ReuseDaBox
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Release status: unknown
Overview
The thought occurred to me yesterday, after discussing the possible design and construction of a 3D printer with a colleague at work who already owns one which he built from a kit. To each his own of course, but being a diehard engineer, I figure that building a RepStrap would be way more fun, and much more of a learning experience. Looking around this wiki it seemed a WolfStrap would be the most reuseable way to go, since I have an old TV cabinet in my garden shed which forms a perfect sturdy wooden frame for what I wish to create. On top of that, it already holds at least four drawer guides which can be reused for the various translation movements!
Phase 1: making the cabinet a solid base
The base of this design can be just about any rectangular cabinet, that you deem will provide sufficient work volume. I chose an old TV cabinet from the days that TV's were still massive beasts which required superhuman strength to lift, or cooperation of two humans like in Dire Strait's awesome hit...
The turntable on the top unfortunately did not have sufficient rigidity in its sliders to serve for the motion train of the extruder head, but the board halfway did have good supports. So I removed the top, the backside and the middle shelf. By cutting a rounded rectangle in the hind board, it maintained its support capacity, and screwed back in that gave the cabinet its left to right sturdiness again.
My board already had drawer guides, but if yours doesn't, you could just make it a bit less wide and mount drawer guides you have lying around, or can acquire from a local DIY store. My effort in making this design however is to keep the spirit of RepRap, in reusing as much as possible. (even the turntable might go to a friend wanting to make solar panels turn to the sun...
In order to perfectly align both drawer guides, I spaced them from the bottom of the cabinet and the backside by inserting a few temporary boards while I screwed them in place. This makes certain that the bed will move smoothly. Measuring the base position against the fully extended position, it gave me about 275 mm work space from back to front. So if I can mount the mechanical parts for the Y movement outside on the back of the cabinet, I'll actually have that much working room!
I may have to do some reinforcing of the top board, because time has left it a bit sagged from the weight of those TV monsters. But it will always be a nice place to put the spools of material, and the old reused PC that will eventually drive it!
