Athorbot 3d printing build surface

▷ athorbot 3d printing build surface 【 STLFinder 】

Teardrop Lamp (3D Printing Build)

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Instructions to complete build are here: https://www.adylinn.com/blog/teardrop-lamp Thanks for checking out the Teardrop Lamp build! ...If you enjoyed it, I post monthly builds using 3D printing on my website, https://www.adylinn.com/builds/.

3D Printing Board/Build Plate

thingiverse

You can use this to hold the build plate of your 3D printer (if you are making a 3D printed 3D printer). ...If you want, you can use this as your build plate as well.

Speaker Eggs - 3D Printing Build

thingiverse

3D printed speaker enclosures. ...Requires fair amount of wiring/assembly. Full build instructions available on my website: Visit my website for more details and to download design/build files for this and other projects: http://www.adylinn.com/builds/

Speaker Eggs - 3D Printing Build

myminifactory

3D printed speaker enclosures. ...Requires a fair amount of wiring/assembly. Build instructions included in download files.

Speaker Eggs | 3D Printing Build

youmagine

3D printed speaker enclosures. ...Requires fair amount of wiring/assembly. Full build instructions available on my website: https://www. adylinn.com/blog/2017/speakereggs Check out my website or profile for additional builds/designs.

Speaker Eggs - 3D Printing Build

cults3d

3D printed speaker enclosures. ...Requires fair amount of wiring/assembly. Full build instructions available on my website: https://www.adylinn.com/blog/2017/speakereggs

Wireless Charger - 3D Printing Build

myminifactory

Super easy print and assembly for a Qi Wireless Charger. ... See link below for materials: https://kit.co/adylinn/wireless-charger-3d-printing-build

Speaker Eggs - 3D Printing Build

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3D printed speaker enclosures. ...Requires fair amount of wiring/assembly. Full build instructions available on my website: https://www.adylinn.com/blog/2017/speakereggs

Modular Wristwatch | 3D Printing Build

youmagine

... Ultimaker 3. Finished and assembled. You can find the items I purchased here: https://kit.com/adylinn/modular-wristwatch-3d-printing-build View full set of instructions as well as see other designs and builds on my website: https://www.adylinn.com

Modular Wristwatch - 3D Printing Build

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... 3. Finished and assembled. You can find the items I purchased here: https://kit. com/adylinn/modular-wristwatch-3d-printing-build View the full set of instructions as well as see other designs and builds on my website: https://www.adylinn.com

Modular Wristwatch - 3D Printing Build

thingiverse

Concept build for a 3D printed modular watch. Made up of 3 printed and interchangeable parts (for different designs and colors) to create many different combinations. Designed in Fusion 360, printed at 0.06 mm layer height on Ultimaker 3. Finished...

Watch Case - 3D Printing Build

youmagine

... ...This is a simple 2 watch design using simple components and 3D printed parts. The cost is roughly $25 in components and it takes about 17 or so hours to print. Full build instructions are available here:https://www.adylinn.com/blog/2017/watchcase

Watch Case - 3D Printing Build

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The cost is roughly $25 in components and it takes about 17 or so hours to print. Full build instructions are available here: https://www.adylinn.com/blog/2017/watchcase Check out www.myminifactory.com/users/ad... ...for all my designs or consider...

Modular Wristwatch - 3D Printing Build

myminifactory

Concept build for a 3D printed modular watch. Made up of 3 printed and interchangable parts (for different designs and colors) to create many different combinations. Designed in Fusion 360, printed at 0.06 mm layer height on Ultimaker 3. Finished and...

Modular Wristwatch - 3D Printing Build

cults3d

Teardrop Lamp - 3D Printing Build

myminifactory

The Teardrop Lamp was designed to utilize 3D printing for a mixed media project. The project includes a concrete base made out of Shapecrete which was molded out of a 3D printed mold, on top of the concrete base sits a wood ring which is a 3D printed. ..

Modern Wall Lamps | 3D Printing Build

myminifactory

3D printing build utilizing 3D printed shade (part transparent, part opaque), a light kit, and a walnut wood panel. Build instructions are available here.

