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Building a Massive 60inch 3D Printer

musmoros

Hi guys,

 

I'm in need of a large 60inch cube 3D printer. As im in Australia, there really arent any 3D printed services. Ive done quite a alot of research and think I can stick one together. However, I'm going to need finding motors and controllers. As a guide ill be using this http://www.grassrootsengineering.com/blog/mymachine/

I know that ABS warps over large print areas so ill be a using a superstrong low warping material. http://www.taulman3d.com/618-features.html Nylon 618 doesnt need a heatbed either.

Any help or tips where to find parts for this mini project would be much appreciated.

  • I am very curious why you need a 3D Printer that large.

     

    For the cost and the ability to print large volume items, I would go with a modular part design and use multiple smaller 3D printers.

    Plus it will take a very long time to print anything that large.

     

    Just curious,

    DAB

  • A printer of that scale will experience issues with alignment and support near the midpoint of the longer spans, so you will need to counter that with enhanced rigidity in material selection. Your motors will need more torque but you can find industrial steppers easily enough and driver circuits rated for them. The same controller circuitry can work provided you isolate the driver power from the control busses. You will experience very long print times as you increase total build volume, but can offset this slightly by increasing the bore of your nozzle and layer height. You will reduce resolution but achieve prints in a useful timeframe. You can see this in very large scale printers like the Contour Crafting cement printers, etc. Taulman nylon will give you good prints with minimal warping, but has a different structural quality in comparison to more rigid materials like ABS and PLA. Just keep that in mind if you are planning to 3D print entire bicycles or similar scale load-bearing objects.  Good printing!

    Kirk Hausman