Here goes nuthin' -- MP3DPv5 PLOG


My plan really was do do more on the LR4, and convert the LR3 first, but with the current postal strike in play, I’m not getting my V1 parts any time soon.

What I do have though, is about everything for the printer build.

I have the printed parts done, or I believe most of them. Certainly enough to get started. I have the aluminium plate parts. I have the linear rails, a Duet mini 5 control board with the 2 channel expansion (which I don’t actually need because I have a Duet 1LC tool board that has a stepper driver on it. 4 wire Canbus to the hotend.) I have 2020 and 2040 extrusion to build the frame.

I will salvage the power supply, Z rails, heated bed, motors and Hemera from the MP3DPv3. A shame, since I liked that printer, but when the board lost 2 of the fan channels, and the plywood frame is showing its age, it’s time to move on. (For the record, the aluminium 20mm tube was an excellent upgrade from the CF tube for the X span. I may well build another v3, particularly if I end up not using the Hemera in the v5.)

My heated bet is 310mm square, so I had thought to extend the 300mm by 25mm at the rails. Additionally the probe being in front of the hotend means that it normally cannot get to the back edge of the bed. I am considering lengthening the Y axis as well, but maybe this is unnecessary. Well probably it is. My heated bed is one of the dumb ones that mount on 4 posts, too, so some thought into that will be needed.

I plan to make an enclosed frame. Obviously this means CNC machined panels. I don’t know how fast I’ll be working on this. It’s not like I’m in need of another printer. I had considered buying a Flashforge ADM5Pro if the black friday deal was good enough, but they just replaced the $150 CAD coupon with $150 CAD price drop, meaning only cheaper jf I wanted to buy more than one. The non-pro did drop by $20CAD, and I considered it…

Anyway, the journey starts here…

5 Likes

postal strike?

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is on strike, started November 15, 2024. So far as I can tell, I have about 4 parcels which have cleared Canadian customs, and aren’t going anywhere at all. So far as I know, the only things that are getting delivered are government benefit cheques, for the people who still get paper cheques.

One parcel is from V1, containing LR4 XZ plates, and some sharp stuff. I had hoped to use the one set of aluminum plates to see if I could get better results making another set, along with some new mills. If I’d waited a bit to order the printer aluminium, could have saved some money on shipping, but then it would all be stuck, so maybe it wasn’t a bad thing…

Amazon just dropped off 3x 400mm MGN12H rails. I could have reclaimed two from the v3, but I think I feel better about new ones. The Y rails on the v3 were 450mm long and got worked out on the printer. Probably OK with some lube, but new will be a more fair evaluation.

From memory, the X rail is 375mm, but I think I’ll leave the extra 25. The Y rails were 350mm. I think the 400s will be good though. I like being able to get the probe to the full bed area, and I want to put a wipe pad in the back corner.

2 Likes

Good thing I’m not in a hurry…

So, left to right:

  • 4 frame uprights, 550mm long for a 300mm usable Z. 2 × 2020 and 2×2040
  • 5 X axis cross pieces at 475mm for 300mm usable Z. After playing with the CAD, I did not like what changing usable X and Y did to the bed mounts, so I guess I can give a bit of that up. 300mm out to be enough…
  • 3 × Z rail mount uprights at 390mm, for 350mm Z linear rails.
  • 6 × Y rails at 428mm. Again should be for 300mm usable.
  • I did not yet cut the pieces for the bed mount. That may require some additional thinking.

I slipped with the uprights, and one of the 2020 pieces is about .5mm short, so I will need to hide that or else it will make me crazy (crazier? :rofl:)

So last time I cut extrusion, I used a push fence on the table saw, and didn’t like it. So I went and bought a miter box and a handsaw, figured “good enough.” Then I brought jt home, and put it (I thought) away in the shop. Think I could find it when the extrusion order came in? :rofl: NOPE!

So today, I figured “screw it.” I can find the receipt, so I figured I’d buy another one, and when the first one turns up, use the extended return window to return the missing one.

Then, in the store, there’s a 7.25" sliding compound miter saw sitting there less than 1/2 price. I don’t normally buy the brand, but this is not likely to be a heavily used tool, so I guess it doesn’t have to be Makita. So… now I have a compound miter saw.

Anyway, given the tool, I was able to make quite accurate cuts for the extrusion, so there’s not much gap for adjustment in there, but there is some, like .5mm or so, lol.

I will need to saw off 25mm from the one MGN12H rail, I guess. I have 5 × 350mm rails and 1 × 400mm rails, which ought to give me a 300mm cube build volume.

2 Likes

I went 25mm wider with my frame to give me a little room on each side of the bed. This also made it to where I didn’t have to cut the X rail either. Gave me room for a nozzle brush on the side of a 300x300 bed.

1 Like

And I did 25mm more in X, 50mm more in Y

2 Likes

Yeah, I’d planned to do +25X and +50Y, but it makes the machine a really tight fit in its intended home, too. NBD if it was going to take the v3 spot over, but that space will be something else.

So I’ll return the 2 400mm Y rails I bought… after I cut down the X rail, lol.

1 Like


Going slow is still going.

Back frame. The upright for the linear isn’t in its real place yet, and the overall dimensions still may need to be tweaked. I do plan to have a CNC cut panel for the back and sides, but haven’t cut those yet.

This is the external side. I used those braces, and the external panel will cut around those. You can see some of the captive nuts that will come into play when the panel gets installed.

I’m sure that I’ve forgotten some captive nuts, but I kept trying to think of where I’d need them.

This printer will be big, but I think smaller than the v3 that I have.

2 Likes