Modern Walnut Wall Lamps | 3D Printing Build

cults3d

3D printing build utilizing 3D printed shade (part transparent, part opaque), a light kit, and a walnut wood panel. ... Build instructions are available here:https://www.adylinn.com/blog/2017/wall-lamps

Modern Walnut Wall Lamps | 3D Printing Build

thingiverse

Modern Walnut Wall Lamps | 3D Printing Build

youmagine

Wine Glass Shelf - 3D Printing & Wood Build

youmagine

3D Printed Wine Glass brackets for an existing shelf as well as shelf brackets for the full build. ... Visit website for detailed instructions to complete build:https://www. adylinn.com/blog/2017/3/26/diy-wine-glass-shelf

LED Ring Lamp - 3D Printing Build

myminifactory

... 3D printed ring and base, simply adhere the wood veneer on the outside and install the LED strip. Check out my website for the full build instructions as well as more builds and designs: https://www.adylinn.com/blog/2017/4/13/led-ring-lamp-build

Magnetic Knife Rack - 3D Printing Build

myminifactory

Knife rack made with a combination of 3D printed components, magnets, a walnut veneer strip, and a food safe wood finish. STLs are split into 3 parts that then need to be glued together. This should fit most 3D printers. ... Full build instructions...

Wine Bottle Carousel - 3D Printing Build

youmagine

Visit website for detailed instructions to complete build:https://www.adylinn.com/blog/2017/5/30/winebottlecarousel

Wine Glass Shelf - 3D Printing Build

myminifactory

This build gives you the option to easily upgrade an existing shelf in your home to add brackets and hang wine glasses OR a full DIY build including the shelf brackets and shelf. ... Instructions for both ways are available here: ...

athorbot autolevel

thingiverse

soporte sensor capacitivo de 18mm el sensor que utilice es LJC18A3-H-Z/BX lo conecte directo como si fuese el original esta probado con el firmware original de athorbot buddy y funciona bien porfabor comenten como les funciono gracias 18mm capacitive. ..

EZ-Release Build Surface

thingiverse

Check out the video here to see how it works:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77-BSpBddb8 The flexible build surface mounts on top of your existing build platform and provides excellent adhesion and easy removal. You will need to download the clamps...

EZ-Release Build Surface

cults3d

Build Surface Scrapper

thingiverse

The blade is almost flush to the build surface bed, so items are removed easily from the surface. It also works well removing parts from the bed. 3mm screws along with M3x6x5mm knurled brass inserts. The handle connection uses 5mm Screw with...

Perfboard Build Surface

thingiverse

Hate warping and don't have a heated build platformâ€½ No worries, a few coins in perfboard will have you flat in no time. These are instructions for an UP!, but most tips should apply to a Cupcake too! YMMV. Taken from...

Athorbot Buddy Couple Dual Extruder 3D Printer Review (First Impressions) – Maker Hacks

Athorbot Buddy Couple Dual Extruder 3D Printer Review - In this article we cover the 3d printer build/assembly, some sample prints, how to get it running, and first Impressions after a week of use.

Athorbot Buddy Couple reviews are scarce right now, so I would feel privileged that GearBest sent me one to review even without the fact I was excited to try it because of the promise of easy dual color printing. Let’s see what my experience was like in the first week of use … first, specs!

Athorbot Buddy Couple 3D Printer Specs and what you get

220 x 270 x 200mm print area
Heated bed
Dual extruders (bowden) and one 0.5mm combination nozzle
Metal construction
LCD control and enclosed 24v PSU/main board

Surprisingly you do NOT get an SD card or memory stick. Instead you get a DVD (who still uses those??) and you are supposed to get a login to the website member area, but of course I was sent this to review so I do not have the required order number to gain access. You won’t have that problem 🙂

In the picture below you can see the sample filament and example print.

Unboxing the Athorbot Buddy Couple

In appearance, it’s like a white Wanhao Di3, but with a metal extrusion base, and and an elongated bed. It has peg board instead of glass so after the first few painters tape adhered prints, I threw the peg board and dug up an old piece of 200×200 glass, so I haven’t used the full 270mm yet.

Dual color 3d printing on the Athorbot Buddy Couple 3d printer

Dual color is the main differentiating factor (beyond the long bed). Dual extruders are not new, double extruder printers have been around for a while, but the challenge is usually in calibration, and getting everything level, with the correct offsets. Athorbot get around these issues by having two bowden extruders, but one nozzle. This also adds the capability to mix colors (more on that later).

It arrived extremely well packed, and comes with all the tools you need to get assembled and started, with a printed instruction booklet for the assembly and another for usage. Unfortunately I got the wrong user manual, but after contacting a representative through Facebook I was sent a zip file containing the correct and up to date PDF files.

Athorbot instruction documents

Assembling the Athorbot Buddy Couple

Assembly is easy, as you can see in my slightly speeded up video 😉

Again, like the Wanhao, you just have to attach the upright section to the base with a few screws, then plug in all the cables, matching the labels. Easy stuff. People less clumsy than me will get it done in minutes.

