Sli3DR 3D Printer design files up on Youmagine

Hello everyone,

Just a quick update to say the design files, source files and other info are now (finally) up on Youmagine (and GitHub) - Yay!

Yet another 'FreeD' RepRap Printer for you to play with :)

Sli3DR, originally discussed here, (wow! was that really back in July,  sorry for the delay, time is going fast) - files are now posted up on Youmagine Here

Do also take a look at the images on Youmagine to see how to build one, most of the fittings are M3 and M4.

You will need some 20mm Alu extrusions - (sizes on Youmagine) and some M4 V groove bearings (eBay)

I have added Repetier Firmware for it up on my GitHub here

It's also as a RAR archive on the Sli3DR Youmagine page 

Firmware is setup and running for RAMPS 1.4

You can configure Repetier Firmware for other Hardware using the fancy online tool here - Load the Config.json file.

This time, I didn't do a Marlin release for it, if you make one, let me know or just share it.

 I hope you build one, the print results I have had from it are outstanding.

0.2mm Layers - Really great Z -layer registration - finally as good as my Delta's - 
My quest for the perfect Cartesian Z axis is complete... for now.

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Sli3DR_MAR2014_REV3_012_Final_machine_build.

License, project and contact info -

This Design is part of the RichRap Sli3DR 3D Printer (A RepRap project)

Thank you for downloading, please be aware and abide by the license all these files.

The RichRap Sli3DR 3D Printer uses an Attribution - ShareAlike Creative Commons V3 (CC BY-SA 3.0) - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

This License is not greatly restrictive at all, so please don't forget to attribute my work and acknowledge.

If you decide to print and sell these or make further changes, improvements or additions, that's great! I want you to do that !

I hope this work has been of some use to you, if you wish to say hello or donate towards further developments please see my Blog here - www.richrap.blogspot.com

Many thanks - Richard Horne (RichRap)

Please feel free to contact me.

My website - www.richrap.com
Catch me on Twitter @RichRap3D
Watch me on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/RichRap2011
Google+ https://plus.google.com/+RichardHorne_RichRap3D/about

Please see www.reprap.org for information about the RepRap Project.
Please visit the RepRap forum - http://forums.reprap.org/

These files were originally shared on  -  https://www.youmagine.com/          

Please support this growing and open community.


Sli3DR What? - Reminder what Sli3DR is -

Sli3DR - (pronounced Slider)
Sli3DR is not a Delta based printer, rather it's based on an intriguing 'unnamed mechanism' that was floating around on the RepRap Forum and G+ last year. Billy ZelsnackIdentified it as used in a very old (Rikadenki) Pen Plotter design here.  A few people have tried it out for 3D printing using off the shelf mechanical parts, I wanted to make it with 3D printed parts and Spectra Line based on this mechanism. 

Edit - This bit's updated for correct back credit of bringing the mechanism to the attention of the RepRap and 3D printing community - David Moorhouse over on G+ showed a cable bot design 1st November 2013, see here -https://plus.google.com/104904818050178236499/posts/WpzzVuULM2z

David's original video sparked great discussion over the mechanism, Tim Rastall Made a great sketch of the 'unnamed mechanism' - still unnamed as far as I know. 

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-753_E-QeVmo/UlYKlAfRqGI/AAAAAAAAIEg/Ki-oSosqbEU/w471-h514-no/Unna...

Find out more about David's build over here - http://astro.smugmug.com/Hobbies/3D-Printer-Cablebot/

It just needs a door and it's complete.

Spectra Line - Fantastic stuff.

All the essential 3D printed parts

Designed for an E3D V5/6 hot-end

Hopefully the 3D model of the entire machine in Sketchup will help you understand it, if you decide to build one questions are best asked over on the Youmagine Sli3DR comments page here

Happy Building, and as always let me know if you build one... or thousands.


And a quick grumble about backing up files - I had a hard drive crash last night, and like all disasters with computers it wasted a lot of time trying to restore things. I'm not yet sure how much was lost, most was backed up, but the last 3 months - not so much. I do already know I lost half of the 3DRnano V2 design I was working on a few months back. That caused much swearing and grumpy kicking of things.

Instead of getting too annoyed, I managed to finally release Sli3DR, so at least that's made me happy again. - If you do nothing else tonight, back up your projects to a memory stick, or on-line.

I will be releasing 3DRmega next, (as soon as possible) stay tuned.

Back soon.

Cheers,

Rich

Half a Ball of Stars - Support structures #30DoC day 6

For Day 6 of  30 days of creativity ( #30DoC ) I'm having a rest from designing things, but I wanted to give my printer a challenging print while I worked.


A few weeks ago I did a quick test print of the Ball of Stars Created by @Dizingof
I used basic support structure and low-grade PLA just to test it out.

I have been meaning to print another one, much bigger and with full support structure. Today I set it off to print while I worked. It would have been a 17+ hour print, but 9 hours into it, at about half way it shifted on the Y axis, probably due to the head catching on the massive structure with the rather high acceleration settings I use on MendelMax.

Some of the support removed.

You can see that about 40% into the build the Y axis shifted, so when I came home I stopped the print.

Before removing support - This is what it looked like after 9 hours of printing (the half a ball of stars is inside there somewhere!)

This was my first test print a few weeks back, I didn't clean all the support structure off, and it had some unsupported areas, this was sliced with Skeinforge V46 using external support structure at >60 degrees overhang giving me some sections that sagged when they printed in free space.

For the new print today, I made it 150mm wide and enabled support everywhere, as you can see from the above Visual Gcode (Repetier Host) it was a real monster! Skeinforge had to slice for almost 2 hours to output the Gcode for it.

In hindsight a little too ambitious and I should have slowed down the travel moves and enabled Z Lift (Hop) I think it would have printed OK if I had done that.

Doing the same model in Slic3r with support enabled only gives a support column in the centre of the model, so I could not use Slic3r for this print unfortunately, a real shame as it slices in just 8 mins.

It is fun watching these things print.

And it used a fair bit of PLA.

Removal of the support structure is quite easy, but takes a little time.

It needs a little more support removed, but I'm quite happy with how it came out, and it would have looked really good as a complete model and not for the Y Axis Shift.

My proposed new settings for a future print attempt -

I have sliced it again and this time enabled Z lift (Hop) and used Exterior Only support with a 45 Degree minimum support angle, this should give me some support on almost everything, but not cover the entire model.
These are my support settings shown above, if anyone can give any advice to improve these, do get in touch or leave a comment, I hardly ever use support, so could do with any pointers you have.

It still looks like a lot of material, but compare the Gcode image below with the failed print above -

Fingers crossed, it should print well next time, and have a lot less support material to remove.

I'll give it another try soon and give an update.

Thanks for reading,

Cheers,

Rich.