JunkStrap

As the title implies , a finally managed to 'finish' my 3d printer. As the name implies, this was built using only junk items and a minimum of tools.
No printed parts.
Its frame is made off wood from old pieces of furniture, linear guides are drawer slides, belts and pulleys are salvaged from old inkjet printers.
Initially motors were from old scanners/printers too, but then i found a nice offer for nema clones and went for those.
Build volume is max 300x300x300 mm, but i didnt need to use all of it yet.
Now there are still issues to ne resolved, BUT for now its precise enough to print parts to resolve those issues and later to print parts for a more 'professional' looking printer.
The filament i use is 2.7-2.9mm diameter nylon trimmer/weedwacker line at arround 240-250c

I mostly did it to show it is still possible to build a dirt cheap 3d printer without actually having access to a 3d printer.
Here is a short low quality vid of the printer printing the large gear of the wade extruder, i will have to take better pics / vids of it, when i have the time
[www.youtube.com]

Nicely done. I wish you had of taken pictures

That is pretty impressive. Bravo!

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Son of MegaMax 3D printer: [www.instructables.com]
Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

Ty for the comments,
i attached 2 images, one of the printer itself, in a more complete view, and one of a skull that i had to stop mid print, cause i ran out of fillament xD.

i am actually surprised by the drawer slides stability, although if someone wnts to build one using drawer slides, know they have some play, i solved the problem by making the holes for mounting the platforms (the moving part) a bit closer together, so when i mounted the platforms it put a strain in the direction of the play , simillar to what one does to preload nus for backlash. Also the nuts on the threaded rod are preloaded (spring is in the back though, so its not visible).

Still using trimmer line, but i might have a go at pla or abs
the pictures dont do justice to the detail though, also im thinking of ways to smooth nylon prints

If you guys have any ideeas im all ears xD, i was thinking of maybe putting the print in an oven hopefully melting layer lines while keeping detail

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2017 09:08PM by alex.me.

It looks like your nylon has absorbed a lot of moisture (nylon does that- for printing you have to keep it stored in desiccant and maybe even bake the moisture out before trying to print) causing the rough print surface. I'll bet if you try a fresh spool of PLA things will look a lot nicer.

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Son of MegaMax 3D printer: [www.instructables.com]
Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

yeah humidity is an issue. I did notice tho that its highly reduced if i turn off the hot end fan. Probably since the feeding end of the hotend gets rather hot, it may evaporate some of the moisture before the fillament gets to the nozzle. I tried it at 240c , reduced popping alot and to my surprise it didnt jam the extruder.. Also i retracted the fillament to see if it swells / expands in the hotend, wich usually happens when heatbreak isnt proper / cold end not cooled. But to my surprise the fillament didnt expand. I will torture the hotend some more since its a cheap e3d v5 china clone.
Anyway still tunning speed / retraction / flow, and quality increases with every tweak. Im surprised trimmer line handles so well as fillament o.o

I think the first repreppers were using nylon string trimmer filament on the earliest machines.

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Son of MegaMax 3D printer: [www.instructables.com]
Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

it may seem silly but my first try was with electric wire insulation, but i quickly discarded the ideea since what came out of the nozzle was far from a thin straight line but more of a bloby curly mess thingie