Smoothie Aq CEVO

The aluminium bed will expand when heated, and I will have to take that into account when designing the mount for my bed. But how much does it expand? I googled a number of thermal expansion calculators, and somewhat to my surprise they don’t give the same result, although they do give results in the same ballpark. The calculator https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/thermal-expansion seems well done and well documented. Using that, I get that a 300x300mm plate will expand 0.4mm in width when the temperature rises from 22 degree C to 80 degree C. The change in thickness is so small that it will not matter. Another issue is that the bed may warp. Obviously a thinner bed will warp more easily, and as I understand it, a rolled aluminum sheet will warp more than a cast sheet. The very best is therefor a thick cast aluminum sheet. I will have to take this into account when designing my bed mount. However, it also makes me think that it might not be so good an idea to print first lay

The HEVO uses lead screws and steel rods for Z-movement and steel rods and belts for X- and Y-movement. A lot of experimentation are going on of using flat linear rails with bearing blocks and also some on using V-slots and wheels. This in some ways seems the way to go, but it does not (yet) seem clear to me which parts to choose in that direction, and I will stick with screws, rods and belts for the first iteration of my CEVO printer. I will however look into using carbon tubes instead of steel rods, and will also try a somewhat different configuration of both Z and X/Y.

Most CoreXY have a square outer frame, and I am using the HEVO design. I am using the 300x300x300 design from the configurator  but with an extra height of 100mm, so I can keep the electronics at the bottom. My plan is to use a thick MDF plate at the bottom, both for mounting the electronics and for adding weight and rigidity to the frame. Also, I will lower the top front bar, just to get a different look (an idea I got from somewhere I forgot). The precise measures of the 3030 extrusions are made to fit a 300x300mm build plate with the standard mounting parts. I will probably not use the standard parts, but will just choose or design parts so the fit with the standard frame and build plate. This fixes at least some variables, and allowed me to get an (almost) standard frame kit. more info will come here as I start the actual build...

By toolchain I will mean the chain of tools that brings me from an idea of a 3D object to the movements of the printer that prints that object (a somewhat extended definition compared to https://reprap.org/wiki/CAM_Toolchains ). There are quite a lot of independence in these tools, as they largely use standard interfaces to communicate, so this is just my current choices - some of these choices does however influences some of the design choices of the printer as such. Modeling Before starting with 3D printing I had no experience with 3D modelling. However for me 3D printing is as much about the possibility of designing objects as it is about printing them. I started out with Sketchup , witch is free and quite approachable when you have no prior modeling experience. However my conclusion is that Sketchup is just no good for 3D part modeling. Some more Googling has turned me toward Fusion 360 , which is a professional tool, but is free for makers. I find Fusion 360 quite intimidat

I’ve been bitten by the bug. It all started early 2018 on a totally different hobby project, where I needed some project boxes and other parts. That caused me to look into 3D printers, and I quickly became fascinated. This blog is about building a 3D printer pretty much from scratch. My first go was an Anet A6 printer kit. I got it for USD 200 inclusive shipping. This is really a great printer with a great community. It comes as a box of parts, but prints great after assembly. There a lots of modifications you can do to improve it in various ways. I don’t really need a 3D printer, and for sure I don’t need two, nor anything more advanced that my A6. But building and improving a 3D printer is immensely satisfying; it is a bug that have bitten a large number of hobbyist and makers around the world. Being part of that community is satisfying as well. My second printer is just for the fun of it, but I am going to be more ambitious this time than just buying a kit or even than just