Mr. Fusion - Custom Designed 3D Printer

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sudpuzzer
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Sat Nov 15, 2014 2:30 pm

Hey guys, saw a couple threads on here about 3D printers, and I thought I would show off my latest creation a little bit - Mr.
Fusion.

I started out with a pretty basic Prusa i2 kit, but I was unsatisfied with the rigidity of the frame and the build dimensions, particularly the height restriction, as well as the lack of temperature control using an open frame. Upon discovering that my university has a nice little CNC laser machine, I decided to make my own 3D printer. Using bits and pieces of knowledge I've picked up over the course of my time withe the Prusa, I designed an Ultimaker-style enclosure from 1/4" Baltic Birch Plywood. It is a self contained, wireless, standalone printer that doesn't require a connected computer:

- Prusa i2 X-axis
- Eckertech X-Carriage
- Eckertech all-metal hotend
- Self Designed Y and Z axis
- Makerfarm Mk.1 Heat Bed with relay
- Printrboard Rev.D Electronics
- Raspberry Pi Model B host with 7-inch LCD Screen
- LED Lighting
- Manual Switches for ATX Power, Motor Power, Manual Heatbed Pre-Heat, and Lighting
- 1/4" Acrylic Door
- HD Webcam Server (to keep an eye on prints) and remote access to shutdown machine

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[youtube][/youtube]

Currently, I'm working on converting it to a Bowden-style dual-extruder, feeding two streams into the hotend so I can print with two colors without stopping the print and changing filament.

Let me know what you guys think!
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CS
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Tue Nov 18, 2014 5:05 am

Sweet! Whatcha making in the video? What stuff have you made?

Some times I stare at my 3d printer for an hour and half. Thanks for posting the full, unadulterated, video. jk
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Wed Nov 26, 2014 3:22 pm

How did you wire/setup the manually controlled hotbed? I got this in the mail today but I'm not sure how to install it yet.
I'm making a shelter for my printer too, but from acrylic instead of wood and I'm planning on install a heater inside so the temperature is constant.
CpTn_lAw wrote: :D "yay, me wanna make big multishot pnoob with 1000 psi foot pump compressor using diamond as main material. Do you think wet bread make good sealant? " :D
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Wed Nov 26, 2014 4:20 pm

Correct me if i'm wrong but the idea of having a heated bed is to keep the print from moving around. If you heat up the entire unit the print will remain to soft causing sags and other funky distortions....

Wouldn't it?
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wyz2285
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Wed Nov 26, 2014 4:27 pm

Well I'm not building an oven so just for the plastic to cool properly, now during winter I need to heat the glass bed with a hair dryer and still so the plastic bend duo to contraction of the posterior layers cool too fast. I don't need a bed hot enough fort the plastic to stick on, just a warm space for the plastic to cool evenly and slower.
CpTn_lAw wrote: :D "yay, me wanna make big multishot pnoob with 1000 psi foot pump compressor using diamond as main material. Do you think wet bread make good sealant? " :D
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sudpuzzer
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Wed Nov 26, 2014 4:41 pm

CS wrote:Sweet! Whatcha making in the video? What stuff have you made?

Some times I stare at my 3d printer for an hour and half. Thanks for posting the full, unadulterated, video. jk
First I made a keychain, and then on the video was a filament guard that clipped on the edge of the 0.25" wood I used for the walls. It was live streamed over Youtube, which made a handy recording for me, so I figured you guys could jump around it wherever you wanted lol.
wyz2285 wrote:How did you wire/setup the manually controlled hotbed? I got this in the mail today but I'm not sure how to install it yet.
I'm making a shelter for my printer too, but from acrylic instead of wood and I'm planning on install a heater inside so the temperature is constant.
I wired the manual switch simply to preheat the bed before the Raspberry Pi boots up and connects to the printer electronics. Here is how I wired it:
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Normally, the heatbed would be connected directly to the Printrboard (printer electronics) and would be powered by that. I found it took far too long to heat up, so I added the relay. The current that would normally be applied to the heatbed is instead applied to the relay coil. When the coil is energized, it allows the larger 12v current through straight from the power supply to the heatbed, drastically reducing warmup time. The manual switch is parallel to the relay, meaning if either the manual switch is on OR the Printrboard calls for heat, the heatbed will be energized. Once I connect with the printer and set my heat bed temperature, I turn the manual switch off and let the firmware run the temperature, otherwise it would overheat. The LED turns on whenever the heatbed is turned on, whether from the manual switch or from the printer electronics.

