And here with Michael and look at this stunning Urban Hacker Space Street Wear Doesn't it look stunning? Very cool. Very cool. He's going to tell us all about he's new. Do it yourself printer.

Um, tell us. Okay, so basically um I've got a printer before, but I wanted to make something new so I wanted to make it as something that was fairly readily available as far as the framework goes. M So um I purchased this aluminium Um box tube in by 25 mm tubing um and plastic uh joining connectors from Buddings. and basically if I had have made this out of Um T- slot, it would have cost me around $400 just for the frame just for this.

Just for the yeah. by the time I do the nuts and the joiners and stuff like that. Uh, whereas I've done the framing on this for about 160 bucks. So and as you can see, it's quite, it's quite robust.

Um, so total length of that? Um, this is Um 700 700 by Uh 130. um uh and I built this from a few different designs based on a few different designs but um, it. it's taking on many different. Like there's a nice big scrap in yellow Parts at home that that uh didn't make the actual build.

but luckily with this with the Hacker Space I've had uh a lot of different people that were able to share the load and make things for me. So but the basis is is that we have um we have two extruders. yep um so they du ex extruders rather than be them be joined together like they would normally be at the current. um someone's actually done the the hard yards with the mar and firmware to actually make the independent uh extr work independently.

So U when it's actually running, this one of them will sit in its home position while the other one does it thing. It could be two different colors or one could be a support material like that and this one will then return to its home position and this one then will come in with it other color and what it can actually do is you can set in The Firm where you set an offset so that it knows how far to travel before it actually collides point and what it can do is you can load the same model and tell it to duplicate and it will act happily. Then both these extruders will travel at the same time producing the same part because the uh, why Y axis will still still going to travel the same way. Doesn't matter which way the extruders happen.

So U all the parts are custom built from scratch. They I did steal the parts from somebody else originally, but unfortunately the track that the printer's gone down I I haven't been able to use them anymore and I had to go down the rad cran them on myself. So um but uh the uh, everything's yeah. Custo custom built and how big's your build? Yes now this is the this this.

is the trick. this is um this is my my Pill platform so we've got that Isor 420 by uh 210. So for those uh people who know Cruisers and uh General 3 printers it's uh basically two of your standard um PCB heat beds side by side. so I currently have a Cruiser uh Mandel that I've I extended to run two different beds.

but the problem was is that to get the height of what I lost I lost travel height and the momentum when the the bed on my current Cruiser travels this way. um so it's it's quite a bit of work on the on the motors when when this starts to get get going. So obviously I had to jeopardize speed for the factor that it was just going to um right? So by mounting in that orientation. so now now we're going to go in this orientation yes much lessel travel F yeah I should get a travel F travel because it's not now I mean it's it's a little bit different now too though that with the with the new firmwares and and the the ability to have um jerk setting so it doesn't so it all de acceleration so the the bed can travel in One Direction then before it reach it it's end point it can slowly de accelerate.

but um but the the advantage of this is that I have two priser size um beds. So anything that most people can print I can with this new jeal extruder setup I can print two of at one time. So the objective is that you if I'm going to build um the average 3D printer Cruiser I can basically print the whole the whole kit in one in one print. So and you've oriented your Shar like this, this is your drive.

Well yeah, there's a lot of lot of the current printers now moving away from the the motors being to the top because obviously um, it obviously puts a lot of uh, weight when the the motors are being pulled this way. So the the whole idea of what we got here is is that um, this this part here is designed to take the weight so that the weight isn't on the actual motor itself. A lot of designs where this this this shaft's either hanging directly from the motor or it's pushing down directly on the motor and it's actually force it cuz there's a spring loaded um coupling here. so um, the weight actually affects.

So whereas this system now allows me to keep keep the weight up off the motor shaft and purely allow the motor to actually do what it's supposed to do and and and uh, turn turn the threads. but um, you know, after having a 3D printer before realizing that um, even the best PR you know you like to get in here and do this little tweaking action. so so rather to do that I I added you know little yeah, you can just rotate that around, tweak it. Yeah, just just tweak it around.

