I decided to switch from a Rostock to a Prusa i3, but using a frame made from 3/4" birch ply, instead of the 3/16" acrylic or aluminum that is normally used. The strength of the box frame will be relatively immense, and will be VERY resistant to vibration from the printer's operations, which should make for better, cleaner prints. So last weekend, I teased you guys with a 2D render of what the basic frame will look like... Anyhow, I have fired up the tablesaw and cut some wood... And printed a few pieces that will be part of the Z-axis... (note: not cleaned up yet, these are fresh off the printer) And now I've trimmed one of the big sidewalls and gotten it aligned with my 90-degree thingies and clamps, and then glued it together. This weekend, I will erect the other tower, and connect them! Right now, the X-axis parts are printing on my old Mendel. For those who are new to my madness, I will be using the RAMPS 1.4 board (with Arduino 2650 MEGA microcontroller (no, I didn't name it MEGA, the company did)) which is in very wide use in the reprap community. I also have an LCD screen that has buttons and a knob to allow control over basic functions without a PC.
That's the plan. The back part of the frame will include some removable panels that will form the back of the enclosure. Those will be 1/4" cheap ply, since they will not be structural, and I have two 4'x4' sheets of it laying around... I also took an Amazon gift card that was sitting around, and converted it into a 600W ATX power supply that will get here next week and get modded into a 12V PSU for the i3. Also, got notification from Hong Kong that my parts from there have shipped. My vertical axis will be running 8mm nice leadscrews (not quite ACME screws, but better than the usual 5mm threaded rod by a kilometer ) and long brass nuts for better stability. Also getting some more GT2 belt and nice machined aluminum drive cogs for my stepper motors to pull on the GT2. Printed pulleyas are ok, given that my Mendel's been using them for years now... but I've also had issues with them slipping as they got older, and moving up and down the shaft of the stepper motor, which affects the print. I replaced the worst offender, the Y-belt pulley, on the Mendel several months back. Today is Friday, so that means Great Things(tm) will be happening in the vonTugboat shop tomorrow!
For those not in the know, Tug is building a variant of this: His version appears to be "Tuggy Tough"!
I haven't looked at what s involved in a while, but from memory, ATX power supplies generate a 5v standby and expect to see a load on it (minor). Then a momentary power button is pressed (I think providing a low logic voltage?) which signals via the connected device to the PSU the need to power on. (unlike the AT style with distinct on/off buttons) Edit: Here is a decent little writeup : Convert ATX PSU to Bench Supply to Power Circuits
Basically: cut all the power out leads except the 12V ones, a single 5V one, a single green one, and the ground ones. Connect a 10 ohm sand bar resistor between the 5V and ground, then connect the green wire and ground (you could put a switch there, but I use the switch on the PSU itself). Get as many +12V wires together as you can, and solder them to your + terminal of your choice of connector, and then do the same with ground wires and the - terminal. close up the case and presto, you've got power. My Corsair 600W PSU puts out like 64A on the +12V bus, more than enough for running a 3D printer. Waaay more than the stock 30A PSU puts out (which is iffy for printing ABS).
If you want to build your printer from wood, the Smartcore looks like a good printer to check out. If it's anything like my CoreXY, it will be very fast, plus it looks simple to build.
The second tower is assembled but needs sanding before it permanently joins the baseboard. But it looks cool standing up on the baseboard where it'll go! Non-i3 news, I finally got the Ormerod2's hotend cleared! It extrudes, and thus I may print with it. Oh, the joy
