The Gun Counter

You may remember my recent build of a modified Prusa 3d printer, and HTRN and I have been going back and forth about this for months, so it should be no big surprise that I have decided to pull the trigger on building a Voron 2.4 printer. Basically I want to print more difficult materials, and I want to do so quickly. My Prusas will technically handle materials like ABS, nylon, or polycarbonate if put inside an enclosure, but long term use like that isn't all that good for them, and they are slow. The Voron is supposed to be 3 to 5 times faster, made from materials designed to withstand higher temperatures, and its cubical frame makes it easy to enclose for higher printing temperatures.

You can't buy one pre-built, so if you want any of the Voron models you pretty much need to build it yourself. There's no Voron "company" per se; the design team is a group of 3d printer enthusiasts who for the most part do what they do mainly for their own enjoyment. That said, plenty of other people have stepped in to fill the commercial void so that you don't need to self source everything, and can instead buy one of several kits that are now available. I bought the kit made by LDO Motors, which is a bit more expensive but it probably has the best reputation out of all of them. I bought it from West 3D in Oregon, who honored their free shipping to Alaska with no questions asked, and even threw in a $50 gift credit which I put towards the purchase of the E3D Revo Micro hot end, which wasn't included with the kit.

I spent the last couple months printing the printed parts for this on one of my Prusas, but if a builder doesn't have a machine capable of printing ABS (or ASA, which is almost the same and is what I am using), there are plenty of options to purchase either a full set of the printed parts (which are also not included in the kit) or even just the minimum functional parts set (minus trim, etc) to get you going. I found that I didn't really get my print settings dialed until partway through the process, so right now I am going back and re-printing some of my earlier parts, to clear up some cosmetic issues at least in places that will be visible in the final build.

I am not going to be ready to wade into the build in a major way for probably a few weeks, but I will start out by posting some info on a tool that I made for the build.

One difference between the Voron and my Prusas, is the former uses brass threaded inserts extensively throughout the build. These are made of brass and are melted into the plastic of the printed parts using a soldering iron. This can be done freehand, but ideally the builder will use some sort of fixture to ensure good alignment of the insert. The kit includes a special tip that fits many popular irons, but I won't be using that because I made my own on the lathe while I was waiting, and in sizes beyond the M3 that is used with the Voron.

The press I chose was designed by the people at Adafruit, and if doing it again I would probably choose something else. You can read about some of the changes I made to it to make it suck less here:

https://www.printables.com/model/328130 ... et-insert-



Anyway, after a fair bit of fucking around it works pretty well now:

Also, here's what you see when you open the box with the kit:



More boxes. There's another box that contains just the panels for the enclosure. I was fairly impressed by how well the kit was packed.

Netpackrat wrote: ↑Wed Dec 07, 2022 8:21 pmHTRN and I have been going back and forth about this for months,

One of the things I love about Mech eng/Manufacturing engineering, is Machine design. Debating about Cost vs ease of manufacture vs performance is something that warms my icy black heart.

The Voron seems to take "bang for your buck" approach, attempting to combine the max performance vs cost and convenience of somebody wanting to build their own. The rat rig on the other hand, is more like "you want to build a kick-ass fdm squirter? You better have access to a machine shop, know something about kinematics, and know where to find wierd shit. And oh? I hope you hate having disposable income" think buying a a kit car, vs a build file, with some details missing, about building a Bugatti Veyron.

Personally, I hope work decides that the Studio taking up two much space, and is willing to sell cheap.

Started the actual build tonight. Taking a break to document because I am annoyed, but more about that later. Here's the contents of the frame box laid out on a slab of scrap granite countertop material that I scored for free out of the scrap pile at a local countertop place. It's not surface plate flatness, but it's easily the flattest thing of that kind of size I have around here. I do have an actual surface plate but it's kind of tiny, but it was the biggest one Amazon would ship to Alaska for free. Nowhere near big enough for this.

Video of a guy building a frame like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSg7RDLgYV0&t=1s



This is a big old pile of printed parts that will go into the printer. I printed these out of ASA on my Prusa in an enclosure. The enclosure is generally necessary for higher temp (and higher strength) materials like ABS/ASA, polycarbonate, and nylon in order to keep them from warping up off the print bed and ruining the print. I am told it also aids in layer adhesion.



