
Rather than mechanical endstops the RappiDelta Jr. utilises slotted optical sensors which prove more repeatable homing and ultimately better prints. One of my stretch goals is to be able to offer auto bed leveling to further enhance the functionality and ease of use.This delta projects wants to deliver cheap simple printer, with few easily assembled printable frame parts.
The remainder of the mechanical parts can be assembled quickly and easily with a couple of hex keys.
Once assembled the printer can print on a 17cm diameter circle and up to 17cm tall. These dimensions have been chosen based on my experience of what is actually reasonable to print as well as being based on a similar size to other entry level printers. In future you can increase the build volume by using longer uprights, and if required longer delta arms. The basic model has no bed heater and as such is limited to printing PLA (this is actually my preferred plastic!) but other options are available to allow the printing of ABS and other plastics that need bed heating. There is also an option to have an SD Card reader and LCD control panel to allow printing without a PC, something that I have found invaluable when developing my prints as it allows on the fly adjustments.
Assembled Modified Wildseyed Simple Hot End for 3mm filament. The original Wildseyed Simple Hot End is easy to make with relatively easy to obtain and machine parts (although Teflon rod is not so simple to obtain on the east coast). We use nichrome wire for heating instead of the heat sink and resistor in the original hot end, as it is much more compact. We insulate the wire with furnace cement, and bake it to cure it. You will need to drill two 1/8” holes to secure the hot end to the oak mount. The oak mount is our contribution to the Wildseyed Simple. It isn’t in any danger of ignition as it does not touch the metal of the hot end; the wood serves as a simple mechanical link between the Teflon rod at the top of the hot end and the cold end of the extruder. The hot end comes with short lengths of Teflon wire attached, which can be connected to your wiring harness with ordinary wire.
The goal is to create and mass produce large scale 3D printers in a sort-of self replicating fashion. I am working on completing the 16" prototype which will be capable of printing enormous objects up to 16"x16"x32"(see below).
I want to keep these printers affordable because I feel they need to be in the hands of creators and people who would use them to innovative.
Unfortunately 3d printers of this size cost around $1200 so I want to do better. I want to make and produce these printers for under $800 and make it so that they are both easy to use and affordable. I have been working with 3d Printers for about 2 years now and it has consumed all of my time. I am constantly tweaking or coming up with a new way of doing something with 3D printing.
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| Zion16 schematics |
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| Bigger Zion16 3d printer with 32" hight |
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| Yoda printed on Zion16 |
The MOST Delta printer is RepRap derived from the Rostock printer with the following design goals:The design utilizes plywood linking boards cut to a length that yields a desired printer radius when attached to the printed apexes. This simplifies assembly while helping to assure that printer dimensions are fixed, stable and reasonably well known. It also improves flexibility as the print area in the x-y plane can be changed simply by replacing the boards with boards of a different length. The delta design is inherently simpler to assemble as compared to virtually all it's Cartesian counterparts; this design can easily be built within a day by one person having properly prepared parts.
- Simple build process
- Safe to operate
- True to RepRap
- Maximize value
- Maximize rigidity
- Aesthetically pleasing (or at least neutral)
- All PLA printed parts
- Excellent print performance
The design uses a 12v 5A power brick instead of the popular 12v power supplies having mains connections relatively exposed, a relative safety issue, particularly when children are present. The power supply is roughly equivalent to those found with many inkjet printers.
As many printed parts are used in the design as are practical, including printed pulleys. This in large part drove the decision to use open T5 timing belts for the drive, which also makes the design more flexible as the length of the guide rods doesn't need to be based upon the length of an off-the-shelf continuous belt.
Cost considerations drove decisions regarding everything from printer capabilities (as shown, prints PLA only) to guide rod material and length (two six foot lengths of 8mm drill steel are required, producing no waste). A Melzi controller is used as it provides all the necessary features as well as SD card support and reasonable expansion options. The power supply is a fraction of the cost of that required for powering a heated bed.
Printed apexes are very robust, probably overkill, and along with the plywood components and ample fasteners produce a very rigid structure. The printer has proven to transport very well (and can even be seat belted) with no adjustment needed prior to printing at its destination.
The end effector is actively cooled allowing for a unitized effector/hot end mount printed in PLA. The hot end is recessed within the end effector, maximizing z-axis travel and also providing for some print cooling.
Printing performance has been very good as has been the experience of printing with this design. Much less user intervention has been required as compared to experience with Cartesian RepRaps.
Printer capabilities/statistics
- Print media: PLA only (heated bed can be added, expanding media options)
- Filament diameter: 1.75mm
- Nozzle diameter: 0.5mm (can be changed)
- Print volume: ~250mm radius (with 240mm long linking boards) 270mm high
- Melzi print controller w/ integrated SD card reader
- Airtripper's Bowden Extruder
Appropedia is the site for collaborative solutions in sustainability, poverty reduction and international development through the use of sound principles and appropriate technology and the sharing of wisdom and project information.
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| Objects printed with think&have 3d printer |
This is a new design of a reprap 3d printer. It is in the spirit of the printrbot simple , designed by Brook Drumm , one of our best designer in my opinion. I tried to make it even simpler (let's start a chalenge with Brook? :) This one is made with printed parts only so it's easy reproducible. It's also full GPL , meaning open to any business.
