The first 3D Printer I made. I designed it all in Fusion 360 and cut the mdf out on my CNC Router.
The original 3D printer during assembly. All of the axes utilized 8mm ground shaft for linear motion and nema 17 stepper motors. The Z-Axis utilized two leadscrews while the X and Y axes used GT2 belts.
The Hypercube design. All of the black plastic pieces were printed on the original 3D printer.
Another view of the Hypercube.
About this project
This project began near the end of my senior year of high school. I had recently finished building my CNC Router, and having spent a lot of time learning about subtractive manufactured I wanted to learn more about additive manufacturing. I was pretty impressed by the open source Prusa printers, and decided to take some design inspiration from the original Prusa-Mendel 3D printer. I decided on the A-Frame design because I wanted a lot of rigidity but didn't want to spend a lot of money on aluminum plates or extrusion. I designed the entire printer in Autodesk Fusion 360, and used my CNC Router to mill out all of the pieces from 1/2" MDF. The whole assembly cost lest than $200, which I was proud of, but it lacked in build volume and print quality.
I decided to revamp the whole printer, reuse some parts, and create an entirely new and more accurate printer. I decided to use someone else's design as it is very professional and ironed out. This design is called the Hypercube, and more info can be found here.