Using the Athorbot Buddy Couple

Single color printing, or mixed color printing can be done pretty much right away with zero issues. Just set it up in Cura as a Prusa Mendel, which is what I did until I got a hold of the aforementioned zip file that also included firmware and a Simplify3D profile.

Despite me not having a fully dialled in slicer profile, I was encouraged by the print quality and the sturdiness of the machine.

Athorbot Firmware

Here is the part that is not intuitive.

If you want to mix colors (eg. 50% red and 50% white, or in the traffic cone example above, print at layer height) then you have to use the mix firmware. If instead you want to have two color prints, then you need the dual firmware. Yeah, I didn’t get that right away so was confused.

With the mix it will wait for you to select a percentage then will continue printing. With dual it will select the extruder based on your sliced gcode and just print away happily provided you installed the firmware in advance.

I would prefer a new firmware that has both capabilities, but they do not offer the firmware source code and configuration files (losing points for that), so I don’t know if that is possible.

The good news is, once I had that zip file, I had everything I needed, and now you know too, so frustration avoided 🙂

How does it print?

Print quality of the Athorbot is pretty good, even considering I still have yet to fully calibrate and get my settings satisfactory. Right now the community is small, but I expect it to grow exponentially, and with it will come more community input into slicer settings and getting the most out of the machine!

0.2mm layer prints on Athorbot

I used xxxxx-3d Canadian PLA filament for all my prints so far, and and still working out the temperatures and retraction, but what I see is encouraging me to keep going.

0.4mm layers on 0.5mm nozzle

Conclusion

I have some slicer tweaking to do but other than that the machine has worked flawlessly. Not only has it printed two color prints that actually worked, but the single color performance is good too. The bed size is big enough for the majority of prints (though people have CR-10mounted the hotend setup on a …). While I was a bit thrown by not having access to the member area, that is a reviewer problem not going to be a customer issue!

Right now I am loving the machine.

3d printing makes me happy

Did you notice I didn’t mention a vital piece of information? I never told you the price. That is because I didn’t want your frame of reference to be price over features and benefits.

Recommended retail price is $600 USD, which I think is about right for this machine … but at the time of writing GearBest has a code that will make it $399!

Click here then enter the code: ATHORBOT at checkout while stocks last.

If you are not fast enough to get this deal, GearBest still will sell it at a discount, I just don’t know how much 🙂

You can be sure I will follow up with my long term experiences, and my slicer settings once dialled in!

Category: Reviews and Buying GuidesTag: 3d printer, 3d printers, athorbot, dual-extruder, multi-color, multi-material

Building a home 3D printer with your own hands: recommendations from personal experience

3D printing and assembly of 3D printers is my hobby and passion. Here I will not share detailed diagrams and drawings, there are more than enough of them on specialized resources. The main goal of this material is to tell you where to start, where to dig and how to avoid mistakes in the process of assembling a home 3D printer. Perhaps one of the readers will be inspired by applied engineering achievements.

Why do you need a 3D printer? Use cases

I first came across the idea of 3D printing back in the 90s when I was watching the Star Trek series. I remember how impressed I was by the moment when the heroes of the cult series printed the things they needed during their journey right on board their starship. They printed anything: from shoes to tools. I thought it would be great someday to have such a thing too. Then it all seemed something incredible. Outside the window are the gloomy 90s, and the Nokia with a monochrome screen was the pinnacle of progress, accessible only to a select few.

Years passed, everything changed. Around 2010, the first working models of 3D printers began to appear on sale. Yesterday's fantasy has become a reality. However, the cost of such solutions, to put it mildly, discouraged. But the IT industry would not be itself without an inquisitive community, where there is an active exchange of knowledge and experience and who just let them dig into the brains and giblets of new hardware and software. So, drawings and diagrams of printers began to surface more and more often on the Web. Today, the most informative and voluminous resource on the topic of assembling 3D printers is RepRap - this is a huge knowledge base that contains detailed guides for creating a wide variety of models of these machines.

I assembled the first printer about five years ago. My personal motivation to build my own device is quite prosaic and based on several factors. Firstly, there was an opportunity to try to realize the old dream of having your own device, inspired by a fantasy series. The second factor is that sometimes it was necessary to repair some household items (for example, a baby stroller, car elements, household appliances and other small things), but the necessary parts could not be found. Well, the third aspect of the application is "near-working". On the printer, I make cases for various IoT devices that I assemble at home.

Agree, it is better to place your device based on Raspberry Pi or Arduino in an aesthetically pleasing "body", which is not a shame to put in an apartment or take to the office, than to organize components, for example, in a plastic bowl for food. And yes, you can print parts to build other printers :)

There are a lot of scenarios for using 3D printers. I think everyone can find something of their own.

