Hi guys, been thinking about this for a couple weeks now but can’t seem to find anything online about anyone who has tried it.

I’m considering converting my printer into a voron. However, since I currently have a fully functioning printer, I wondered why I can’t print the extrusions rather than purchasing them? Of course they are larger than my printer’s volume, but there was this video posted here a while back about a great way to create strong permanent joints for parts just like this:

https://youtu.be/zI8OgRRF5d8

The way I would do this would be to model the extrusions as a solid piece and make cutouts in the areas that bolts are meant to be ran through.

Is this even within the realm of possibility, or is there a specific barrier that has prevented others from trying this? The obvious concern is stability/ rigidity, but if everything is printed at voron part standards or thicker with an infill pattern like gyroid, would the decrease in rigidity be too much for input shaping to compensate for?

Thanks for any ideas or input! If there aren’t any major road blocks or examples of this failing I think I’ll try it out once I’ve got the space for it.

  • William@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    5 months ago

    You can never get to “fully 3d printed” unless you can print metal, and even then the tolerances just aren’t there yet.

    But if you want a 3d printer that’s as 3d printed as it can get, why not look at things that were designed for it, like Rook or Mulbot or The 100?

  • jagoan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    5 months ago

    Is it possible? Yes. And you’ve mentioned stability could be an issue. I’ll add that if you count your time and wasted plastics to test the thickness, infill, etc. I think it’ll cost more than just buying the extrusion.

    That said, if you already have core xy printer, you can start testing by replacing the frame with a printed parts. Starts with the vertical ones.

  • B0rax@feddit.deEnglish
    6·
    5 months ago

    The extrusions are not the expensive parts… in fact, JLCPCB has them for ~$20.

    • rambos@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      5 months ago

      I agree, its not even worth to try imo. Frame geometry is super important. Even extrusions can be painfull if they are not cut well enough. If you want the best result you should mill them (instead of cutting them with a saw).

      3D printer tolerances are far from acceptable and then every material shrinks differently (+ there are many other disadvantages).

      On the other hand, prusa and voron are examples of great use of 3D printed parts where you benefit from flex. Its a brave design decision that works amazingly well, but they can barelly print first layer without ABL or simmilar. Yeah…ABL compensates for shitty tolerances and we end up with bent 3D printed part that counts as perfect print lol

    • papalonian@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      5 months ago

      They’re the most expensive part I need to source. I already have a majority of the other parts in the form of my current printer, really I only need a few more lead screws, stepper motors, and maybe a new controller if I can’t figure out how to get the one I have working with that many steppers. The extrusions make up ~2/3 the expenses of this conversion, hence the question haha

        • papalonian@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          2·
          5 months ago

          Just as a heads up, in case you ever wanted to order these (or anyone else is viewing this post and is looking to source extrusions), the price for the frame is around $20, the cost for shipping to the US is around $110.

            • papalonian@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
              1·
              5 months ago

              It’s all good. I think there might be some sort of import fee specific to this type of item, most of the Chinese vendors have them for $30-50 with $100+ shipping.

              There is a listing on Amazon that’s around $85 after one of those coupon things, with free shipping. Seems to be the best deal I can find.

        • papalonian@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          1·
          5 months ago

          If I’m not mistaken those are prices per extrusion? There’s multiple lengths that are needed, I don’t think one part number is representative of the entire frame, but I could be reading it wrong. I looked at this same page when I saw your comment this morning

          Edit: sorry, I was indeed looking at the site wrong. That’s actually incredibly useful information, thank you so much for this link! The cheapest place I’d seen so far I was looking at ~$150 for the full set.

    • papalonian@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      5 months ago

      That’s super cool, I’d never seen this project before. I like it, but the required build volume is slightly outside my printer’s capabilities, and the final build volume of 160x160 is a little too small for my use case. Maybe if they build a scalable version like the voron 2.4 it would be a contender