Saturday, August 29, 2015

MK-X Beta Stage V.1


Man I learned a ton of openSCAD, boy did it take long, but it's proving to be extremely useful too. Many things are turning out as I had hoped.
Here are a few updates below! 





First up, is a Cherry Pi IIIS 2nd derivative spring carriage: 
         I hate zip ties for anything other than tidying up wires for aesthetic reasons. This carriage is going to have an optional cover plate, but that's excess and will come later. I also always had trouble tightening up my belts on my Kossel and wanted a simple belt tension system where I didn't have to hold a belt extremely taut and then quickly ziptie it. This is what I'm working towards.No loops here, The belt goes through the top belt gripper, and there is a screw that travels left to right tightening the belt even further. There is almost an identical piece to the top belt gripper (not pictured), forgot it somewhere. This bottom piece has a peg that fits , snug into the slot so that it does not rotate in the XY plane (perspective looking down directly on the Z-axis from picture's pov), but can travel in the Y direction. The bottom belt also mounts in the same manner as the top. A fairly long M3 screw enters from above and goes through the bottom belt gripper into a nut insert. This way, you can easily turn the m3 screw and tighten or loosen the belt as you see fit.


Spring Effector Kraken Effector mount Alpha prototype
This one has a few kinks to work out, this is an old design, and has been edited since then. The auto-tool changer stuff is going so far back its not even on a back burner, its off in a corner cooling. Till then, Just a screw mounted hotend style. This raises the Kraken so that the block itself is flush with the bottom of the effector plate. I have V6 heater blocks which don't fit in the same manner as the V5 heater blocks so they are positioned at different angles. There are slots on either side that allow for the wiring to pass through. The effector was designed to raise the Kraken up for 2 reasons, to gain back 20mm of printing height, as well as bringing the bowden tubes higher up. I am running quad  dual-hobbed pulley extruders in a float configuration above the hotend which is pretty wide. This allows me to shorten the bowden tube as the arms widen up further up the rod allowing for clearance of the extruder setup.

MKX Crossmount
This is a 20mm tall cross mount, designed so you can stack multiple to strengthen if you want to. I only have a profile view of it, but its not flush to the extrusion. It is brought out 15mm because many people use build plates that extend past the plates and it gives me clearance so that the effector doesn't hit the cross arms. They are also M5 holes. It's designed so that it syncs up with the rest of the MK-X design, but I made it so you can just toss it onto nearly any 2020 delta for some extra strength. You just need to print 2 pieces then print 2 more but just mirrored. There is also a connector in the center of the X for extra mounting( tool change, pan and tilt cam, pick and place, etc)  Coming soon...

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Alpha Stage V1

Almost all the parts!
Had to put all the parts on the floor since I didn't have the table space to put all the parts on

Listing the parts:


  • 300mm 5mm thick Boro Glass
  • 24V 300W Heater
  • 3M 468 Tape for the PEI
  • PEI 12x12"
  • 3x NEMA17 for 3-axis movement
  • 10m of GT2 Belt
  • 2x NEMA17 for extruder
  • 4x 5mm Hobbed pulley
  • 6x microswitches
  • Spectra line 100 meters
  • 10m of spiral loom
  • 400x zipties
  • 3x 600mm MG12H Linear Rail
  • M3, M4, M5 T-slot nuts 100 each
  • Robotdigg Delta Extrusions
  • 2x Standard Servos for pan and tilt octoprint monitoring
  • Power Switch Tail
  • DC 25A SSR w/ Heatsink
  • Smoothieboard 5XC
  • 623ZZ Bearings
  • 608 Bearings
  • 24V-12V DC Converter
  • 8x 500mm 2020 Aluminum Extrusion
  • 9x 485mm 2020 Aluminum Extrusion
  • 3x 1000mm 2020 Aluminum Extrusion
  • 3x heatsinks for the NEMA17 axis motors
  • 120V switch
  • 12V switch
  • 2x Screw Terminals
  • Raspberry Pi
  • Raspi Cam
Still missing:
  • 18" Carbon Fiber rods
  • Metal spheres
  • Springs
  • 24V 33A PSU (792W)

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Alpha Stage V.5

A large update:

  • The hotend is now going to be an E3D Kraken V6
    • (Tim of Filastruder is gracious enough to replace the included V5 heater blocks with V6 heater blocks, making the choice very easy)
    • Having it already watercooled lessens the work on me greatly.
    • Now I have to go find a proper reservoir, or make one myself with cast acrylic
    • 4 Nozzles:
      • .25 Stainless Steel for exotic and high precision filaments, CF-PLA, Gmass, Glow in the Dark, Conductive, etc.
      • 2x .4mm brass nozzles for everyday filaments, with 1 set for PLA and the 2nd for ABS or 2 ABS colors
      • 1x .8mm for High speed Draft Printing/Infill and Support
    • 4 Extruders, dual hobbed
    • 2 MAX31855 boards for two of the extruders for better temp control and increasing the thermistors on the Smoothieboard
    • 2 K-type Thermocouples
  • Tool Changing will be on the back burner for the moment until after I get the printer up and running completely.
  • the 2.8 Watt Laser cutter is also on the back burner for the moment.
  • Upgraded 24V car heater at 235W instead of the 150W on ebay and Amazon for about $29.99
  • The wall layering will be R-tech Insulation, then a Sound Dampening Panel, then a Metal Sheet on the exterior.
  • The front door will be a Polycarbonate door with a simple manual magnetic latch.
  • The bed will now be a 300mm Boro Glass + PEI + 2mm Alum. Heat Spreader and 300W heater mat
    • I realized I don't really need 400mm bed, and if I do, I'll just upgrade it.
    • the heater will be 24V because I have a Power Switchtail II on the Pi, and it will control the 800W PSU which means I can keep my home safe in case the temperatures become wild for any reason.
  • No more rotating Turntable, since it is not plausible
  • I'll have a priming bin so that I can easily brush the small plastic pieces right into it and then have a clean printing area.