A complex part in terms of drawing that I printed on my printer. Yes, it's just a figurine, but it has many small elements

Ready solution vs custom assembly

When a technology has been tested, its value in the market decreases markedly. The same thing happened in the world of 3D printers. If earlier a ready-made solution cost simply sky-high money, then today acquiring such a machine is more humane for the wallet, but nevertheless not the most affordable for an enthusiast. There are a number of solutions already assembled and ready for home use on the market, their price range ranges from $500-700 (not the best options) to infinity (adequate solutions start from a price tag of about $1000). Yes, there are options for $150, but we, for understandable, I hope, reasons, will not dwell on them.

In short, there are three cases to consider a finished assembly:

when you plan to print not much and rarely;
when print accuracy is critical;
you need to print molds for mass production of parts.

There are several obvious advantages to self-assembly. The first and most important is cost. Buying all the necessary components will cost you a maximum of a couple of hundred dollars. In return, you will receive a complete 3D printing solution with the quality of manufactured products acceptable for domestic needs. The second advantage is that by assembling the printer yourself, you will understand the principles of its design and operation. Believe me, this knowledge will be useful to you during the operation of even an expensive ready-made solution - any 3D printer needs to be serviced regularly, and it can be difficult to do this without understanding the basics.

The main disadvantage of assembly is the need for a large amount of time. I spent about 150 hours on my first build.

What you need to assemble the printer yourself

The most important thing here is the presence of desire. As for any special skills, then, by and large, in order to assemble your first printer, the ability to solder or write code is not critical. Of course, understanding the basics of radio electronics and basic skills in the field of mechanics (that is, "straight hands") will greatly simplify the task and reduce the amount of time that needs to be spent on assembly.

Also, to start we need a mandatory set of parts:

Extruder is the element that is directly responsible for printing, the print head. There are many options on the market, but for a budget build, I recommend the MK8. Of the minuses: it will not be possible to print with plastics that require high temperatures, there is noticeable overheating during intensive work, which can damage the element. If the budget allows, then you can look at MK10 - all the minuses are taken into account there.
Processor board. The familiar Arduino Mega is well suited. I didn't notice any downsides to this solution, but you can spend a couple of dollars more and get something more powerful, with a reserve for the future.
Control board. I'm using RAMPS 1.4 which works great with the Arduino Mega. A more expensive but more reliable board is Shield, which already combines a processor board and a control board. In modern realities, I recommend paying attention to it. In addition to it, you need to purchase at least 5 microstep stepper motor controllers, for example - A4988. And it's better to have a couple of these in stock for replacement.
Heated table. This is the part where the printed element will be located. Heating is necessary due to the fact that most plastics will not adhere to a cold surface. For example, for printing with PLA plastic, the required surface temperature of the table is 60-80°C, for ABS - 110-130°C, and for polycarbonate it will be even higher
There are also two options for choosing a table - cheaper and more expensive. Cheaper options are essentially printed circuit boards with preheated wiring. To operate on this type of table, you will need to put borosilicate glass, which will scratch and crack during operation. Therefore, the best solution is an aluminum table.
Stepper motors. Most models, including the i2 and i3, use NEMA 17 size motors, two for the Z axis and one each for the X and Y axes. Finished extruders usually come with their own stepper motor. It is better to take powerful motors with a current in the motor winding of 1A or more, so that there is enough power to lift the extruder and print without skipping steps at high speed.
Basic set of plastic fasteners.
Belt and gears to drive it.

Examples of elements appearance: 1) MK8 extruder; 2) Arduino processor board; 3) RAMPS control board; 4) motor controllers; 5) aluminum heated table; 6) NEMA 17 stepper motor; 7) a set of plastic fasteners; 8) drive gears; 9) drive belt

This is a list of items to be purchased. Hardcore users can assemble some of them themselves, but for beginners, I strongly recommend purchasing ready-made solutions.

Yes, you will also need various small things (studs, bearings, nuts, bolts, washers ...) to assemble the case. In practice, it turned out that using a standard m8 stud leads to low printing accuracy on the Z axis. I would recommend immediately replacing it with a trapezoid of the same size.

M8 trapezoid stud for Z axis, which will save you a lot of time and nerves. Available for order on all major online platforms

You also need to purchase customized plastic parts for the X axis, such as these from the MendelMax retrofit kit.

Most parts available at your local hardware store. On RepRap you can find a complete list of necessary little things with all sizes and patterns. The kit you need will depend on the choice of platform (we'll talk about platforms later).

