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Aluminium-Frame for the Ultimaker

Published at 2024-05-03
Free
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (11 comments)
43

Reputech

4 objects 1 Followers
Joined over 11 years ago info@reputech.ch

Description

All the part files (except the plastic part) are in SolidEdge ST5 format. Just write a message to me if you or your lasercutter cannot read this file format.I made some additional changes to the Frame:- Holders for a strong direct drive.- Moving the spool-holder to take 3 kg-spools also in dual head mode.- A deeper holder for the ultimaker-controller.Advantages of this frame are:- Less noise, no more rumbling of the wooden housing, especialli when infilling small parts.- A perfect first layer. No more brighter and darker areas on it, because of more precise axles.- No more temperature and humidity issues- Perfect edges because of less backlash due to the direct driveI took the 3D-Model from Thingiverse, changed the size of the mounting-noses and holes on the wooden parts to fit on aluminium parts. So this should not be made of wood, otherwise you will have too much space between the parts, and they will not clamp together. The Holes for the bearings and the vertical axes i made 0,2 mm smaller for further treatment. The parts can be made by lasercutting. The holes are too small to be lasercut. So they may be marked and drilled by hand to 3,4 mm. After putting all the parts together you can sew it together at the poins wher you can see the mating-noses from the outside, or you can drill threads and use M3 screws like the original wooden housing. For my machine, afer some sanding and cleaning the whole frame was sandblasted with glass-perls to have a nice looking housing. Finally the holes for the bearings and the vertical axes need to be reamed by a hand reamer 12 H7 or 16 H7.I used some Loctite 641 retaining compound to fix the bearings into the holes. It would be even better to ream the holes with a Reamer in 16 K7 or M7 and press the bearings in, but they're hard to get and quite expensive.

Comments

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BloodBlight
BloodBlight
about 10 years
Cool, thanks! :)
Reputech
Reputech
about 10 years
I don't remember exactly about the price. But I think it was about 300 € for the complete set of parts. (It's about 20 kg). It will be much cheaper and easier to sew if you do it in steel. But it will be about three times heavier. The only thing to machine are the holes for the bearings, which can be done by hand.
BloodBlight
BloodBlight
about 10 years
Do you mind if I ask how much it cost for the aluminum and the machining?
calinb
calinb
over 11 years
Thanks for sharing, Reputech. I have a few suggestions: 1. Adjustable hand reamers could be used to produce the precise and desired hole diameters. They can actually be chucked on a machine (drill press, mill, lathe, etc.) and turned very slowly too (still by hand, even), in order to maintain squareness. Several web tool stores and Harbor Freight here in the U.S. sell inexpensive hand reamer sets of Indian production and they should be adequate for this job. 2. It's a simple matter to mount the motor in back and switch each pair of leads in the connector at the Arduino board. A dental pick can be used to unlock the metal connector pins from the white housing. I believe the subject has been covered in the Ultimaker forums. Alternatively, a user could rebuild Marlin firmware, as you mentioned, and not swap the wire pairs, 3. WRT the suggestion for an aluminum Z-stage...I often print large and thick parts in ABS and use a heated build chamber (bubble wrap tent around my UM). The wooden Z-stage distorts significantly with temperature changes. I often achieve 65-70 C within the tent and it takes hours of pre-heating for the Z-stage level set to stabilize. I plan to build a new stage from precision Mic6 aluminum tooling plate someday. Yes--an aluminum stage is quite desirable and warranted.
Reputech
Reputech
over 11 years
Parts for an aluminium z stage are included.... Its a sandwich construction with wooden filling. You will see when you download. I just didn'n have the time to build it up. The parts are lieing on my table... :-)
BillDempsey
BillDempsey
over 11 years
Excellent work! As I lack the equipment to make it myself, I sorely wish somebody would sell this frame as a kit. I'd also like to see the z platform supports done in metal. Mine warps and twists every time the humidity changes, forcing me to re-level the bed constantly. Living in the desert, where the humidity ranges from 5% normal to 100% (when it rains) makes wood very unstable.
Reputech
Reputech
over 11 years
@erik: you're absolutely right. The motor could be fixed nicely at the back panel. The reason why i mounted it on the front side is only to leave the machine settings as is. I dont need any changes and can leave the standard settings of the firmware. (Not even a "-" has to be added ;-)
UltiErik
UltiErik
over 11 years
Hi Joel, I made a mistake, I should have said that it's CC-BY-NC-SA. We really need to add that to the list of licenses, it's in the issue tracker already, though. Glad to hear that the aluminium version works well for you! We've considered direct drive too. I think that may be the biggest improvement, not necessarily the alu frame, or do you think differently? By the way, couldn't the Y-axis motor be mounted nicely at the back of the machine?
Kolia
Kolia
over 11 years
Joel, do I see well and you kept the wooden Z-stage? If so, any reason for that? Because it seems to me that it's really a point where a more flat and rigid plate would help?
Reputech
Reputech
over 11 years
Thanks for your inputs! If you want the derivatives to use the same license you should maybe use a license like CC-BY-NC-SA. Or am I wrong? But i will change it immediatly. That's no problem. I really like my Ultimaker. it's really fast and accurate and since it has a new frame even more precise and faster. I normaly use about 100 mm/s printspeed and 300 mm/s fast forward without any problems. Greetings from Switzerland Joel
UltiErik
UltiErik
over 11 years
Hi Reputech! Thanks for sharing your Ultimaker Derivative! Although we might not limit commercial use, the original Ultimaker license is CC-BY-NC. Could you use the same license for your derivative? One other thing: you didn't publish it yet! You're not the first who didn't get to see the publish button... We're improving the design soon, so this is immediately clear. Anyway, once you've published it, I'd really like to feature your alu Ultimaker on the front-page!

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