clay 3d printer

[vast wolf]

why not 1m^3

i feel like concrete printers should be incredibly large

cool stuff tho

[humble bay]

Fun, for nozzle design be sure to find a way to fill air pockets, the bond difference between the cured lower layer and the new layer is what fucks the strength of printed concrete

[vivid zodiac]

I think that will take it way above my budget to build as I would need bigger/more expensive stepper motors, ig more powerful board than the duet main board ( 6HC or XD )

[vivid zodiac]

Ok I'll put more research on how to deal with that

[elder quarry]

Concrete benchy will go crazy

[vivid zodiac]

Lmao

[vivid zodiac]

clay 3d printer

updated!

but anyways this is what ive got

lemme take pics of them

And some other stuff like ( rods ) that I need to cut

So basically, at this point, I’ve got all the fundamental parts that could work with pretty much any common 3D printer design — like something along the lines of a Prusa i3, an Ender 3 if I go with aluminum extrusions, or even a moore 1 if I wanted to push it that far. The problem is, aluminum extrusions are ridiculously expensive where I live, which is why I was leaning toward sticking with the Prusa-style design but building the frame out of thick plywood instead. Would that make sense, especially if I’m using a decent control board that can comfortably handle NEMA 17 motors? It just seems like the best way to keep costs down and still make use of the parts I’ve already invested in

@hollow tangle

@woeful umbra

[vivid zodiac]

@hollow tangle also another taking my replier earlier here to give a lil more context

Yeah, I actually tried that route for about a month. I even made a project post about it here. But I scrapped that plan because realistically, for a concrete printer to make sense, the base 3D printer needs to be fairly large — we’re talking at least a 1.5-meter build volume. And once you go that big, the costs stack up fast. You’d need a more capable control board like the Duet 6HC (someone here actually suggested that when I asked), plus more expensive stepper motors, beefier components, and so on. It just didn’t feel like the smartest way to burn cash, especially when you’re still figuring things out.
That’s why I pivoted to working on a clay printer instead. Clay has way more in common with concrete than typical plastic filament . similar behavior when it comes to printing speed, material weight, curing process, etc. So I figured, why not build a modified Prusa i3-style clay printer? The plan was to cut costs by using thick plywood for the frame instead of expensive aluminum extrusions. As long as the frame is rigid enough, the board is solid, the motion system is reliable, and the clay extruder is decent — I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Sure, I’ll still have to dial in the slicer settings for clay, but there’s already plenty of slicers out there for clay and paste extrusion. Same with modifying the firmware , it’s all been done before. That approach just seemed way more practical to me tbh

[woeful umbra]

wood isn't what i would reccomend, but it definitely can work, especially for something moving relatively slowly like a clay printer

your situation with the extrusions makes it difficult

[elder quarry]

What size printer are you using? Could you buy a used ender 3 for like $30us and steal the alluninum?

Or another used printer*

[vivid zodiac]

Yeah

[vivid zodiac]

I don't think I can find it for that price here

[elder quarry]

What country do you live in? If you dont mind me asking

[vivid zodiac]

Ethiopia

Sorry about the late reply

[vivid zodiac]

I noticed that both the x_end_motor and x_end_idler parts are designed to use DryLin bearings (as shown in the picture below). The problem is, I only have aluminum-covered ball bearings, which unfortunately don’t fit.
Any suggestions on how I can work around this? without me redesigning the whole part cuz i might encounter alignment issues