What's the price

Before delving into some aspects of the assembly, let's figure out how much such entertainment will cost for your wallet. Below is a list of parts required for purchase with an average price.

Platform selection

The community has already developed a number of different platforms for assembling printers - the most optimal case designs and the location of the main elements, so you do not have to reinvent the wheel.

i2 and i3 are key platforms for self-assembly printer enclosures. There are also many modifications of them with various improvements, but for beginners, these two classic platforms should be considered, since they do not require special skills and fine-tuning.

Actually, illustration of platforms: 1) i2 platform; 2) i3 platform

On the plus side of i2: it has a more reliable and stable design, although it is a little more difficult to assemble; more opportunities for further customization.

The i3 variant requires more special plastic parts to be purchased separately and has a slow print speed. However, it is easier to assemble and maintain, and has a more aesthetically pleasing appearance. You will have to pay for simplicity with the quality of printed parts - the body has less stability than i2, which can affect print accuracy.

Personally, I started my experiments in assembling printers from the i2 platform. She will be discussed further.

Assembly steps, challenges and improvements

In this block, I will only touch on the key assembly steps using the i2 platform as an example. Full step by step instructions can be found here.

The general scheme of all the main components looks something like this. There is nothing particularly complicated here:

I also recommend adding a display to your design. Yes, you can easily do without this element when performing operations on a PC, but it will be much more convenient to work with the printer this way.

Understanding how all components will be connected, let's move on to the mechanical part, where we have two main elements - a frame and a coordinate machine.

Assembling the frame

Detailed frame assembly instructions are available on RepRap. Of the important nuances - you will need a set of plastic parts (I already talked about this above, but I'd better repeat it), which you can either purchase separately or ask your comrades who already have a 3D printer to print.

The frame of the i2 is quite stable thanks to its trapezoid shape.

This is how the frame looks like with parts already partially installed. For greater rigidity, I reinforced the structure with plywood sheets

Coordinate machine

An extruder is attached to this part. The stepper motors shown in the diagram above are responsible for its movement. After installation, calibration is required along all major axes.

Important - you will need to purchase (or make your own) a carriage for moving the extruder and a mount for the drive belt. Drive belt I recommend GT2.

The carriage printed by the printer from the previous picture after it has been assembled. The part already has LM8UU bearings for guides and belt mount (top)

Calibration and adjustment

So, we completed the assembly process (as I said, it took me 150 hours) - the frame was assembled, the machine was installed. Now another important step is the calibration of this very machine and extruder. Here, too, there are small subtleties.

Setting up the machine

I recommend calibrating the machine with an electronic caliper. Do not be stingy with its purchase - you will save a lot of time and nerves in the process.

The screenshot below shows the correct constants for the Marlin firmware, which must be selected in order to set the correct number of steps per unit of measure. We calculate the coefficient, multiply it, substitute it into the firmware, and then upload it to the board.

Marlin 9 firmware constants0022

For high-quality calibration, I recommend relying on larger numbers in measurements - take not 1-1.5 cm, but about 10. So the error will be more noticeable, and it will become easier to correct it.

Calibrating the extruder

When the frame is assembled, the machine is calibrated, we start setting up the extruder. Here, too, everything is not so simple. The main task of this operation is to correctly adjust the supply of plastic.

If underfeeding, the printed test item will have noticeable gaps, like test die 1. Conversely, the result will look bloated if plastic is overfed (dice 2)

Getting Started Printing

It remains for us to run some CAD or download ready-made .stl, which describe the structure of the printed material. Next, this structure needs to be converted into a set of commands understandable to our printer. For this I use the Slicer program. It also needs to be set up correctly - specify the temperature, the size of the extruder nozzle. After that, the data can be sent to the printer.

Slicer interface

As a raw material for printing, I recommend starting with regular ABS plastic - it is quite strong, products made from it are durable, and it does not require high temperatures to work with. For comfortable printing with ABS plastic, the table must be heated to a temperature of 110-130 ° C, and the extruder nozzle - within 230-260 ° C.

Some important details. Before printing, calibrate the machine along the Z axis. The extruder nozzle should be about half a millimeter from the table and ride along it without distortion. For this calibration, a regular sheet of A4 paper inserted between the nozzle and the surface of the heated table is best suited. If the sheet can be moved with little effort, the calibration is correct.

Another thing to keep in mind is the surface treatment of the heated table. Usually, before printing, the surface of the table is covered with something that hot plastic sticks to well. For ABS plastic, this can be, for example, Kapton tape. The disadvantage of adhesive tape is the need to re-glue it after several printing cycles. In addition, you will have to literally tear off the adhering part from it. All this, believe me, takes a lot of time. Therefore, if it is possible to avoid this fuss, it is better to avoid it.

