"3D Maker" line of multiaxis 3D printers
This will be a constanly growing line of projects aimed at helping you transform your cheap chinese printer into a super professional tool that can print in 5 or 6 or... up to 9 axis NON PLANAR sliced G Code by simply downloading the STL files, printing them out, buying the add ons needed such as closed loop stepper motors, better motherboards, etc. and ending up with a machine that can print whatever you want with nearly zero supports no matter how you position it on the printing bed.
I am fully aware of many others atempting to do this kind of project, and their results are astonishing given their research and development laboratory tools and machines (technically zero, just like me) however their output shrinks the printable size of the available cube to one third or less than the initial size on each modified printer, and it cost a load of money.
My aim is to preserve the size of printing available cube to 100% or if needed to shrink it; the minimum possible, while obtaing the same or better results with very little money involved in the process, and this is as chep as you can get it I guess.
Rumba is my initial project, it consists of a printing bed on 3 Z screw raisers that work indipendently not only to find the perfect bed alignment with the nozzle each print automatically, but also to tilt the print up to 40 degrees in any direction helping thus with printing without supports if you manage to get your hands or make your own non planar slicer. This adds 2 more axis to your printer making it a 5 axis non planar capable machine for cheap (such machines costs thousands of dollars just for the add ons in the industryes that need them like CNC milling etc) powered by 3 closed loop stepper motors to create te Z, U and V axis.
Bolero is the opposite, there is only one vertical screw and is not aimed to create a Z height control but to tilt the whole bed in one and only direction up to 90% back and forth as needed while printing creating the U axis. Bollero does not work without Ballerina and Tango systems. It creates one more axis only, but with Ballerina and Tango it gains 3 more axis. Powered by 1 closed loop stepper motor. Te Z axis for Bollero is on the printing head descending.
Ballerina is a turntable that rotates the printing bed ad infinite left and right as needed by the printer allowing the machine to print at any angle in any given position always against gravity, hence witout supports, powered by a closed loop stepper motor. The main purpose is to make Bollero work as intended, but trust me, it has an ace up the sleeve for Rumba too. Powered by 1 closed loop stepper motor.
Tango is a tool changer modular Tango Dancing system. Unlike the other modular tool chaging systems that hold steady vertically down the nozzle, Tango tilts it up to 45% as needed to cope with printing in stupid inaccesible positions while Rumba or Bollero are tilting the printing bed and Ballerina rotates it as needed. But tilting it at up to 45 degrees is insuficcient hence it will also rotate the tip of the nozzle around it's vertical axis accordingly as needed. Powered by 3 closed loop stepper motors,one for tilt, one to rotate and one to grab and release tools on the flight.
In the Tango project I incude a special heatblock Supervolcano sized with a way sharper slope than the cubes available now, those cubes permit you up to 27 degrees tilt except on one side where they can clear up to 40 degrees something (various models so various limitaitons) while the Tango heatblock can clear tiltings up to 60 degrees avoiding this way any clash with bed titlted parts in printing non planar G Code.
Software wise things are making progress too.
While I see Arc Overhangs as a serious
break through in the 3d printing, and I mean SERIOUS on the par with
the invention of the Core XY or the Conveyor Belt 3D Printer (and
both could beneficiate of this, seriously) I can see it's limitations
in therms of creating a suitable platform on which to build up due to
tensions arising between cooled part and heated part giving birth to
warping (that peels your print off the bed, so imagine if there is no
bed to stick to...) But a combo of Arc Overhang Printing with Bed
Tilting to generate other 2 or 3 more axis plus rotating and tilting
head to place the filament at the desired angle I see it a game
changer entirely, because ... layer adhesion, that's why.
For
now printers are printing in 2.5D (not 3D as advertised) since the
layer upon layer stack has layer adhesion problem since the
horizontal adhesion can be tamed by printing each layer on a
different orientation but... the Z orientation that you cannot knit
in any way shape or form, not even with Arc overhang or Cone G Code
slicing.
But you can knit it vertically too if the vertical is
tilted accordingly getting you to intermesh not only horizontally but
also on the Z axis.
So a powerful combo I see is 9 axis 3D
printers with Arc overhang and Conical slicing... non planar,
interwoven layers both horizontally and vertically on at least 5 axis
at the time.
That would lead to extremely well adhesion in any
direction if sliced right.
We here are working on the
kinematics for that, and we need software developers to take care of
the slicers and bring them up to speed.