Returning after hiatus trying to catch up before new Build

[zakfarias]

So, due to some health issues regarding my heart and blah blah blah I haven’t been here in a couple years nor have I really been inventive or active with the 3D printing community and my machines.

I’m now getting back to a healthy enough point where I am ready to dive back in and finish hammering out a design that used to bug the hell out of me in the back of my mind. Problem is…I may or may not have totally forgotten some of the finer intricacies of Duet hardware, coding, firmware, setups and etc.

A little bit of background:
By trade I am an injection mold designer and Cam programmer for 2 and 3 axis machines in a decent sized machine shop. I got started in the RepRap movement many a moons ago as can be seen if you walk into my workshop and see the skeletal remains of dozens and dozens of printer and CNC projects that slowly became the byproducts of evolution across the years.

The machine goal: Multi Tool changer CoreXY overbuilt and overengineered to an extent that anyone working in the sales department would say “Who in the bloody hell let the engineers have no restrictions?!?!?”

(I’ve come to realize it isn’t quite as inventive as it used to be since E3D and friends have all started to put out similar products which I totally haven’t stolen some inspiration from now that I am back in the groove; albeit a little bit of a clumsy groove)
The main iteration of this machine is intended to be stupidly overdone. Why? Because even though I have built dozens of machines I largely only use a small handful for their specific “strengths” and I’d like to take all the good stuff and downsize to using a single “all purpose machine of machines” that can focus on high speed production, large formats, high detail, fine detail, blah blah blah the operator’s wetdream scenario kind of deal. After I satisfy this itch to build a machine that can stand above all my others I will of course revisit the Design and BOM and make it an “accessible” design catered to Reprappers with more off the shelf and off the printer parts and pieces.

The first iteration though will be all off the shelf parts or machined parts utilizing my Sphinx or at work CNCs/Bridgeports/and Lathe to produce the parts.

The CoreXY motion system will be inspired by the E3D design but using things such as precision shoulder bolts and less cantilever aspects blah blah blah not tooooo worried about that stuff.

The main things that concern me is the Duet, wiring, setup, and actual usage.
Build Volume: 400mm x 300mm x 500mm
-Aluminum Extrusion Skeleton
-Enclosed
-24V oversize PSU feeding a junction block that breaks off to converters to 12v and 5v to run accessories like the excessive amount of water cooling.
-Aluminum plates to hold the XY system to be “singular”
-A bunch of other small QOL like painless belt tensioning and leveling (I don’t really want to use the 3 independent Z-leveling unless I have to), fire detection, thermal circuit breakers for the bed, water cooled stepper motors
-Z-axis: 3 linear guides driven by single Z or 1 maybe 3 linear guides driven by a single Z motor synced to 3 leads
-Mains powered Silicone heatbed (considering using 2 smaller ones to have independent "zones" for when I don't need the whole thing heated but not sure if it is really worth the hassle and what setup is needed both on firmware and slicing side)
-Berd air for part cooling because huge fan of it on my other machines I built before health issues.
-4 tool changer:

The plan is for the machine to have 4 kinematic coupled tools (design in progress)
*2 tools using E3D-V6 hotends with a water cooled cold side that will be lathe built. Extruders being Bondtech BMGs since I’ve always been a Bondtech fan sponsor me please. Intention is for these nozzles to usually be 0.4mm and used for multi color/multi material/ or just multi-roll jobs.
*1 tool will be E3D Volcano being driven again by a Bondtech BMG. Will probably use the same Water cooling setup for this one too as the E3D-V6. This will be the structural work horse and when a job needs to be fast build time and doesn’t have or require fine details

*The final tool will be a support material or unique material slave such as TPU. It will probably follow the same format and be Bondtech BMG driving a water cooled E3D V6. Or maybe I’ll be lazy and slap the Titan Aqua I have lying around on it.

So all in all I think the only fans in the entire printer will be PSU, Duet, and Exhaust since all motors and hotends will be water cooled. which should help tremendously with maintaining a controlled printer environment.

