3d printer conversion

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Scott53stan
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Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2017 11:34 pm

3d printer conversion

Post by Scott53stan »

Hi everyone
About halfway thru building my 50 x 50 and am enjoying every minute. Was wondering if anyone has given thought of turning these guys into a 3d printer. Ideally you could swap the router with a hot end and then back again. I realize there would be both mechanical and electrical issues to work out, but was wondering if this is even possible? Thanks
msimpson
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Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2004 6:19 pm

Re: 3d printer conversion

Post by msimpson »

I experimented with this in the early days of the KRMx02. In reality while you can turn any CNC machine into a 3D printer and get them to work. However 3D printers are designed with no load in mind and with fast acceleration and run speeds. Heavy routing and milling machines are designed for heavy loads and rigidity. They don't have the zero to sixty acceleration times that a small 3D printer has.

What it comes down to is that a CNC router will work as a 3D printer as long as you equip it with the proper head and table. Will it be as fast as a high end 3D printer, no way, no how.

You can design a CNC machine for use as multiple operations. An example of this is the CNC Construction Set I am working on. It was designed to be rigid for milling wood, plastic, and aluminum. Its also fast enough to work as a decent plasma or even a large bed 3D printer. It can do this because it only has working area of about 15 x 25. Much easier to control certain aspects of a 3D printer or plasma cutter with a smaller bed. Is it as rigid as the KRMx02? No, but its close and more rigid than many other CNC machines sold for twice or three times the price.
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