The assembled frame, ready to start hanging parts. At this point I decided to make a detour from the build instructions and assemble the "Nevermore" carbon filter. This is actually a mod/add-on, but the kit included the hardware and fans for it, and since it gets installed under the print bed, I figured it would be a good idea to get it together so I can install it now rather than later, and maybe have to take stuff back apart to fit it. This ended up being the source of my current frustration.



Haven't needed to solder anything this tiny in a while. The Nevermore filter consists of two main parts; the first is the plenum which contains the fans and mounts to the printer. The second is the cartridge which you fill with activated charcoal, and which is supposed to attach to the plenum via magnets. You have to modify the fans slightly to match the plenum housing, install heat-set inserts in them, and then there is an elaborate wire routing that gets done upon installation, then splice the two fans to share a single connector using the PCB shown above.

Then as the last step, it has you install the magnets in the plenum and cartridge which are press fit, and hold the 2 pieces together. Only problem there is they barely held the two halves together, and they would have fallen apart for sure once the carbon pellets are added. Not sure if I shoved the magnets in too far (All 6x3mm cylindrical magnets I have encountered in my 3d printing adventures seem to be a little on the thin side), or if they are just weaker than they need to be ( I have plenty more), but what I am sure of is once installed, there isn't any way to get them back out without ruining the printed parts (I tried).

So now I have to reprint the parts, which will take about 12 hours at Prusa speed, desolder those connections, and install everything back in the new parts. This time I am going to install the magnets first and make sure that part is good before I even think about putting anything else together.

Instructions for the filter unit:
https://www.ldomotion.com/p/guide/18295873486193941

Worked on the printer more tonight but I got the Z axis rails installed and was well into assembling the Z drive before it occurred to me to start taking pictures. Nearly finished the Z axis assembly but had to stop early due to family stuff.



A couple of the Z drives. The rotating assembly consists of a couple pulleys, 3 sealed ball bearings, 4 spacers, and a shaft, all held together by set screws. There are 4 of these in total, one at each lower corner of the printer, where they also serve as the printer's feet.



One of the Z drive units mounted, with its motor in place. Note the tension lever that is sticking out. The mounting screws for the motor are left loose until the lever is pushed in, tensioning the belt, then the motor mount is fully tightened to the frame.



Belt tension set, screws tightened, and rubber feet installed. I read somewhere that these were originally manufactured as air compressor feet.



One of the four "eyedlers" which form the upper end of the z axis drive. Usually a printer with the same style of X-Y motion system (called CoreXY) will move the heated bed up and down on lead screws to handle Z axis movement. It's certainly simpler, and in fact the other Voron models raise and lower the bed for the Z in this fashion with lead screws. The Voron 2 is somewhat unique among 3d printers in that it employs a "flying gantry" for the Z axis, where the bed is fixed, but the entire X-Y motion system moves up and down, with a belt drive at each of the 4 corners.

But it's actually 2 belts at each corner. The motors drive the reduction shafts using a short belt as shown above, which in turn drive the longer belt which actually moves the gantry up and down. The gear reduction reduces the current needed to lift the gantry, and also prevents the whole gantry from crashing down when power is removed.

Anyway once I can get back out there, I'll finish installing the eyedlers, and then take another picture of the printer at that stage. After that I think the next step is to start installing the heated bed. Since the nevermore filter unit goes under the bed on the 2.4, I'll need to get that squared away. I got one of the replacement parts printed tonight while I worked, but the other one will probably need to wait until the weekend.

At this stage the build manual has you install the heated bed next. As mentioned, I am going to install the filter unit first once I get that sorted, and I also plan to cut some foil backed foam insulation for the gaps to hopefully prevent the acrylic deck panel from warping as some users have experienced. There are support clips that go underneath the panel to reduce that also, but I think it would be better to protect it from the heat of the bed as much as possible, and also that will help keep the heat in the build chamber where it is needed, and out of the electronics bay in the bottom of the printer where it is not.

Enjoying this topic, thanks for posting your progress

Thanks. About 25 minutes left on the second of the 2 parts I need to redo the filter unit, so maybe I will have some progress to post later.

Netpackrat wrote: ↑Thu Feb 02, 2023 8:40 pm As mentioned, I am going to install the filter unit first once I get that sorted, and I also plan to cut some foil backed foam insulation for the gaps to hopefully prevent the acrylic deck panel from warping as some users have experienced.

If it does warp, perhaps replacing it with a piece of sheet aluminum form the likes of big blue saw, it it needs precision holes? Otherwise just order it oversize and cut it down.

And "eyedler"?! Shouldn't that be "Idler"?