First printer questions

Hi

I am in the process of planning the building of my first 3D printer.
What I have done so far:
I ordered electronics from aliexpress. Still waiting for them to arrive.

I have ordered and received a genuine E3D v6 1.75mm universal hothead.

I took apart a bunch of printers/MFP-s. That got me a bunch of rods including at least six good length 8mm ones. And about 15 NEMA17 steppers and some NEMA23-s. I will try to sort out the most powerful of the NEMA17 ones and try use these.

Now I have couple of questions:

At the moment I am planning to go for the laser cut Graber i3 frame from MDF. Is this a good choice?

Are the Graber MDF x-axis parts OK to use? Or should I better get x-axis parts from Prusa Rework?

I have ordered and already received a MK8 drive gear from banggood.com. It looks very nice - grooves are deep and uniform. As I am not confident about the powerfulness of my steppers, I am thinking I should get parts printed for a geared extruder. What would be the best choice for foolproof extruder that is compatible with the E3Dv6, is geared and uses MK8 drive gear?


Andi

Hi Siil,
That is a good question. I am a new builder as well so I have no answer for you but I and interested in what you get for responces.
I purchased a set of printed parts on eBay for Prusa i3 rework. So far the parts have fit pretty well and I have most of the mechanical compnents assembled. I also purchased a E3Dv6 and have assembled those parts that I received from E3D- it is a nice unit. I'm not so happy with the extruder assembly printed parts. I don't like the way the E3D unit fits into the printed part. Also I ordered a hobbed bolt on eBay that seem to have the hobbed in a locatiojn that doesn't quite line up with the filament hole on the printed part. I think I will have to machine a custom spacer to accurately position the hobbed portion of the bolt.

I would not reccomend MDF parts. I have a lot of experiance with that material and it doesn't stand up well over time. I purchased an aluminum frame on eBay

Good luck with your build
Peter

Wood parts work, but I don't like them long term, some have no problems. I would upgrade in the near future.

On your motors, torque isn't an issue, try and get all axis motors to be the same, regardless of torque. For your extruder though, you certainly want the most torque you can get.

If you have a .5mm nozzle, you can use direct drive. .4mm you can, but you need a torquey motor. At .4 and smaller, you really want gear reduction. It can be a geared extruder or a geared stepper, but get some gear reduction. If you go with a bowden system, use a geared stepper, otherwise, use a geared extruder.

I have no idea on what extruder to use though, I use 1.75mm and bowden tubes, and most cartesians use 3mm and no bowden. It can be done, I just don't know which parts would be best.

Thanks for the tips.

I researched some more and found the P3steel frame variant that can be laser cut from 3mm steel or stainless sheet material. I also found a firm in my home town that agreed to cut the frame for me at a reasonable cost. So thats settled.

I also picked the plastic pieces and extruder. Sort of mix and match. X-axis end parts from i3 rework, this universal x-carriage and for extruder the i3ext from Shane Graber.

I shall see how this all fits together