Custom Designed & Fabricated Cartesian 3D Printer [2019-2020]
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Miniature Concept Model & Testing
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Researched 3D printer mechanism designs and control fundamentals
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Decided to commit to attempting to design a Cartesian printer
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Acquired necessary electrical, computational & mechanical parts
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Performed a tear-down of old CD Rom Drives to use as makeshift motor-rail assemblies
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Utilized Creo to design several prototype parts
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Assembled a miniature model using extrusion for the frame
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Wired up the motors to an Arduino Mega + RAMPs Board
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Began learning how to control Stepper motors & work with Arduino software interfaces
Full Scale Model Prototyping
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Ordered necessary mechanical mounting hardware and rail system to scale from the CD drive concept to a more practically sized printer
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Brainstormed mechanism placement, using research as basis for design
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Designed and printed, what would be, the first of several iterations of stepper motor brackets and slider rail mount adapters
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Designed a plate to join the print bed to rail mounts
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Utilized a laser cutter to cut acrylic prototypes
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Created a tool path file and used a water jet to cut the final part out of a sheet of aluminium
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Designed and assembled a bed leveling suspension system by designing and printing an adjustable screw & spring driven mechanism
Creo: Assembly & Part Design
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Worked to model, print, mill, water jet, and laser cut the additional parts needed to mesh the acquired and cut extrusion into a functional, accurate, and adjustable system
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Aside from assembly, the bulk of the project's development time was spent in this phase as it required multiple iterations per part & several mechanism adjustments/re-designs to get the positioning and motion correct
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Fabrication
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Assembled the designed components, making sure to manually test the motion of each axis as I went along and made adjustment as needed
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Such adjustments included a complete tear-down and re-assembly process upon realizing one threaded rod on the z-axis was not efficient and would result in jamming
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A second threaded rod assembly was deigned, printed, an added to fix this issue
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During this time I experimented with some of the concepts I had learned while working at iRobot, including incorporating snaps in to a phone control mount
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This process also required me learn a great deal about electronics as I spent time taking a soldering class and researching electronic power diagrams
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I used this knowledge to modify and old PC ATX power supply to work with the Arduino+RAMPs board and connect all the necessary motors, sensors, and components
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Updates and Improvements
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Implemented controller system on a Samsung Note smartphone and Raspberry Pi via OctoPrint server
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Software allows remote access, monitoring and control over local network via guest computer
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Adjusted printer's firmware settings, alongside a number of mechanical positioning tweaks, to drastically improve print quality
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Calibrated a series of 1 mm^3 test cubes to an accuracy of ±0.05 mm and print layer height of 0.3 mm at a feed rate of 10 mm/s
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Successfully printed "Benchy" calibration boat.
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The 3D Benchy is a 3D computer model specifically designed for testing the accuracy and capabilities of 3D printers. The 3D Benchy is described by its creator, Creative Tools, as 'the jolly 3D printing torture-test'
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Once functional, I used the printer to print new components to increase functionality, adding features such as a heated print bed, automatic print surface leveling, and part cooling.
