D3D Workshop 2018-06-02
On Saturday 2018-06-02, OSE went to the Homestead Hoedown outside Lawrence, Kansas to build a new version of the D3D.
Participants
We had 3 participants at this workshop:
New Iteration Changes
Because it was just us at the workshop, we decided to iterate as an experiemntal build. For example:
- We mounted all of the electronics onto a sheet plexiglass for the first time. The plexiglass was cut to size so it didn't interfere with the axis, the electronics were attached to the plexiglass with zipties through drilled holes, and the entire plexiglass + electronics panel was mounted to the frame using magnets
- We used a different extruder
- We added the reprap Smart Controller with LCD screen, knob, and sd card reader
Learnings
Overall, this was a great experience. Just 2 weeks prior to my (User:Maltfield) participation in this build, I had no experience with 3d printers at all. 1 week prior, I built the Jellybox. Then I built this. Compared to the jellybox build, I found the D3D to be significantly simpler.
The fact that all 3x axis (made of 5x components) are all the same makes it significantly simpler to build.
The tensioning system for the belts is superb.
That said, there were issues that need addressing:
- The bolts for the carriage & end pieces (the ones that are 3d printed halves & sandwiched by the bolts/nuts to sandwich the long metal axis rods) are inaccessible under the motor. So if there's an issue, you have to take off the motor's 4 small bolts to access the end piece's 4 bolts. This happened to me when I used the same sized bolts in all 4x holes. In fact, one or two of the bolts should go through the metal frame of the cube. So I had to remove the motor to replace that bolt. Indeed, this also had to be done on a few of the other 5 axis' as well, slowing down the build. It would be great if we could alter this piece by moving the bolts further from the motor, including making the pieces larger, if necessary.
- One new addition to this design was the LCD screen, and a piece of plexiglass to which we zip-tied all our electronics, then mounted the plexiglass to the frame via magnets. The issue: When we arranged the electronics on the plexiglass, we were mostly concerned about wire location & lengths. We did not consider that the LCD module (which has an SD card slot on its left side) would need to be accessible. Instead, it was butted against the heated bed relay, making the SD card slot inaccessible. In future builds, we should ensure that this component has nothing to it's left-side, so that the SD card slot remains accessible.
Time Lapse
The following video was created from the Open Camera app on Android then edited with kdenlive.
It was also uploaded to archive.org
