This is my second 3D printer design.
I took most of the parts from the first printer like stepper motors, hiwin linear rails, hotend, extruders, Z-height sensor and the printerboard. For the second iteration I started from scratch and designed the printer to use Core XY mechanics and the full range of the linear rails that I had. The main reason I felt like it needed to start from scratch was because in the first iteration the Y axis assembly was too heavy and resulted in some inertia problems. I also was fascinated about the core XY kinematics at the time, so it was a great challenge to design that movement system.
The design was made in Inventor 2018 cad software.
After that I ordered the required parts for the build. The frame was built by using a 30 X 30 aluminum profile. Some parts I made at work from sheet metal cut them with fiber laser and some parts I 3D printed.
After I got all the parts, I could start the assembly process. The assembly was quite straightforward and took me a couple of days to finish. The print area of the printer is 285x295x295 mm.
The print surface was cut from 6mm aluminum plate.
I designed a quick release system for the hotend assembly, at the time I thought I would be taking it apart more often, but actually haven’t had the need for it. After the initial build I needed to change some things a little bit. Like originally I had Z axis rails and motors in the corners, but that system acted like a lever and caused some problems so I moved them together in the center and it was much better.
The original brains of the printer was RAMBo v1.3.board, an all in one 3D printer motherboard. It is a full remix of RAMPS design with the Arduino MEGA and stepper drivers all on one integrated PCB. The board ran Marlin Firmware that was configured for the printer.
Another nice thing that I added from the previous version was a bed leveling sensor. This helps by measuring the printing surface and adjusting the z-height accordingly. I used two separate power supplies, one for the heated bed which is a Silicone Heater Bed 12V 300 X 300MM 270W and second for the rest of the system.
Overall I really enjoyed the design and build process.
After I rebuilt the Creatr 3D printer I tested out a new printer board Duet 2 WIFI and liked it so much that I changed it on this printer as well.
Duet 2 Wifi has a Powerful 32 Bit Processor and nice web interface so i can control the printer over wifi in the local network. The board also has Super quiet TMC2660 stepper drivers and those made the printer much quieter.
Another upgrade was that I added a Solid State Relay for the bed heater purely for safety reasons.
This 3D printer has been working for four solid years and has been paid for itself.