Where do you use machining for 3D printing?
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Just a question out of curiosity
Where and what for do you use machining (milling, turning) for your 3D printers or in conjunction with your 3D printed projects?I will start with a few parts that I did:
This is an extruder drive wheel made from brass:
I also made my own heater blocks ('cause I'm cheap and milling is fun). The left one is one from china in comparison:
Here is a custom cooling block for a tilting extruder (which was later replaced with a watercooled one):
For the cooling blocks I also had to make an M7 tap...
And finally some brackets for an absurdly overpowered 32 mm ball screw that I got from eBay for next to nothing. To be fair, my printer is quite sturdy and heavy (about 25 to 30 kg for the whole thing) but that ball screw still is completely overkill. That's why I'm also using it as a 'guide rod' for the print bed (which in theory isn't very good practice but since it came from a CNC milling center it couldn't care less about the side load). On the other side of the print bed there's a puny 16 mm rod to keep it from rotating.
I'm looking forward to see what you guys do in metal for your hobby!
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I've only recently bought a milling machine and lathe but I've made a few parts that either benefit from being made out of metal rather than plastic, or indeed have to be made from metal - e.g. hot end heater blocks and so forth. Then again, I have also made a few parts in aluminium for no other reason than (in my opinion) they are more aesthetically pleasing than their plastic counter parts.
https://somei3deas.wordpress.com/2019/05/15/new-aluminium-motor-mounts-belt-tensioners/
https://somei3deas.wordpress.com/2019/06/18/z-motor-mount-belt-tensioner-upgrade/
https://somei3deas.wordpress.com/2019/07/04/z-axis-aluminium-upgrade/
https://somei3deas.wordpress.com/2019/07/09/6-extruder-carriage-upgrade/
https://somei3deas.wordpress.com/2019/07/18/nozzle-wiper-purge-bucket-bed-clamp-upgrade/
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Bed support lifting bracket (1 of 2):
Z axis top pulley mount (1 of 2):
PTFE bed leveling screw blocks (1 of 3) for Kelvin kinematic mount:
Two piece extruder carriage made from aluminum tubing and 5mm plate:
300 mm square bed plate with drilled/slotted ears for kinematic leveling/support system:
Motor mounts for stacked belt coreXY stage, made from aluminum tubing:
Pulley blocks for stacked belt coreXY stage, made from aluminum tubing:
And of course, all t-slot frame members are milled square and to matching lengths so that the frame will be square when bolted together...
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@eumldeuml I work at a Robotics Integrator in Sarasota, FL that has a fully equipped machine shop, I'm actually designing and building a CoreXY, Kossel/Delta, and a...Slightly different machine as well. Literally every component apart from (1) controller (2) power supply and (3) motors (and filament and tubing) will be machined in-house, with linear rails and ball screws or belts from suppliers through work. Gates for belt and either Hiwin, THK, SKF linear rails and ball screw depends on the cost, as those will be expensive.
I'm spending WAY too much on this. I have dumped....idk I've lost count at this point, $5,000 maybe? I'm over $3,700 for sure in 3D printing and I'm kinda just hitting the "F*ck it!" Button with this build. I'm trying to shoot for <$3,500 for everything...but not necessarily keeping track as of what I'm spending so far. Everything will either be machined to within a few tenths or precision ground.
I will post pictures when I start actually manufacturing it, design isn't finished yet.
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@deckingman I know of your recent 'adventures' in machining; I'm checking your blog from time to time, very interesting concepts there!
@mrehorstdmd I like your motor mounts! So simple and yet so effective. I don't know why I didn't come up with the idea to just use square tubing for that purpose instead of dealing with those angled motor mounts which are quite finnicky to deal with..
By the way, your post on instructables about Son of MegaMax was a huge inspiration for me to build my printer heavy and sturdy. I very much like your skeptical view on flimsy printers and the race-to-the-bottom of recent printers.@NoSkillzEngineer Now that's sounds like an overkill machine!
But I know that feeling of reaching the point of "I just want results now, don't care about the price anymore". But I really want to see what your final machine will look like. -
Custom heated bed for an under powered Up Mini 2 was routed on a cnc router that struggled a bit with the aluminium (admittedly the operator struggled a little too).. Channels for heater wire to run up and down, plus some pockets to embed magnets. STILL waiting for the magnets however
Will need to make up some parts to mount some new linear guides in the same machine, but first the CNC needs some more TLC.
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@bearer Did you mill out the fins from a solid plate of aluminium? If so, didn't that warp the plate beyond usability?
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@eumldeuml started off with a cheap low profile heatsink, so that reduced the milling quite a bit, then "lapped" the top surface with wet/dry sandpaper on a surface plate. should be reasonably flat but looking forward to seeing how it works once mounted and heated.