So nice. But yeah. so but because it um I had dual extruders I had to change the design because I had to. Not most 3D printers have only got it one motor and um a a uh what do you call a um pulley on the other end right? but because I've had to have jeel I had to have two.

so I had to create a system allowed me to have two Motors and two pulley at either end that they wouldn't Collide but what? I what? I What I would say though is that a lot of lot of um I don't like the printed bearings. the printed bearings don't work very well. So I went down the road of speaking to Mr China and and making sure making sure yeah getting Mr China to look after me and I bought proper proper bearings. Plus what it allowed me to do is that originally I was going to have much longer uh jeel bearings here and have a have a much wider plate that the extruder was going to fit on.

but because I'm using cuz these are 12 mm rods, these just really really strong. um what it allowed me to do is that these bearings just happen to be wide enough that that that there's no there's no play in there. So now I've got such a really narrow um mounting for the extruder. it makes it really really cool cuz otherwise um it's designed when I get to here and I come to here so it's designed so that this righted yeah go to the edge if I Hada yeah yeah yeah the same same with this end.

it goes get right to the build area. so if I hadn't had much bigger than that I mean I'm really already wide as as it is to then and then um yeah have to take it any wider so it's uh yeah you take the little piggy. probably not a model for farted but cuz the the thing was is that in the build process because I haven't got um slots in my rod if when I just I had to be very accurate. So if I when I screw these in if they're not straight I can't move them half a MM wi because now I've got you.

We all know what happens when you drill a hole and you can't you can't move half millim so therefore I'd have to all go down the route of putting bolts in and if I had to put a bolt in one I have to make the whole pretty uniform it has to look nice and I'd have to put I have to change the whole design. So terrific. And it's designed to go in a suitcase. It's designed in suitcas yes sorry um so the F platform would come off and this then will will lock into lock into here.

yep and I'll have a a carry carry strap strap over the top. yeah and then I'll be able to just carry it around and make it transport. So the this this this will go this way yep and everything will fit I need to lock it up. So and the print head have a look here.

the uh you've designed um you're using an extruder designed here Is it? Yeah well this is our own design. Um basically what this is it's just a aluminum plate because what it does is it's it works as a heat sink. So and then what what we're doing here is we we've seen someone create an idea with this where I think a Joseph Bruiser right? Um created an idea where the actual heat block clamps on and then the we now use heated cartridges rather than resistors like they're using now. Um so what we thought well if we're locking this on here then why don't we lock it in here? So this one this push up here and and we lock it in here and that's fine and what it allows us to do is um because of so many U materials.

Now that you can't use the it's not really good to use the same nozzle for multiple different material. So what we wanted is way to Quick Release un this, take the out one out, put this in, lock it in and away we go again for different material. So I TR having a three printer 3D printer for quite some time and being in the hacker space allows you to mix with different people to then obviously come up with uh, things that are that are um, the unique and and the best fashion. So and you've designed all of these bits and 3D printed them from scratch? Well, the only thing the only thing that's not original to me is this extruder design.

But other than this extruder design was supposed to bolt on the bottom of a plate a moving plate I've made it Mount 90 and add add this big block of spacer. but then outside of that everything is totally from scratch right? How many 3D printed pieces? All of well, there's there's a lot. There's a lot because because this this this is the rod. this the rod clamp here.

y this is another flat piece here. Yep. and then this other part here is another piece that bolts together all right. So that's a lot of work.

Yeah, it was. I mean as I said, there's a quite quite a substantial amount of uh, yellow plastic in a box I've got at home. Um, through some trial and error and thinking thinking that there was something there that was going to work for sure and you bolt it on and it like anything like Electronics the best and then uh it's not until you put it together do you realize that something doesn't work. So and how are you going to clamp this onto the base okay so what what What's going to happen now is um I wanted to be able to make it level so I printed these um feet.

so basically it takes a yeah a 5 mil 5 mil bolt um n on nut and then unfortunately I have to pull this Frame off because got um square blocks made for here that have got uh can of sunk nuts in them and I'll draw bows and then make the feet adjustable so I can crank it up and once i' once I've got it up off the off the table then I can put ount 5 m volts um through the through the base that then this will then Center and lock onto and then have a couple of spring washers and and Wing us to lock it down. So and as you've saying before that that that my only fear and it's not look notes I get going is is with the momentum how much rock with the narrow with the narrow Bas narrow here and there's other printers out there that use this narrow style base is how I got the idea. So so I've G someone's there's people printing successfully like that but that is that. Not at such a great scale.

