@Ryan, have you considered making injection molds of your own? If you were to bring the plastic parts’ cost down, you could choose one diameter stainless tubing to suggest and standardize to that diameter. Then you wouldn’t need to maintain 3 versions.
Two reasons for that one. There just aren’t standard sizes, best I could get away with would be two and you would all have to buy stainless. The other reason is it slows progress and updates. If I pay $8k for a mold I will not release new parts until it at least pays for itself.
This was originally the plan. I do have a few parts I could make now, and might but I think I might have another redesign first.
Kickstarter? Get the molds paid for up front? Personally, I’m fine with 3d printed parts. Prusa still 3d prints lots of his parts and it’s one of the best printers around. I have an i3 clone with injection molded parts and it’s a POS :shrug:
2’x4’x8" will not work on any of my machines. A drop table is a better solution unless you actually intend on carve 8" in the z direction somehow.
I only want to route up to 3 - 4 inches, probably. The Z travel is for printing BIG, baby! I like what this guy did: https://www.v1engineering.com/forum/topic/my-mpcnc-made-in-china/page/4/#post-34382
Endmills are only about 1" long, the you hit the collet. you can flip the part over to double your cut depth. there are longer endmills but they get very difficult to use the longer they are in the smaller diameters. I have it in the FAQ’s and the Size page, it is best not to mix the two type of machines if a long Z is what you want. Dui is actually trying to make a movable Bed and hold his gantry fixed in the Z, and he has a drop bed. Dui also likes to try everything, if you read through the thread he has tried and changed many things understanding the whole time the consequences. He has a solid grasp on this stuff.
I 100% recommend not to start there, you will not be satisfied with either the prints or the milling. Make your mill and only prints parts at the height you mill to. You can very easily slice your printed parts into layers.
I can’t tell… Are you trolling us?
Okay cool. I was also looking at this build
, but damned if I can find where it came from
Anyway, you got me leaning towards the lowrider now! What do you recommend for the work table? 4" thick is more than a few sheets of MDF. Maybe a door without a hole for the knob? How’s the dimensional accuracy with the lowrider, comparable or better than the MPCNC?
Nope. Serious AF. I’ve been wanting a CNC router for ages. We used to have a shapeoko3XL at work which was lots of fun. But I want to cut 2’x4’ sheets of MDF for speakers. Having a large format 3d printer would be very cool to print some big things. Would be awesome to have one device for everything. Maybe I’ll just cut some pieces with the low rider and build a new 3d printer to replace my POS i3 clone.
James,
I recognize that photo. It is from here: https://www.v1engineering.com/forum/topic/the-inevitable-build-2x3ft-mpcnc/
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Ah, ok. I misread and thought you wanted to mill 8" deep.
Now this conversation is making more sense to me. Sorry.
AFAIK, no one has tried the low rider as a printer. That would be interesting.
I personally made a 24"x36" MPCNC, then used that and my other printer to make an MP3DP, and then I used those two to convert my MPCNC to a Low Rider. I haven’t ever tried 3D printing on the MPCNC, although there are a lot of people who do. They just don’t usually also mill big sheets.
No, from a local metal supply house. I am near Austin, TX, so I used metals4u. They have an online branch as well (metals4uonline.com), but most major cities have some sort of metal supply warehouse.
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Cool. I live in Austin, so I’ll simply follow the trail you blazed. Exactly which SS tube did you get from them? Did you have them cut it for you, or did you get it as one piece?
If they can cut it, let them. Unless you have a metal band saw in your shop.
I take it that a regular pipe cutter won’t cut it so well? Or does it?
I don’t have that, but I do have one of these: Search - Diablo Tools
Cuts through metal like butter. Produces clean cuts at a nice 90 degree angle.
I don’t think I’d be able to order any packages in that area until they catch this idiot bomber… You guys stay safe down there!!
Does it matter to the printed parts what the wall thickness is of the SS tube? i.e. will they fit properly regardless?
The ID of the tubing will not be an issue for fitment of the parts.
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I purchased a full 20’ length as I have a portable band saw to cut it myself. Metals4u only had one type in stock when I bought, it was satin finish T-304 1" OD 0.065" wall (called stainless steel welded round tube). They will cut it, but I think you have to pre-pay and then it takes them a day to have it ready. They are actually in Pflugerville on IH-35. If you are further south, you could get ahold of westbrook metals, they are near airport and lamar, they will cut while you wait, but I didn’t ever call them to see what they had in stock.
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Running the numbers for the tube weight plus a 5# load, with a span of 48", the amount of deflection in inches is:
3/4"EMT. Deflection: 0.65". Tube weight: 1.84#
1"T-304-SS, 0.065" wall thickness. Deflection: 0.45". Tube weight: 2.66#
1"T-304-SS, 0.12" wall thickness. Deflection: 0.36". Tube weight: 4.62#
Conclusion: Not surprisingly, the SS is more rigid, and the above quantifies by how much.
Note: I also ran the numbers for 12", and at that length the deflection is quite small.