Day One ...

Even when the plastic parts not arrived yet, we decided to start on building.

Torsten already made the cuts into the frame for the gantry and gave them all a few layers of color. So we can directly start to assemble the parts.

Paintshop

For the drilling are some patterns in the model directory which you can print out. These are also generated by the Scripts, so they fit to our slightly enlarged printer. And we got a name for our Project: BigOne90 - because of the bigger printbed, the 90 Degrees (like the Mendel90) and because we got 30x30x30 or 3x30 (i know 30^3) cm printspace.

With some thinking - our gray matter works - the frames where assembled in a 'small series'. Suddenly the printers are really big, even if you can't see this on the pictures. But the ground plate is 571 x 622 mm big, the gantry is 489 mm high.

The Groundplate

Just after Wedding - groundplate and gantry

And the backside. 90 degrees thrugh construction

In the groundplate also are all needed drillholes for the Y-Stepper, the mounts for the smooth rods and the Y-Idler.

This were the time where we would need the plastic parts to go further. But there are many other things to do, so we took the saw.

First we cut the threaded rods, which will move the z axis. Then the smooth rods, which will guide the three axis.

Smooth Rods

After grinding the sharp edges another task was done.

Than we took some time to prepare the electronics. Placing the Ramps on the Arduino Mega2560, setting the bridges for 1/16 microsteps, putting the stepsticks in place. A test version of the repetier firmware were already in place so the display shows signs of life.

As power supply we decided to use some old Server-Supplys. 32 Ampere on the 12 V rail should be sufficient. And if we need 5 Volt, we got also 5 Ampere there.

Double power

To get these supplies working without bracing themselfs into a server housing, we need to trick them out. We needed to short some contacts (under the red electrical tape) to ground. The level which keeps the supply in place in a server was cut, same for the handle. Result were small puwer supplies with a lot of power. Enough power to supply the whole printer incl. heated bed.

The small bits are time consuming. The Mendel90 uses a 15 contact Sub-D connector, which connects all pieces on the X carriage with the electronics. So changing the extruder would be easy doing, if its needed. So we stared to solder all the parts together on this. Hotend (resistor as heater) and thermistor, stepper wires and power supply for the fan.

On the other side of this connector will be a flat cable. It will be strengthen with some plastic so we dont need a powerchain and also keep everything out of the way of moving parts.

All the steppers came with 30 cm cables, so we just soldered another meter on it to have them long enough. Cutting to long wires is easy.