To connect without the manual switch, which isn't really needed, you would connect the heatbed and the included thermistor (which should be stuck to the underside of the heated bed) to your printer electronics on the appropriate pins. The thermistor is to read the temperature of the heated bed.
jrrdw wrote:Correct me if i'm wrong but the idea of having a heated bed is to keep the print from moving around. If you heat up the entire unit the print will remain to soft causing sags and other funky distortions....

Wouldn't it?
Yes, the heated bed is mostly to get the first layer of the print to stick. However, if you print with ABS like I do, you would find its very sensitive to temperature. On larger prints, it has a tendancy to warp and pull up from the bed on sharp corners. By increasing the ambient air temperature (inside my enclosure, it only gets up to around 40 degrees C with no heater) it reduces the tendency for ABS to warp. You might find that the heater is unnecessary, the heated bed supplies plenty of heat and would heat a small enclosure nicely. Bringing the temperature up too far (60 C +) would result in the actual printer parts softening and warping, which would be bad.
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Wed Nov 26, 2014 4:49 pm

My printer firmware doesn't have the hotbed option so I guess I won't need the termistor that came with the bed and just put on a switch between the bed and the power supply.
CpTn_lAw wrote: :D "yay, me wanna make big multishot pnoob with 1000 psi foot pump compressor using diamond as main material. Do you think wet bread make good sealant? " :D
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sudpuzzer
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Wed Nov 26, 2014 4:52 pm

Really? What printer is it?
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Wed Nov 26, 2014 4:56 pm

Prusa i3. I don't remember seem the temperature control related stuff in the code.
CpTn_lAw wrote: :D "yay, me wanna make big multishot pnoob with 1000 psi foot pump compressor using diamond as main material. Do you think wet bread make good sealant? " :D
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sudpuzzer
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Wed Nov 26, 2014 4:57 pm

Okay, well a Prusa i3 should most definitely have a temperature controlled heatbed. A Prusa is a Reprap derivative, so could have a variety of control electronics and firmware. What electronics do you have?
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Wed Nov 26, 2014 5:02 pm

To be honest no idea, I use Arduino to load the code but the board might be a copy. Got a screen showing the extruder temperature, printing time etc.
CpTn_lAw wrote: :D "yay, me wanna make big multishot pnoob with 1000 psi foot pump compressor using diamond as main material. Do you think wet bread make good sealant? " :D
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Wed Nov 26, 2014 5:07 pm

Okay, you can figure out what board you are using. I'm assuming you know how to compile and upload the firmware. If you open up your firmware .pde file, there should be a bunch of tabs. If you go into Configuration.h, near the top should be #define MOTHERBOARD xx, where xx is the number of your motherboard. That should tell you what electronics you are on.

A few lines down in my firmware, I have #define TEMP_SENSOR_0 1 (this should be your hotend thermistor)
and then #define TEMP_SENSOR_BED 1 (which would be the heated bed thermistor).

This is the first and only indication that I have a heated bed in my firmware, aside from the pins.h file which contains the pinouts for whatever motherboard you have.
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Wed Nov 26, 2014 5:14 pm

It says motherboard 33, what does that mean?
CpTn_lAw wrote: :D "yay, me wanna make big multishot pnoob with 1000 psi foot pump compressor using diamond as main material. Do you think wet bread make good sealant? " :D
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Wed Nov 26, 2014 5:23 pm

That indicates that you have a RAMPS 1.3 or 1.4 board, which definitely supports a heated bed:
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It should be as simple as wiring the thermistor and the bed to the appropriate pins according to this (assuming it looks the same as the board on your Prusa. I would bet its a 1.4):
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Wed Nov 26, 2014 5:26 pm

I'm going to confirm the rest connections are the same then give it a go, but my screen clearly doesn't plan to show bed temperature so I will take a look at the code too.
Thanks! I'll let you know tomorrow if I manage to pull it off.
CpTn_lAw wrote: :D "yay, me wanna make big multishot pnoob with 1000 psi foot pump compressor using diamond as main material. Do you think wet bread make good sealant? " :D
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