Mendel Falcon 3d Printer

Here is my iteration of the Mendel.. It is still a work in progress, but I should have the design files posted online in the near future. It has a functional build area of about 11.5" x 11.5" x 8". The goal is to have the highest performance at a low cost.

This project is just a couple weeks old so I am still tweaking and improving it quite a bit, but it looks like it will be able to print PLA reliably and of reasonable quality at around 200-250 mm/s max speed with 500ish mm/s travel speeds..

I shot a couple videos explaining the design a bit.. They aren't great videos, but they should get the idea across..

[www.youtube.com]

[www.youtube.com]

Feel free to post questions, comments, and/or suggestions...

Here's another video running 800mm/s and 700mm/s travels on the x and y axes respectively...

[www.youtube.com]

Beautiful machine, the way you have mounted the X-carriage makes perfect sense to me.
The carriage is put vertical, but I see the two smooth rods are not directly above eachother, seems very balanced and logical.

I think my next machine will be a Prusa i3 or a Mendel90... Or a Falcon

Thanks Ohmarinus,

I am still working on the design files, but knowing there is interest will help motivate me to get it done faster..

Like the look of this too, its a pretty novel (to me at least) x axis configuration. Do you think this is physically better or just another take on other vertical x axis? Not wanting to be critical, just curious if I should be making a similar change when I upgrade the frame of my Prusa V2, the falcon looks like a strong contender if it is!

I would say it is both physically better (if only slightly) and just another take on the vertical x axis. The purpose of its geometry is to reduce moments acting on the x axis when rapidly changing directions. For this purpose, I think it does a great job. It also allows easy access to the drive belt and extruder nozzle. In the practical sense running at real world travel speeds, however, there probably isn't a huge benefit over a good vertical x axis configuration. I can't say for sure, since I have never played with a typical vertical x axis. I can say with utmost confidence that it is way way better than my original Prusa Mendel horizontal x axis..

Hi Mac, I've decided to start building a MendelMax 1.5 now.

Implementing a few of my own ideas for now like the vertical X-axis. For now I've taken the Prusa i3's vertical axis since it fits on the machine better. When I would use a design like yours, the X-motor would get in the way of the frame.

See here:
[forums.reprap.org]