So therefore their momentum and all that's not anywhere near as much as mine. so it's just going to be and see. Yeah I well you can always add, you know, extension feed out here like well. I've got PLS cuz obviously the the joy of these these joiners is obviously I I've got a three-way connector in here now I simp go back to Buddings, get a, get a four-way connector and just add another rod for feet.

So this this was the best. This is the best idea I I ever ever done was was go this route because I' I' I know originally it was 100 mm narrower because I was going to have dual heads so the the distance was uh fine but because I had to make it bigger um I just cut a few extra long rods and fit it in and Bobs your uncle but there's been many interations of this design where where originally for some strange reason I had these ones that come up here and they went back and I thought oh that's great You know what I'll do is I'll mount my electronics in there you know and then I've gone. holy crap holy crap the plastic going to travel on here. So it's another one those things where you know you have a brain freeze until you it's all together.

you go oh holy crap it's not going to work so um but yeah I have to say if anyone was going to have a look at building a printer, seriously, go down, go down the buddings and and just buy a few bits of this. uh, it's cheap. It's cheap. Really.

Go and buy a few. Um, go buy one link, get in at one point. uh, 2 m length I think um, go and buy yourself one length of that and a half a dozen connectors and like Lego just cut some up into length and just whack this together and go cool see what I can make cuz it's really really good and and it's much cheaper. I said it's much cheaper than um, te- swp yeah they expensive and if and if you go oh, they make a mistake.

you know you go down the bunny to get some more if you cut something too short out of something that's come from the US or or when you get it from here it's $50 You know it's a it's a really expensive $100 cut make and it's gone so well it's looking good at this stage. Yeah, no. really fantastic, really good, and another couple of weeks left of work? maybe? Yes, Yes. So basically all I've got now is other than the feet.

um adjust which is not a really huge process. um is the electronics. So once once the electronics are done, um because I'm I'm going to run 20 uh, 24 volts the whole system on 20 Vols cuz sort of the electronics allowing you to get to go that way now because rather than P power mine these motors with 12 Vols this this is a very big. this is a pretty big machine so so obviously I'm I'm much better at running on 24 WS because I'm going to get a lot more grunt out of it.

So um and my uh because I'm running two Cruiser heat beds mhm um I have to run them I wire them in series Y and I run them on uh a 29 Vol power supply that obviously I tweak up to uh 24 Vol power I tweak up to 29 just just well just because otherwise it takes a half an hour for the for the temperature to get up so I need to just spike it a little bit and um get the up. The other thing that I that I had a look at is that um um I want to get the the Heat up really quickly. The problem is the next thing is is now because I'm using Capon tape something like that. it's the factor of getting the temperature down with having to wait.

Got it? So I decided to mount two 50 mm fans in here. this is where so then when when the when it finish add some the gcode and then um yeah cool the bed down to get Very nice. Any concerns about Waring on such a huge field plate? Yes Yes yeah yeah yeah now I mean obviously with now my personal opinion is that um if you're going to build something big, you need to use a brim. so most most of your curers or your slices are they have brim around the outside.

Um I find that um build underneath it. Oh Ra Ra yeah Ra's crap. Ra's crap you need. You got to spend 2 years to getting the raft off as compared to um cuz generally you don't have a problem with the the middle of your part lifting.

it's always it's always the edges. so uh either either turn brim on or if you don't want to turn BR on just be very smart on adding a little little circle or anything to the to the corner of your model if you can and just get and then to trim it off later and that'll that'll solve your problem. So but yeah it's been an exercise and um look got touch touch wood touch wood. Uh when we get to the the day we we turn it on and crank her up that she runs.

they run smoother than what and you'll post some videos I will I will post some videos. Fantastic! Um so uh can we getting a quick plugin? Yep Okay so also I run a a 3D Printer Parts website called uh 3D 3D Printer Bits.com where you can get all your uh your Motors and plastic and belts and uh all things 3D printed. It's Melbourne based so and we'll send all around a like that. So yeah 3.com Awesome! Thank you very much.

No worries Thanks.