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
Text has 3445976 lines and a size of 165227.0 KB.
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.
Since I started this website in December 2010, it has received a lot of attention, especially from my NPR Science Friday video interview. Since then I have accepted a position with 3D Systems, the leading 3D printer manufacturer! (Just to be clear, they are not acquiring my printer or website, just me as an engineer!)
It was time for a new plastic extruder head with better resolution, more measurable deposition and could compensate for slight changes in filament diameter without jamming. I modified an extruder design that Matt Laberge had uploaded and printed it with my old extruder. The new extruder uses 1.75mm ABS plastic filament, so it is much easier to work with a melt down than 3mm. It is acuated by a geard NEMA 17 stepper motor and also has a spring loaded idler wheel to account for slight changes in filament diameter. I also am using a .35mm nozzle for higher resolution with a .25mm layer height. The old extruder used a .50mm nozzle with .50mm layer height so I have effectively doubled the resolution. The new extruder is also around a quarter the size of the old one.
New Extruder Being Printed by the Old one
Brass Threaded Thermoplastic Inserts last longer than tapping the plastic
Old Extruder next to the New Extruder
New Extruder mounted
