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Machine overview

I wanted to quickly make a small machine I could learn from, practice using the Zünd and EDM, and take to Fab14, so I designed what became Ischeau. Limiting myself to a carry-on the body of the machine is 12"x12"x12". I started cutting metal a week before Fab14, but finished the body in time to back it up and ship to France. All of the electroncis I ended up doing at the conference, which was really straight forward because I was using a SmoothieBoard, so all I had to do was wire up the motors, thermistors etc. plug them in, and check the config. file.

SmoothieBoard pinout

CAD

This is an H-bot machine, with 4 linear rod rails, 6 linear bearings, a linear rail and carriage, and a lead screw for the Z. Here's a rendering of the final CAD ready for fabrication.

cad render

Top view

cad render

Side view

cad render

Bill of Materials

Item Vender
Heated Bed Amazon - Ultrabase
Extruder E3D
SmoothieBoard SmoothieWare
USB B extender Amazon
24V 16A Supply found
Power switch Amazon
2 NEMA 17 found
NEMA 17 with lead screw found
Linear rail found, but looks like...
Linear bearings Amazon
8mm precision rod McMaster or Amazon
GT2 belt and pullys Amazon
Toothless pulleys Amazon
Fnacy bed levelers Amazon
Lots of Aluminium found
Lots of M3 in lab
2 M5 in lab

Fabrication

A motivation in the design for this machine was a desire to practice routing on the Zünd. After punturing through holes with the waterjet I put the parts on the Zünd and used the optical registration feature to allign them. I made several of the 1/4" Al parts on th Zünd. Below is an image showing the edge of parts cut on the Zünd (on bottom) and waterjet (middle) and the surface of an Al sheet (top).

And this is an angled view of that piece which was routed with a 6mm end mill, then finished with a 2mm to get smaller internal radiuses. It was tapped afterwards.

The optical registration didn't proove accurate enough to re-allign parts after they'd been moved. I tried a few times and the second pass was visibly off. For rapidity of fabrication I ended up waterjetting about half of the peices, but the machine came together within the week.

Action

I made this 3 ply cardboard box to ship it to Fab14 and was very happy with it's preformance. Carrying the machine around I dropped it a few times but all was well.

At Fab14 I wired it up. Configured the SmoothieBoard and started printing using Pronterface and Prusa slicer.

Ischeau can be accessed over the local network by this link: http://192.168.1.105/sd/webif/new-web-interface/index.html

Test prints

Power budget

Ultrabase heated bed - 140W Aero extruder - 40W Which shouldn't be over the PSU rating of 16, but I'm seeing it dip...

Things to impove next time

  • pulley and belt allignment
  • be able to see nozzle and bed touching from side
  • add limit switche
  • fix belt tensioner - FIXED
  • power supply fan is blocked by table so heats up
  • add fan for motorcontrollers