A project that I've wanted to do for a while was build my own 3D printer. This basically started out almost 2 years ago before I left for school. However, I didn't get really far with it and also the design was horrendous. So, while I'm on co-op, I figured it'd be a good time to take another crack at it and actually spend some hard time coming up with a solid design and build plan. Core XY printers for some reason have an appealing persona about them so that is the base design I chose to replicate.
I mentioned that I attempted a printer build before so naturally I have some useful components left over from that, particularly the frame. There were already pre-cut 10 series 80/20 pieces that I made which became the starting point for this new design. This printer is designed to be as small and compact as possible. I don't really enjoy the wasted space most other Core XY printers have. (Side note: The desire to not waste space has had me thinking about some sort of fold-able printer design that could fit it a briefcase or such. Maybe a project for another time.) Another major design feature was making the print head/carriage as light as possible to increase print speed and minimize the momentum of carriage. I suspect things will change as this goes along but I have everything ordered for version one of this. So far, I have the entire printer modeled in CAD and some of the pieces have been printed out. I've come to find that I enjoy building machines and tools more than I probably enjoy building things with the machines and tools I build...
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