My Zen Toolworks cnc mill to 3D Printer Conversion...

The new extruder, just introduced this week by Zen Toolworks, makes it a snap to convert any of their cnc mills, to a fully functioning 3D Printer.

This extruder is an all metal, top quality extruder. And the new backplate makes it a snap to install on any of their machines.



I used a Sanguinololu controller, and loaded it with the Merlin firmware.
The hotend was from hotends.com.

Having absolutely no experience doing 3D printing, I was just a bit reluctant to tackle this build.
But with all the great information available here, and in the Zen Tools Wiki, it was a whole lot easier than I ever thought it would be.



My machine is a low gantry mill. I only have 2 inches on Z. But I am still able to do quality prints with this setup.
But I am hooked now, and plan on raising the gantry to 5 inches.

What a GREAT addition to my shop. Coupled with my DYI 24x24 cnc mill, I will be busy making new things for a long time to come.....



What fun.......

Ken

Awesome Ken! I have just about all I need to get my 7x7 up. Need to get that plate to mount my Greg's Hinged Accessible Extruder on. I too am going to hold off on the Z enlargement till I get everything up and running.

I also got a J-Head for the hot end. My only beef is I am having a heck of a time trying to figure out to mount it. I notice your wonderful aluminum mount and wondering if you made it or is it something purchased? Any help on wrapping this up would be great.


Kevin Groce

Great setup! I too would LOVE to know how you mounted the J-head...that metallic mount is indeed great....can you share how you made that or where you purchased it from? Thanks!