Well, I have been lurking around here a short time now, trying to contain the impulsive excitedness of 3DP, and I find myself really really really discovering I need this project and I cannot live without it; maybe. Haha. Anyways, I am looking at starting to print pieces here once my current backlog of prints are done.
The goals:
***I would like to make two builds of the machine. One I would like to have become a large dedicated printer that would solely focus on doing large prints. The reasoning is that my current printer has a print area of 9" x 6" x 6" and some of my prints can reach sizes exceeding 48" long and 12" tall. Normally I just split my models and assemble in pieces with alignment dowels. However, this increases post processing time significantly. If I could instead build a MPCNC with say a print area of 48" x 24" x 12", things could get a lot simpler. I am wanting to see if this is easily achievable for ABS and PLA printing? I would also be using 1" OD stainless tubing as suggested with the 0.049" wall or step up to 0.065" walls with mid supports every 18-20". Also would consider building the Printer to be taller rather than wide. Have it print straight up with a small X Y foot print of maybe 12" x 12"? and Z like a stupidly crazy 48"
***The second machine I would have dedicated to milling and routing for 3/4" MDF as well as Urethane Foam for making mold plugs. Still going with stainless and mid supports, would a 48" x 48" x say 6" Z be a pretty workable area for the machine?
***A few leftover questions for the masses
- Any need to upgrade the steppers?
- Spindle vs router/dremel 660w?
- Heated bed design for such a large print area?
- Heck…a heated enclosure to keep the part from cooling too much before the extruder makes its trip back (assuming a large print that uses the bed fully)
- Haven’t really used the software side of things in several years, shouldn’t have issues if I were to program CNC toolpaths in MasterCam?
- How well does the MPCNC handle flowlines and 3D curvatures when tooling?
- Upgrades for 1/2" shank tools?
- If rigidity is an issue, has anyone considered temporarily capping the tubing and filling with 2 part expanding urethane foam (not great stuff). Remove the caps afterwards and have a dense foam filled tube without having added much weight?
I apologize if this information has been covered. I scoured the forums a good bit until the dates got to be over 8 months old and I figured that with the developer being so good about updating his design, things that were once the Iron Law and now nixed.