An alternative option that I use instead of scotch tape is to apply several layers of ordinary light beer, followed by heating the table to 80-100 ° C until the surface is completely dry and re-applying 7-12 layers. It is necessary to apply the liquid with a cloth moistened with a drink. Among the advantages of this solution: ABS plastic separates from the table on its own when it cools down to about 50 ° C and is removed without effort, the table does not have to be peeled off, and one bottle of beer will last you for several months (if you use the drink only for technical purposes :)).

After we have collected and configured everything, we can start printing. If you have an LCD screen, then the file can be transferred for printing using a regular SD card.

The first results may have bumps and other artifacts - do not worry, this is a normal process of "grinding" the printer elements, which will end after a few print cycles.

Tips to make life easier (and sometimes save money)

In addition to the small recommendations given in the text above, in this section I will also give a short list of tips that will greatly simplify the operation of a 3D printer and the life of its owner.

Do not experiment with nozzles. If you plan to immediately print from materials that require high temperatures, then it is better to immediately take the MK10 extruder. On MK8, you can "hang" special nozzles that support high-temperature conditions. But such modifications often cause difficulties and require special experience. It is better to avoid this fuss on the shore by simply installing the right extruder for you.
Add starter relay for heated table. Improving the power supply system for this important printing part with a starter relay will help solve the known problem of RAMP 1.4 - overheating of the transistors that control the power of the table, which can lead to failure of the board. I made this upgrade after having to throw away a few RAMPS 1.4s.
Select the correct filament diameter for printing. I recommend using 1.75mm plastic for MK8 and MK10. If we take plastic, for example, 3 mm, then the extruder simply does not have enough strength to push it at an acceptable speed - everything will be printed much longer, and the quality will drop. ABS plastic is ideal for MK8, MK10 will be able to produce products from polycarbonate.
Use only new and precise X and Y guides. Print quality will be affected. It is difficult to count on good quality with bent or deformed guides along the axes.
Take care of cooling. During my experiments with various extruders, the MK10 showed the best results - it prints quite accurately and quickly. The MK10 can also print plastics that require a higher print temperature than ABS, such as polycarbonate. Although it is not as prone to overheating as its younger brother MK8, I still recommend taking care of its cooling by adding a cooler to your design. It must be permanently enabled, this option can be configured in Slicer. You can also add coolers to keep the stepper motors at an acceptable temperature, however, make sure that their air flows do not fall on the printed part, as this can lead to its deformation due to too rapid cooling.
Consider heat retention. Yes, on the one hand, we are struggling with overheating of the elements. On the other hand, a uniform temperature around the printer will contribute to high-quality printing (the plastic will be more pliable). To achieve a uniform temperature, you can put our printer, for example, in a cardboard box. The main thing is to connect and configure the coolers before that, as described above.
Consider insulating your desk. Heated table heats up to high temperatures. And if part of this heat leaves properly, heating the printed part, then the second part (from below) just goes down. To concentrate the heat from the table onto the part, you can perform an operation to insulate it. To do this, I simply attach a cork mouse pad to its bottom using stationery clips.

Pins

I am sure that during the assembly process you will encounter a number of difficulties specific to your project. Neither this text nor even the most detailed guides will insure against this.

As I wrote in the introductory part, the above does not claim the status of a detailed assembly manual. It is almost impossible to describe all the stages and their subtleties within the framework of one such text. First of all, this is an overview material that will help you prepare for the assembly process (both mentally and financially), understand whether you personally need to bother with self-assembly - or give up on everything and buy a ready-made solution.

For me, assembling printers has become an exciting hobby that helps me solve some issues in home and work affairs, take my mind off programming and do something interesting with my own hands. For my children - entertainment and the opportunity to get unusual and unique toys. By the way, if you have children whose age allows them to mess around with such things, such an activity can be a good help for entering the world of mechanics and technology.

For everyone, the vectors of using 3D printers will be very different and very individual. But, if you decide to devote your personal time to such a hobby, believe me, you will definitely find something to print :)

I will be glad to answer comments, remarks and questions.

What to read/see

what can be printed;
3D printer forum;
RepRap community site with model descriptions and assembly instructions;
printer that prints electronics.

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Topics: DIY, embedded, tech

3D printing for schools0001

Most of our readers know that one of the main activities of the MakeItLab hackspace is 3D printing. We have been developing this very interesting and promising direction for the third year already. During this time, our residents managed to hold a lot of events, seminars and lectures aimed at popularizing the technology.

