Large Bed Mendel Max Printer Variant

thingiverse

This is a larger-format printer in the style of the Mendel Max, but with completely new/custom parts designed to give a 12" x 12" x 12" build volume. This was undertaken as a group project by the Port City Makerspace in Portsmouth, NH to provide us with a new piece of equipment - but from the start of the project, the intent was always to document the build and make it available to anyone. The complete build documentation - instructions, pics & videos, notes, and comprehensive BOM are not yet available. For now, you can try to scrape together some useful information from the project wiki here: https://sites.google.com/site/pcmakerspacewiki/home/project However, there is a lot of information that has not been moved up to the wiki yet. As such, please consider this printer an advanced build, that should only be attempted by an individual or group with previous reprap-style experience. That said, In essence, it builds just like a Mendel Max. Notes: On our printer (named "Gipsy Danger" because it's a big-ass 'bot), all printed parts are printed in PLA at 70% infill and .3mm layer height. This is just for reference, do whatever floats your boat. All linear motion in the axes are accomplished with 10mm smooth rods and linear bearings (LM10UU or equivalent). In the pics of our build, we use a monster (~1") smooth rod with bearing blocks for one slide of the Y axis, but that's just beacause someone gave that to us for free. If nobody gave you a monster smooth rod & blocks identical to ours, then you should print the corner pieces that have the 10mm rod holders on both sides, and use three or four bearing "outriggers" to support the sliding bed. Use whatever electronics you'd like - RAMPs, a Printrboard, or build yourself a reprap Generation 7 Electronics board like we did. Our machine uses a custom X-carriage and a direct-drive extruder mechanism designed by one of our members. It should be printed in ABS to resist heat, or you should install a wooden block as an insulator if you want to use PLA. We did a custom extruder setup to allow room for dual extruders; if you don't want that, you can probably adapt the existing x-carriage for a singe Wade's-style extruder. Maybe we'll have time to set up a generic platform at some point. We'll add more notes as we can. Good luck! Group build team at PCMS (portcitymakerspace.com) Instructions Build steps: Here's what you'll need - 1 set of aluminum extrusion parts: Qty 2 top supports Qty 4 diagonal supports Qty 4 base uprights Qty 8 base horizontal segments A complete set of printed parts: 2 each of the left and right corner supports - they are symmetrical front-to-rear so two of each will give you the 4 you need 2 Z motor mounts 2 Z-axis rod top supports 1 Y motor mount 1 set of Y-belt idler parts 1 pair of X axis ends - one end has the motor mount and the other end has the idler 1 X-carriage 1 or 2 extruder assemblies 2 z-motor couplers Qty 6 10mm smooth rods, about 14" in length Qty 12 LM10UU linear bearings Qty 2 Acme lead screws & matching flange nuts Qty 2 drive belts & matching pulleys 5 standard NEMA 17 stepper motors (6 for dual extrusion). This bot is big - go high-torque with heat sinks if you can. Electronics Power supply - 12V 30A ebay special is what we used. Endstop switches Heated bed (optional). We used Qty 6"x6" tiles wired with switches so we only have to heat the front left bed for small prints. You can limit your print area to that tile by temporarily setting your slicer to 150mm x 150mm print area. If you go this route, you'll need to use a separate 12v rail rated high enough to drive 4 tiles, and trigger it with a solid-state relay connected to the heater output of the electronics board. Works for us, anyway. :)