How is firmware and setup pain going to be here?
Plan is for Z axis to home to the Z-plate and not the bed with a mechanical Endstop. Reason for this, as I have painfully learned on some of my other machines, is that if I am running a large number of parts in succession I don’t clean the bed in between each one. Since I mostly work in PETG, once I lay down some Aquanet I can run about a dozen rounds of a part before I need to clean and reapply…or just spray another coat down and worry about cleaning later. The issue with this though is on my machines that use IR sensor homing and leveling I get misreadings on the Z as the Aquanet layer and print residue builds up which hurts first layer performance. So I was thinking of just sticking with manual leveling the Z and utilizing the mechanical endstop of the Build Plate. And just leave options in the design to convert to IR sensors on each Tool. Or do more fancy and elegant solutions exist now?

So if anyone has any, "hey look out for this or you are going to need to do this" or "Why don't you just do this" advice I am ready to absorb all of it and get back into the swing of things! especially in regards to firmware and slicing with the new generation toys since I'm a wee bit rusty now.

Also looking for ideas on what to use for Enclosure panels. Originally I was going to go with melamine and perhaps hydro dip it carbon fiber, But alas in the states melamine is near impossible to source, especially in thinner sheets. Could go HDPE but not sure how it will hold up with the printer's chamber? and I can't hydro dip it as nicely so stuck with that base HDPE look. Plan is whatever material I can source that can hold up to the temperature abuse and look nice I'll toss on the Sphinx and cut it out.

Also just as for fun:
What all else is new, fun, and exciting with the additive world and Duet hardware?
I haven’t been around for a long while and last I recall Duet community was transferring from 1.17 -> 1.18 I think. So no idea what kind of hidden gems have popped up. I did periodically lurk to peek at the Railcore design every once in a blue moon though.

Apologies for the blurb and most likely horrible sentence flow with abstract random ideas interjected. I am kind of just letting my thoughts ramble as I type bad habit of mine

[Danal]

Take a really good look at the "Jubilee". Very active project, and a good launching point for many of the things you discussed.

Specifically, it is a robust CoreXY toolchanger. The design is actively being improved and there is a good Discord discussion going on.

[Danal]

@zakfarias said in Returning after hiatus trying to catch up before new Build:

What all else is new, fun, and exciting with the additive world and Duet hardware?

Duet V3 firmware, which is re-organized and (IMHO) much cleaner and easier to understand. Runs on Maestro, Duet 2 WiFi/Ether, or Duet 3(see below) hardware.

Duet V3 hardware, which is modular to a degree that hasn't been seen before.

Conditional G-Code.

Those would be my big three.

[Danal]

@zakfarias said in Returning after hiatus trying to catch up before new Build:

Also looking for ideas on what to use for Enclosure panels

24x48 ceiling tiles. Fireproof (resistant), great insulation, easy to work with. semi (but not completely) structural.

[Danal]

@zakfarias said in Returning after hiatus trying to catch up before new Build:

(I don’t really want to use the 3 independent Z-leveling unless I have to

Water's great! Come on in!

[zakfarias]

Started reading over some of the stuff you linked, and I'll have to jump on that discord for fun, but man looks like some major evolutions have taken place. Even more exciting to get back into the swing of things with all these advancements! And oh hey I recognize the Jubilee!!! Although back when I first saw it under development it had no name and was just a motion test system.

Well guess I need to start reading over all the Duet documentation for the millionth time in my life to see what all is new and improved.

And then try to scour the forum to glean some ideas from others on how they approached some things.
Still not entirely sold on independent Z leveling either. The idea is great and really does a bang up good job on helping out on some design archetypes, but if you are running 3 Leads synced to one motor with a Mic6 tooling plate bed with thin glass on top you largely will never come out of alignment once you manually level once [and I don't have to worry about the whole IR misreading old print residue/aquanet and messing up first layer performance when I go into production mode (I make small parts in production batches for a few local mom and pop shops still and would like to try and get my hobby business up and going again now that my health is improving)]

But I am open to the idea of building to be able to accommodate both my normal z setup as well as being able to freely convert to independent Z leveling just to give it a try as long as it doesn't prove to be a hassle to use efficiently.