The technical education of schoolchildren can be considered an equally important area of work for hackspace. On these issues, we even have several articles on Habré (one, two, three, four). And it would be foolish of us not to try to combine these two directions. Give children printers ~~, and children's printers~~ .

What is the best way to combine 3D printing and children's technical creativity? And most importantly, where to start? Probably, you can buy a printer for school, tell the computer science teacher how to use it. is that enough? Obviously not.

This year, together with the Ural New Education Club, a friendly organization, we launched a series of events to assemble 3D printers by teachers and schoolchildren. What is it, and did we manage to assemble these same 3D printers, read below under the cut!

Techno marathon

The first event was held as part of the City of Technocreativity festival, which started in February in our city. At the suggestion of the head of the club, Irina Zakirova, this action was called "Technomarathon".

History

The idea of an event for the collective assembly of 3D printers is not new. In our country, for example, guys from the Navigator Campus hackspace are engaged in such a noble cause. They call this action "Makerton 3D Printer".

The essence of the event is extremely simple. We invite several teams of participants who are invited to assemble a 3D printer on their own. For assembly, the teams are given everything they need - a kit for assembling a printer (in varying degrees of readiness), tools, instructions. It is also necessary to have competent engineers ready to help at any time. Often times, a build is like a competition. The one who assembles his printer faster than the rest gets some useful prize. For example, he gets a 3D printer for free!

We've been dreaming of this idea since we were founded, waiting for the stars to align, so to speak. And finally, half a year ago, we managed to combine our engineering knowledge with the organizational skills of Irina Zakirova, and began preparations for the 3D printer assembly technomarathon!

Why?

So, let's start with the most important question: why does a school need a 3D printer? We encounter a lot of skepticism about this, which we constantly have to break up with examples from life and world experience. So what is a printer for? Yes, at least for the quick reproduction of tutorials. Looking at the portals of foreign 3D printers, you can find many different objects that allow a child to more effectively learn a particular lesson.

A simple example is a biology lesson. What if, instead of a picture of DNA, each child could print out a piece of the double helix, touch it, understand its spatial features? Even to throw at a neighbor, and then it will be more useful than contemplating a picture.

Another example is a plant cell. You can pull out a mitochondrion :)

For a biology lesson, you can also print, for example, bones, organs, or whole animals. In physics: working models of mechanisms, stands for physical experiments. In mathematics: surfaces given by tricky functions, sections of figures, fractals. Etc. I think we will devote an entire article to this separately.

The same question can be asked to the house of creativity. But there the answer is even easier. A 3D printer in technical creativity is an indispensable tool for the rapid production of parts. Today, printed parts are widely used in educational robotic projects, in aircraft and ship modeling. A good example is a 3D printed quadcopter.

There is an even more valuable layer of applicability of a 3D printer - this is 3D modeling. It's one thing to just print the finished model. Other: first invent an object, then design an object, and finally print it on a 3D printer. It is this case that is most interesting to us from the point of view of children's technical creativity.

At whose expense is the banquet?

But back to our techno-marathon. And the first question: who will buy printers for schools?

The first option that we have tried is to try to get some kind of specialized grant. Unfortunately, the option didn't work. This does not mean that the approach is wrong in principle, we just failed.

The second option is to ask big (and not so big) companies for money. As you know, industrial enterprises often take patronage over schools, and do their best to help these schools with the ruble. But in order to bring such an idea to the company's management, you need to have direct connections and recommendations. We started our event with a clean face, and we didn’t have any friendly enterprises. As a result, of the six teams that applied, one company (Beloyarsk NPP) paid for the 3D printer, the other bought the printer with grant money (thanks to SKB-Kontur, and hello to all IT companies). Again, the option itself works. After the first techno-marathons, we hope for a much wider support from the enterprises of the region.

The third option is to pay for printers from non-budgetary funds of the school or art house. As practice has shown, this is also quite a working option. Of course, provided that the 3D printer costs reasonable money. Here, in fact, the second big organizational question arises:

What kind of printer will we assemble?

The first thing that comes to mind is the RepRap series 3D printer. These are printers that have been specifically designed to be assembled at home. There is a lot of documentation, videos on RepRap, and in our hackspace we once started with just such a simple machine. In general, the choice fell on the Prusa I3 from the Spanish company BQ. Here he is handsome, in the photo.

By the way, one of those collected by our tech marathon runners.

Members

According to the generally accepted practice, teams of an arbitrary number of people take part in the event. As many teams participate as the organizers are able to withstand at a time. In our case, three teams per day was the best option. In total, six teams entered our first techno-marathon, which we divided into two groups:

February 28, 2015

Verkhnyaya Pyshma Center for Education and Vocational Guidance;
School No64 from the city of Lesnoy;
Polytechnic department of the Palace of Youth.

