After pricing out the parts needed to finish the MindelMax 1.5 3D printer design and realizing I want to use rail slides instead of linear bearings and rods, I decided to develop a custom design. This post includes photos and descriptions from the alpha stage of the design. I am finalizing the bata design right now and a lot of what you see in this post has been changed. After a few more tests I will be releasing the design with an open source.

All designs are shared under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licensing.

I constructed the frame of the MindelMax 1.5 3D printer design:

Y & Z Axes:

The current 3D printer design is limited to the 200mm by 200mm hotbed, but in the final design the x-axis has 300mm of printing range. The y-axis will be much larger; I am aiming for 600 to 800mm, but the design could theoretically support double or triple that. After deciding on the rails, I started measuring and drilling holes to accommodate them. I started with the y-axis; the y-axis holds the hot bed and the entire bed moves on two rails. I then moved to the z-axis, with a rail on each side (this might change). I used a M10 coupler bolt as a coupler for the threaded rods and stepper motor.

X-Axis:

Each bracket has to mount a z-axis coupler bolt, a mount for one side of the x-axis rail, a mount for a z-axis rail, a hole for a bearing on the left bracket and a stepper motor mount on the right. Before I could print the new 3d printer design parts, I had to mock them up with random metal parts I had. I used my drill press to drill out the hole for the threaded rods and holes to mount the separate pieces together. I used SteelStik Epoxy Putty to hold a M10 coupler bolt to the bracket. These pictures were taken right before finalizing the beta version of the brackets. This was a good thing because the brackets were falling apart, hence the zip ties.

My next post will be the test prints.

I am happy to announce I am adding a new category to the blog: 3D printing. For years I have wanted a 3D printer but I never found exactly what I wanted. I came across a cragslist post for a lot of 3D printer parts for a great price and I had to take the plunge. The seller was trying to build a MindelMax 1.5. He acquired about 90% of the parts but never started the build.

The lot of parts excluded all the Aluminum extrusions bars, all the plastic parts, RepRap Arduino Mega Pololu Shield (RAMPS 1.4), an Arduino Mega 2560, 5 GADGETS3D A4988 G3D Drivers, an LCD and SHIELD v1.0, 214mmx214mm MK2a PCB Heated Bed and a few other parts. He also through in 4 Vexta high torque stepper motors (PDF)! They are 2-phase with 1.8° step angle. They were wired in a Unipolar configuration so I had to had to rewire them to be bipolar to work with the G3D A4988 Pololu Drivers. I used this diagram.