The goal for the Smartrap is to have the feeling of a lego assembly feasible by a 12 years old kid without complication.The Education part is very important and by building himself, the user should learn how every part is working in the all system, so he would be able to find problems and repair himself easily. In other word, the Smartrap tries to reach makers who are not real gurus like we have actually in the reprap world ( not negative meaning here, but only to help to spread the world and attire more people to this wonderful world of replicative-dIY-makers).
Other features in any order of importance are:
- Real Reprap : most of the structure should be printed, so it can print itself for friends. Only the common base should be bought on special shops ( motors,hotend,controller,lm8uu,endstops).
- Simple to build : I mean it! . No need for special tooling or ultra precision cut or drill or even adjustment. The final goal would be: no screw and everything come together by snap (almost).
- Open source! : GPL, you can build it, sell it, make a business of it. all that is ok if you stay under the GPL licence .
- Cheap as possible : fishing line, printed bushing?( not well working for me now) , cheapest electronics ( no heat bed, 4 motors, no fan).
- Optionally open to experimentation : I tried so much configurations before that i should put them all online one day : Aluminium rails with 608zz, fixed axis with moving hotend, moving axis with fixed hotend..etc .
Features
- Print size : from 150x150x150 to around 250x250x200. The first prototype is 200x200x150.
- PLA only : It's a political decision: Even if ABS gives better results , i really don't like the fumes and the ecological impact. PLA , beeing compostable and asking for only 60 watts alime, is far more interesting to me. ( open to talk of course :)
- Layer height : not really tested for now, looks like 0.2 works well.
- Printed parts: 10.
- Screws : M6 x2 , M3 x 16.
- Non Printed parts : 6 smooth rods 8mm , 12 lm8uu, 1 M5 , 2 fishing lines 500mm , 4 nema17 motors, 1 hot-end j-head, 1 controler board , 3 mechanical endstops.
- Assembly operations count : not much but not totally clear for now. I wait to assemble 2 or 3 more printers to make a good doc and video of asssembly
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| Alu frame Adapto printer |
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| Wooden frame Adapto 3d printer |
200x240x280mm print volume!!
To download the parts see GitHub: http://bit.ly/11VXWYF Contains parts for both 8mm and 10mm smooth rods + +
For some build guidees see RepRap Wiki: http://bit.ly/12dyT3b
This V1.0 have a lot of updated parts for the Adapto V 0.1.1
The thought behind the Adapto 3D printer is that one can use the same printed parts on printers with different types of materials(in the frame).
The history behind this design is that i got hold of some alu extrusions that was intended to be used on a MendelMax
During the MM build i got so extremely annoyed with how over engineered it is and the blind joints so I decided to tear the MM apart in favor to make a design that only used 50% of the MM extrusions(that means i now have enough extrusions for 2 printers :D ).
I also designed the parts in a way that makes the builder able to use either Alu extrusions (20x20mm), wood, alu, acryl plates or plates made out of any material actually(if it is stiff enough).
I recommend not using anything thicker than 20mm thick plates/stripes(due to the y motor mount and y idler parts) and use max 34mm wide frame parts(due to the design of the feet`s), but thinner is ok if the material is stiff enough.
If you decide to build one, please feel free to add a pin on the Adapto Map
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=205564004670126753599.0004c999938430cb1f611&msa=0&ll=67.339861
First child of Jelwek company, designed by M. Brodowski. This printer has H-Bot kinematics and it is directed to people who knows something about RepRap but also for the ones who had never worked with 3D printers before. Uncomplicated, simple construction build with two sheets of aluminium connected by threaded rods. That construction guarantees high stiffness and precision.
The printer is very compact. It's external dimensions are: 250 x 250 x 265mm and it's got 140 x 155 x 105mm working area. The electronics got preloaded Marlin
Low cost filament extruder made from 10 mm ID stainless steel tube, silver soldered inside an ordinary plumber 15 mm copper tube (melt zone) Auger is a 10 mm wood drill bit with the end cut off 5-10 mm in the melt zone. 1 mm hole in a brass endstop at the end of the copper pipe. Aluminium block with a 15 mm hole to fit around the copper pipe. Fixed to the outside of the aluminium two 220 volt 200 degree PTC heaters( I tried 12 volt 230 degrees but the temperature was to high) Insulated with glass fibre cloth. The ptc heaters are available on aliexpress for $1 each)
System driven with a car windscreen motor at the low speed (I have a 2 speed motor - salvaged from scrap yard)
I use the white plastic that is in the inside of the doors of scrap refrigerators. Cut it up with a circular saw and extrude that to a filament of 1.75 mm
I use this filament in my Delta printer on a daily basis.
The trick to have a nice filament is to let the filament run over a copper pipe that is suspended in front of the extruder and let natures G force take over. I fix a weight(clothes-peg) at the end of the filament as it comes out of the hole untill it reaches the floor and then move the end of the filament to the outside of a circle approximately 1 meter away.From then on the G force will take over and produce a nice circular movement of the filament to roll it on the floor .
The slightest air movement or other external force that you apply to the extruded filament will result in a kink in the filament - no fans required.
No fancy electronics involved.
Material cost to should be less than $100
This extruder was only tested with the white refrigerator plastic ( I think it is ABS because it will desolve in acetone ) - no ABS pellets or any other plastic tested.
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