March 5, 2015

Children's Art Center of the city of Irbit;
School No1 GO Zarechny;
House of children's creativity in the Oktyabrsky district of Yekaterinburg.

Everything you need

In order to assemble printers, in addition to the teams of participants, we needed:

soldering irons - to solder nuts into the plastic parts of the printer;
files (flat and round) - for finishing parts that fit into each other;
screwdrivers and hex set;
drill and drill bit set - drill poorly printed holes;
scissors and utility knife;
ruler - for calibration;
pliers - to flatten everything :)
hammer or mallet - to drive the bearings.

And of course, all this had to be multiplied by the number of teams.

And we also need helpers, who can be students of technical universities, or just handy guys (or girls). You always have to be on the alert and help the lagging teams.

Assembly

The assembly of 3D printers was carried out according to a clear (Russian-language) step-by-step instruction provided by the manufacturer. In general, it must be admitted that the Prusa I3 Hephestos printer from BQ was ideal for the tech marathon. Yes, there were awkward moments with breaking parts and ill-fitting grooves, but it is extremely difficult to find Russian-language analogues for such money.

So let's unpack the boxes with the parts. Everything is packaged very conveniently and presentably.

We intensively put together all the body parts. At this stage, by the way, several times there were problems with the layout. The fact is that the frame of the printer is almost symmetrical, and you can easily confuse which side to put it on. Of course, it has a large "Prusa I3" written on it, but the participants, immersed in the assembly, often did not pay attention to it. As a result, some printers had to be rebuilt at a pace (not completely, of course).

Electronics

The most important part. If you mess up something, you can easily burn the 3D printer controller or some sensors. Fortunately, in the native instructions there are color schemes, following which it is difficult to confuse anything.

Calibration

The printer is already ready. All axes work as expected, moving in the right direction. The penultimate stage before printing comes - calibration. In fact, we need to adjust the working surface and the vertical axis limit switch so that the nozzle is at a distance of 0. 3-0.5 mm at all points in the field.

Duration

Now about time. Initially, we allocated 5 hours for everything about everything. This was supposed to include an introductory lecture for 30-40 minutes, lunch, and the assembly itself. Oh, how wrong we were! The first event ended in the evening, at about 8 o'clock!

The second tech marathon took about the same time. From this we can conclude that, on average, assembling a printer takes about 8 hours (if you mess around and mess around a little less).

Final

And here are our satisfied participants with their 3D printers!

Team of the Polytechnic Department of the Youth Palace of Youth of Caterinburg

Team of the Center for Education and Professional Orientation of Verkhnyaya Pyshma

Team of the NO64 school from

CHILDERED CEO of the city of IRBITA

9000

Team House of Children creativity of the Oktyabrsky district of Yekaterinburg.

Team of School No1 GO Zarechny

What are 3D printers working on after the technomarathon?

We ourselves, as the organizer, are terribly interested in the further fate of the assembled 3D printers. The very first feedback came from Leonid Gushchin, a teacher at the Robotodrom of the Palace of Youth:

So, 3D printing technologies have come to our circle!
The 3D printer is calibrated and printed the first model: a small robot figure. In honor of the fact that this model is the first, she even received the name Erem. Well, meet our plastic friend!

Of course, the robot figure was not limited:

We played with robot models on Wednesday))
And today we have already printed mounts for servos:

And one more thing:

Well, a 3D printer is really an extremely useful thing! And of course, you understand his work much better when he assembled it himself.
So once again, thanks to the organizers and experts for the techno-marathon!

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Irina Zakirova, the main organizer of the event: “When you organize and hold an event, the results of which are so satisfied with the participants, you feel joy and pride in the quality of the work done. We did it!"
Thanks to Alexey Samoilov, Head of Witbox Maker School (Witbox Russia)
Thanks to the Ural Polytechnic College for the excellent venue for the techno-marathon and help in organizing this event.
Thanks to our experts: Oleg Evsegneev and Pavel Tomshin for their professional work. On March 5, volunteer guys — students and technical specialists — Fedor Zyablitsev, Ilya Bannikov and Igor Vormanov helped the teams a lot in the assembly. Thank you very much!
Thanks to all the participants who, despite being tired and stressed, made it to the end!

In the news

The 3D Printer Assembly Technomarathon even got into the local edition of Vesti-Ural:

What's next?

In the near future, we plan to develop a small master class on modeling and 3D printing, which we will offer to all participants of the technomarthon, or just happy owners of 3D printers.

Athorbot 3d printing build surface