Scale down the prints to 8mm solid rod

My son was just looking at my MPCNC and asked if he could make a 3D printer. Would it be feasible to scale town to use 8mm rods instead of the 3/4 conduit?
I know everything would need to scale down. He wants to make it into a desk top model. I would like to get some input before I start printing some tests.

It would not be that easy. The bolt holes would need to be the same size, not scaled. The whole center assembly would not work at all. There seems to be some interest in standalone 3d printers and I have not had luck with the super cheap models available. I have 3 different ones, and the second one the board died, the screen died, the extruder stepper died, pretty bad. So I think I am going to give it a shot see what I come up with and see how it goes. Hopefully make a MP3DP…8mm rod and all.

^ Sounds cool!

If you are looking for a decent desktop printer for cheap the Folgertech 2020 is good. It uses the same electronics as the MPCNC and a similar extruder to the one sold as an add on. It is a kit and requires a lot of assembly, but just like the MPCNC once you get it built and tuned up it is a good machine.

But if you already have a 3d printer (presumably that you used to print the mpcnc) then it would be cool to print a printer. I’d imagine it will take a while for vicious to design one and release it. He is good about not releasing bad designs.

That one does look good. When I bought my last one I remember you talking good about the Folgertech and I didn’t get it for some reason. Wish I did that looks great.

Yeah I’m sure I couldn’t beat that price by much, but I have a cnc machine now and would really like to make a few printers of my own. I have 6 now 4 different kinds and they still fascinate me. I’d love to make a printed and CNC’d fun project, maybe people can cut parts for there friends and recoup the cost of the cnc that way. How cool would that be!

That would be really cool. It would be cool to use my MPCNC to help build a new 3d printer.

Yeah, the Folgertech seems like a solid printer. I don’t personally own one, but I have a few friends that do. I’m running one right now. Seems pretty good for the price and assembly doesn’t seem that bad other than having to get stuff lined up/square. Dealing with some noise issues on one right now, but I think he has the belts too tight. Looking at it they could have made it smaller and kept the build volume the same. I’m guessing that they can order the 2020 extrusion and other stuff in the size they are using without adding costs to cutting it to length. Really just the bed would need to be made bigger to take advantage of the extra space, but I think the bed is some cheap standard thing.

A mostly printed 3d printer brother for the MPCNC would be cool. I think there are already some mostly printed 3d printer designs out there though.

@Vicious, it sounds like you’d likely design a better printer than the Folger Tech 2020. There’s a speed build of one of these on YT (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UTQGLjIkLkM). In the comments, the builder says he had issues with it and ultimately scrapped it. In any case, I’m sure you could come up with an excellent table-top machine around that price point. If you do go that route, I’d be happy to help.

I have built a few different style printers. I think I could make something that is a little easier to assemble. Every single one I build has a ton of different sized screws, makes it so unpleasant to build. even if I just remixed a different design to use as few sizes of screws as possible would make a cool printer to build. But I want to make something that needs to be milled and printed. I think It would be an awesome project. Now with LOE69’s help we could even etch the parts with some cool graphics, sounds so fun.

Oh yeah, you could totally make it easier to assemble. The 2020 seems like someone sat down and just found a bunch of parts that fit together to make a decent low cost printer that they just had to order the parts for and then sell the parts in a kit. I think the only custom thing on it is the firmware for the ramps board and all they did was set the right dimensions and put their name on the startup screen.