Pärnumaa Vocational Educational Centre DIY 3D printer
In this page you will find Pärnumaa Vocational Educational Centre DIY 3D printer.
When we were designing our printer, we use our know-how and experiences from Turkey, where teachers who carry out project work, assembled their version of the homemade 3D printer. Our base and most of technical drawings are found in "DIY 3D printer" page and in its submenus.
Like always, when a lot of engineering masterminds are together, we made some improvements (at least we hope 🙂 ).
All the minor observations and modifications are described below. Also all the drawings in CAD are included. Maybe you will find some of them useful or find inspiration to change your design.
Preparation
All our team members agreed, that this is one of the most important part of selfmade 3D printer. You have to make parts list (found in "DIY 3D printer" ), order things, arrange assembling work and parts manufacturing. Also you need someone who will keep you in track with timetable and overall progress.
We divided the work assignments as follows:
- "the boss" - project leader. Responsible for all the deadlines and progress.
- "supplier" - responsible for parts list, ordering them, gathering accounts and bookkeeping.
- "brigade commander" - responsible teacher who together with the students will assemble 3D printer, makes adjustments and prints out parts.
- "worker" - students, who with teacher will do all the assembling work and drawings etc... They are really the ones, who will get greatest benefit from the project!
Ordering the parts
At the end of the project, we can say that it was the most difficult part.
After 2020 many world-changing events took place. All the Covid 19 and problems related to it made ordering of parts difficult for us . Addition to it, latest war in Ukraine created new problems with parts and their ordering.
Sigma 30x30 profile
MiniTec 30x30 profile
We used local vendors and 3D printer parts suppliers. But if you are homeuser and know exactly what you wish you can use ebay shop or something similar like allegro.pl (Polish version of ebay). When ordering in there, please be careful about the quality and descriptions!
One big change compared to Turkish printer was, that instead of Sigma 30x30 al. profile we used MiniTec 30x30 profile. All the basic measurments were the same, but some radiuses and lengths were different. That means we had to make little corrections of some CAD drawings.
Another big change was made, when we get our heatbed and other parts. We ordered 220 x 220 mm heatbed but eventually we got 300 x 300. The bigger the better they say 🙂. The changes that were necessary after that discovery are described below.
Assembling and first prints
Here we go! At first we assembled 3D printer frame. As mentioned above, we used MiniTec Al. profile. When we purchased them, there were two options- matte aluminium and anodized black. Prices were almost the same so of course we chose fancy and awesome black!
Then we started to manufacture our own 3D printed parts. First prints were frame legs and al. profile end caps. We chose bright green, because its our school logo color and also its aesthetically nice when its combined with black and aluminium silver. (yes, most of our arguments were about design and appearance🙂 )
"Lego" - cutting to correct lenght done by our school metal students. (we bought 1m rods)
Downloadable files:
endcap.stp
endcap.obj
First real self-designed parts and printouts
Our printer Z axis support mounts had quite big transformation. We used the same idea as described in DIY 3D Printer page, but made changes that were derived from our bigger heatbed (we got 30 x30 cm).
So we made our Z axis carriages little bit wider. We also used 20 x 20 x 1 mm al. tube from our local construction store to make heatbed and Z axis support connections.
Important!
When we installed linear bearings and guide rails to Z axis carriage, we printed them out in real life measurments (3D printing always makes little bit smaller openings).
Z axis carriage needed some post-processing, when we installed bearings mentioned above. For that we used drill and file and little bit persuasion. In that way we got very little tolerances and almost no slack/play in any of the bushings or quide rails.
When we were printing out our parts, we used 4 layer wall thickness, 25% infill and top/bottom layers were also thicker. In that way we ensured enough post-processing distances and also overall structure become stronger.
Vise use for pressing. Notice napkin- not to make vise grip marks!
Z axis and heatbed support rails.
Be careful! parts are made from plastic- use little force and common sense!
Downloadable files:
Z_carriage.stp
Z_carriage.obj
Stepper motor mounts
Next we produced stepper motor mounts. They had to be modified also, because our printing area had become larger.
We put motor on top of the carriage and made mounting places on alum. rail little bit thicker (stronger is always better)
Again we used thicker walls and infill to make a strong and durable part.
For project team this part was most fascinating- first time we could see our design outcome and everybody was exited that it is all coming together or... Well it did 🙂
Downloadable files:
Z_motor.stp
Z_motor.obj
Back and bottom plates
Our school also has metalworkers curricula so we used them- they made us aluminium back- and bottom plates.
Besides attractive and beautiful looks they also improved some 3D printing qualities.
Benefits:
- little bit closed printing area - eliminates wind drafts and temp. changes
- closed area - keeps temp. same all printing time (eliminates warps and defects)
- aluminium sheets - beside they look cool, they also absorb heat and make temp. changes not so rapid.
- suitable - 5mm al. sheets fit in grooves of our selected al. profile perfectly. No extra attachments are needed.
Aluminium back- and bottom plate sheets fit right into profile grooves (and yes, they polished out all the fingerprints 🙂 )
Our school name and logo, printed out in 3D printer.
When 3D, then 3D- all the signs and extras also!
Heatbed levelling and mirror
Next we manufactured heatbed levelling screws and attached mirror glass for heatbed.
Glass costs about 20 EUR in our local glassshop, but it looks very good :)
We used 6 levelling screws instead of 4. In that way we got mode adjusting properties.
For lever adjuster springs, we used ebay springs for that.
Because we used thicker rails (20x20x1mm) we had to use linger polts. They don't make M3 polts anymore, so we used M4 polts. Thatś why we made out our own adjuster screws, to accomodate them to M4 nuts.
That was real life example, how in big machines everything is connected and everything must be considered when making some changes.
Downloadable files:
PKHK_logo.obj
Downloadable turning screw file.
Filament holder + filament sensor
We relocated our filament holder to the side. Then it is more accessible to change filament.
We added filament sensor to our kit. Thatswhy We added it just before extruder. It adds more failsafe features, if printer is printing.
Filament sensor bracket.
Display cover and wire covering and clamping
Next we gave our 3D printer some aesthetic look- hide as much wires as possible.
For that we designed "wire clamps" with which all wires were hidden inside Aluminium profile frame.
Downloadable files:
Wireclmap.obj
Almost ready...
Our printer is almost ready. We have done first prints and it just needs a little adjusting and programming.
All levelling was fine at first - that shows that our tolerances when assembling were very little.
We had to do little more programming, to make menus more custom and intuitive to use.
317735934_9148257985199704_140086051276576409_n.mp4Our school team overall summary of project and assembling 3D printer
- lot of experience
- fundamental knowledge of 3D printers
- teamwork, dividing of different tasks
- many people - many ideas
- synergy - all members complemented each other
- improved CAD drawing skills
- MANY new ideas and methods of co-working
- parts supply - result for corona virus and Ukrainian war
- many people - many ideas. It is advantage and disadvantage at the same time
- time - seems a lot but the deadline is quick to arrive
- not enough time to do real work - mind wants to do always something new in 3D printing 🙂
Will we make a new one? .... of cource we will 😊. We have ideas for many new printers!
We also have Polish team 3 colour printer drawings and so on...
We are just in the beginning .....