I recently printed what I believe is the largest single part printed by a custom designed, RepRap based, home-built 3D printer. The part measures 376 x 376 x 250mm [14.80 x 14.80 x 9.84in] and took just under 2 days to print with a .25mm layer height. More info/specs, lots of pics and a sweet time lapse video of the build are below.
The Part
I used Solidworks to design this cool looking part so that it would max out my build volume on the printer. The part was designed and printed hollow, with a single wall thicknesses (0.5mm) and is made of fully recyclable ABS plastic (for example this is basically the same plastic LEGOs are made from). By printing the part hollow, as opposed to a complete solid, the part is much less likely to warp during printing. In fact, this part did not warp at all. It came out quite nicely and only required minimal clean-up with an exacto knife.
Here are some specs of the print from Skeinforge (The program that slices the 3D model and generates machine commands):
Extent
X axis extrusion starts at -188 mm and ends at 188 mm, for a width of 376 mm.
Y axis extrusion starts at -188 mm and ends at 188 mm, for a depth of 376 mm.
Z axis extrusion starts at 0 mm and ends at 318 mm, for a height of 318 mm.Extruder
Build time is 57 hours 37 minutes 32 seconds.
Distance extruded is 3112504.4 mm.
Distance traveled is 4144655.0 mm.
Extruder speed is 9.8
Extruder was extruding 75.1 percent of the time.
Extruder was toggled 41094 times.
Operating flow rate is 1.5 mm3/s.
Feed rate average is 20.0 mm/s, (1198.7 mm/min).Filament
Cross section area is 0.077 mm2.
Extrusion diameter is 0.31 mm.
Extrusion fill density ratio is 0.61Material
Volume extruded is 238.7 cc.Meta
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Version is 10.11.05Slice
Layer thickness is 0.25 mm.
Perimeter width is 0.5 mm.
Based on the extruded volume, 238.7cc, this part cost me roughly $5 USD worth of ABS plastic. As for machine electricity costs, we can round up that the machine uses 0.5kWh, so running for around 48 hours will cost approximately $2.50 USD at $0.10/kWh. So a very rough estimate for the total cost of this print is $7.50 USD. You will also notice that the part was supposed to print for a little longer and was supposed to be a little taller, but unfortunately, after approximately 48 hours of continuous printing, the plastic extruder jammed. Hey, it took a lot of work to get to this point and it’s still a pretty big print! :P
The Part on the machine at the end of the print
Front view of the Part
The Part with a standard deck of playing cards for a scale comparison
The Part with a standard deck of playing cards for a scale comparison
Top Down view of the part
Another Angled view of the part
Angled view of the part
A look inside the hollow part. The dark bar is a support structure.
Very nice! Would you mind sharing some tips on how to get such smooth arc surfaces? I have been fighting small blobs for quite awhile now.
The smooth arcs are a result of creating the STL file at a higher resolution with more triangles
what is that part for?
It’s just a cool part I designed to max out my build area. People have been saying to put a piece of glass on it to use it as an end table. (It would actually need to be taller for that though)
That is such a sick printer, pretty soon, itll be the printer that defines the wrold!!!
lol
Can we get a parts list and specs for your machine?
Hey Andy, I am working on releasing a BOM and Drawings
What is your maximum feedrate on the X and Y axis?
20.0 mm/s
Did it really take 3km of filament?
ah not really, that skeinforge output is not correct. Using my 1.75mm filament, it was probably around 0.1km
Congratulations! That’s a fantastically huge print.
Thanks Adam!
That’s impressive – My machine should be able to print bigger, but I haven’t gotten there yet, due to the warping issue :-}
I believe my tallest print still holds the record with regards to height – http://reprap.org/wiki/MegaMendel.
I’ll take up the challenge as my theoretical build envelope is 766mm x 453mm x 497mm. But the 497mm in height was a bit of a hack – I’ll just settle for an object of some 750mm x 450mm x 450mm.
Triffid Hunter – The 3km is the extrusion length at 0.5mm, the amount of 3mm filament used is more in the neighbourhood of some 0.150km – Still impressive though!
Jim – My biggest problem is warping, and I noticed that your record print is composed of circular shapes, that, by nature do not warp. Have you got any experience with objects of other shapes, especially when you get to a height where the heated build bed’s effect decreases? Maybe we have a common challenge here?
Jim – Congratulations – It’s awasome! :-)
I did drop a comment yesterday, but it seems to have been kicked off for some reason – I thought we were in this together – So please let me know if I stepped on someone’s toes!
Gert, my wordpress automatically flags a comment as spam if there is a link in it
I think, I was a bit impatient – Sorry! :-/
I am a small business owner and I need a large 3D printer for some military sensor projects I am doing for SOCOM. If I ever get a Govt money I can buy one. For now I am going to have to build one. I came across your site today and I was amazed.
This morning I bought the SpaceClaim CAD software so we can do our own sensor case designs in-house. Now I just need to be able to build the prototypes myself.
If you produce the BOM and Drawings, put me on the list. I will be happy to contribute to help the effort.
Great job. BTW, even if you only have a partial, I could start buying parts and perhaps begin some of the assembly.
Thanks Craig, I am working on it.
whats the minimum layer thickness?
i.e high resolution properties?
As it says in the post, this print was .25mm layer height. With the right process and nozzle any layer height is possible.
Hi Jim
really nice work
I came across your link looking for 3D printers
I have read the previous posts from 2011 and was also interested in building this printer
i do not see any posts in regards to BOM and drawing since Sept 2011
so is there any update?
Still working on it
Hi Jim,
Could I commission you to design and construct a similar 3D printer for me? I am in the market for a printer with a slightly larger bed.
Hello build plans, cad models and bill of materials are available in the Plans&BOM link on the left side of the page