DDY's 3D Printer Adventure

[DDY]

Whoa, not another one of DDY's project logs?

*I'll get around to finishing that camera slider one day, the 3D printer will no doubt help.

This time, I'll be documenting my journey in to the world of 3D printing, starting with the build of course.

I've wanted a 3D printer for a long time but I've been put off by the price and difficulty of sourcing and assembling parts myself. Now that indie and commercial kits are widely available at reasonable prices I decided to take the plunge.

http://www.k8200.eu/

The Velleman K8200 is a commercial 3D Reprap kit. It's an XY bed, Z head design with a relatively large 20x20x20cm print area, capable of printing in PLA and ABS.

I had the cheaper Reprap Mendel designs in mind but I snapped at an opportunity to bag the K8200 for less than £400 delivered, a great price for a commercial offering.

The K8200 kit arrived today:




This is the most complex project I've attempted to date, an assembly manual isn't included with the kit but instead a comprehensive assembly manual is provided online. I hate referencing things off a computer screen, thankfully Velleman have compiled the assembly guide in to a 45MB, 619 page PDF - which I printed.

This is what a 3D printer assembly manual looks like on A4 paper:


(single sided, two pages per sheet!)

Will be starting the build tomorrow, I haven't been this excited over a box of goodies since I was 10 on Christmas eve!

[peterb]

Looking forward to seeing the build, and even better, some of the output!

[dhw00t]

This should be good - looking forward to seeing the photos

[mikerr]

Took me 2 weekends to build my RepRap Huxley "mini printer" (£411), but it was well worth it,
build area is "only" 140x140x90 - but I've not been restricted by that TBH

There were a few headaches along the way, mainly with prints not sticking to the bed and messing up anywhere from first layer, to 10 minute in
but blue painters tape fixed that and not had a single lifted print problem since !

[santa claus]

I love it when you guys do project logs. I wouldn't have the nerve to post a pile of bits with a massive manual and then proceed to 'publicly' assemble it all!

Looking forward to the progress and the product; good luck DDY .

Btw, that reminds me, where is BSODmike these days?

[Funkstar]

Has anyone else seen the partwork in news agents for a 3D printer?

Caught my eye, but I assumed it was garbage and would work out very expensive after collecting all the issues.

[Lucio]

I'd love one of these for custom roleplay miniatures but my problem with this would be finding a source of suitable files to print out.

Hopefully in a few more years time as the technology matures, companies will start offering the equivilent of "PDF" files to use, where you can buy a licence to a model and then make as many copies as you want from home.

[wasabi]

DDY - curious to know what you intend to make with it?

[TheAnimus]

Please tell me you printed all languages or something, the instructions can't be that big surely!

[Frankenfurter]

WOAH! Those instructions! :S
I hope TheAnimus is right here or that's one wordy booklet.

Anyway - I'll look forward to seeing how you get on with this. Largely so I can read along and fantasise about having my very own reprap. Good luck!

[Jellyfish]

This could be awesome! Looks pretty crazy, that instruction manual looks a beast to get through Can't wait to see more!

[Jonj1611]

Please tell me you printed all languages or something, the instructions can't be that big surely!

I downloaded the manual to look as wondered that myself, its all English but lots of pictures with many pages having 2 pictures per A4 sheet

[Frankenfurter]

Well that makes sense I suppose.

Even so, that's a lot of diagrams! Surely they could have condensed it a little.

[santa claus]

Well that makes sense I suppose.

Even so, that's a lot of diagrams! Surely they could have condensed it a little.

Yeah, it could have been done in one page with one of those IKEA-type blokes holding a screwdriver, assembling the lot in 3 easy stages and a big tick at the end

I bet DDY will be glad of that manual!

[DDY]

The assembly manual is indeed full of photos. Credit to Velleman the images are clear and unambiguous. The text is also very easy to follow. Printing the manual shagged the toner cart though.

It's also worth noting, two pages in the PDF manual were in the wrong order, potentially leading to many hours of work that would need to be undone. For reference, it's during the base assembly when three square nuts are to be installed midway between the x-axis rails. Having said all of that, it should be obvious that something's not quite right and is easy to figure out.

As for what I intend to print; things, lots of things.

For example, my other running project, the camera slider. There are many parts that I still need to fabricate, such as; a tripod mounting interface, end stop brackets, shutter remote holder, chassis for the electronics...

Here are some other things I have in mind;

- Case for a DIY 14Ah portable USB charger
- SLR lens extension
- Full-auto AR-15
- Tripod QR plates
- GPS mount for my motorcycle
- Figurines

I will be designing pretty much everything myself. I'm reasonably versed on CAD and I've designed stuff that's been 3D printed before. The CAD part of this project is still a ways away, but of course I'll share that experience once I get there.

Speaking of experiences. It's not easy fitting two dozen of these with a £2.50 set of circlip pliers.



Anyway, here's 6 hours worth of work. The only mechanical thing left to fit is the extruder.

[peterb]

Speaking of experiences. It's not easy fitting two dozen of these with a £2.50 set of circlip pliers.

For two dozen, I might have invested in these



http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/circlip-pliers/5416848/

On the other hand, you got the job done, so maybe not!

Looking forward to seeing it in action - video perhaps?

(Er... there still seems to be a worryingly large number of bits on the RHs of the middle pic...)

Please tell me you printed all languages or something, the instructions can't be that big surely!

Of course he did - and judging by the thickness - in 3D too