After a year’s work designing, building, scrapping, redesigning, building, and working through software and firmware issues, the MegaMax 3D printer is now functional. It has some common 3D printing issues like printed objects peeling up off the glass printbed. Tweaked settings in Slic3r, ABS “juice”, and Aquanet hairspray have all been tested with moderate success in attempts to improve adhesion to the printbed. Finally, have_blue gave me a block of foam out of the Stratasys printer to try out and it seems to work better than the other methods and doesn’t require heating the bed! Further experiments to be conducted post-haste.
More info on this project can be found here: http://wiki.milwaukeemakerspace.org/projects/megamax_3d_printer
MegaMax printing on foam from Stratasys printer.
Nice! “@mkemakerspace: MegaMax 3D printer lives! After a year designing, building, scrapping, redesigning … http://t.co/fE4sN2pxRL”
Check out “MegaMax 3D printer lives!” http://t.co/MMKGzKTOdl via @mkemakerspace
The Digital Dentist has finally got the MegaMax up and running!
http://t.co/pCmFlZDjET
I ran in to you just after you got it working. How did you get that aluminum version of the spring lever fix for the stepstruder made?
The spring level is a simple version of the 3D printable plastic mods found on Thingiverse. First, I found a suitable bearing in a box at the makerspace, then a suitable screw to hold it, then a suitable spring, and I was off to the races. The motor accepts M3 screws, and the screw I used to mount the bearing is a 6-32 part, so I marked off the outline of the lever on a piece of 1/4″ aluminum scrap, then drilled holes for the pivot and the bearing screw 12mm apart. I left the lever longer than necessary while I thought about how to retain the spring. Once the holes were drilled in the lever I milled the bottom side to allow the lever to clear the bump on the motor, then tapped the 6-32 hole, then cut the lever out of the larger piece of scrap using the band saw. The other piece was fabricated by drilling a hole to clear the M3 screw and again cut the part out of a larger piece of 1/8″ aluminum scrap with the band saw again. I decided the easiest way to retain the spring was to put fingers of metal inside it, so I drilled another hole in the lever and tapped it for a 6-32 screw and the small piece has its own finger. Those two fingers trap the spring so it can’t pop out.
I’ll make a 3D drawing in sketchup with dimensions and post it somewhere.
Thanks for the detailed description!