DIY High Speed 3D Printer (CoreXY From Scratch)

A tutorial of building a High-Speed 3D CoreXY Printer from complete scratch. Can I beat the Bambulabs with a frugal 3D Printer made from available spare parts on hand? Let's find out! :D

A FRANKENSTEIN BUILD:
Like many others involved in 3D printing, one often accumulates spare parts and discarded components from past 3D printer upgrades and modifications. If you have some spares lying around, you can indeed put them to good use by building a fast CoreXY printer out of them.

TESTING THE FORBIDDEN IDEA:
Is it feasible to weld a steel frame for a 3D printer? (A question that has intrigued the 3D printing community for quite some time.) It's an idea that is often dismissed, as the possibility of building a skewed and misaligned frame is highly likely. The video shows how to overcome that obstacle and defy the old 3D printing taboo of using a welded steel frame.

WHY WELDED STEEL?:
3D printers are often built with aluminum profiles costing around +$100 for CoreXY designs. However, if built around a frame made from home-welded steel tubulars, the frame cost would go down to $4. Steel tubulars are common and abundant, as they are used as home construction materials. The idea of using a welded frame also introduces possible benefits for increased rigidity, essential for high-speed CoreXY builds.

MY JOURNEY IN 3D PRINTING:
Building the courage to construct a CoreXY printer was something I had to overcome. I started my 3D printing hobby back in 2015, with the ANET A6 (pre-release) being my first 3D printer. At that time, affordable printers came in kits you had to assemble with a provided box of materials. This experience played a crucial role in giving me an understanding of how 3D printers work. In 2016, I got my first SLA printer (FSL Pegasus) and my second FDM printer (CR10). From 2016 to 2023, my CR10 remained my main workhorse and favorite. I never really had a reason to upgrade to a new printer, as I was happy with my unit. I just needed something that works, and my urge to stay up-to-date in 3D Printing died down. In 2023, upon seeing the release of Bambulabs (the new kid in town), I finally had the urge to buy a new printer. This is when I discovered the world of Vorons and CoreXY communities existed. I had so much 3D printer junk by this time, so I decided to build my 3D printer from scratch in 2023, the MK1. It was a cantilever bed slinger design; I filmed a tutorial for it, but I never released it as I considered it to be a failure, as it was only as fast as any Ender 3 or i3. By the end of 2023, I finally decided to build my MK2 based on a speedy CoreXY design inspired by seeing Vorons. It was a personal project I never got to document into a video. After a few months of use, I was really happy with it! Thus, I made the MK3 specifically to be filmed for this video tutorial.

UPCOMING PREQUEL:
The entire video's original runtime was around 59 minutes long. I had to cut them down into chunks. I made a "How to design a CoreXY" chapter, which was removed from the initial release and will be uploaded separately.

VIDEO CHAPTERS:
0:00 - Intro
0:59 - Frugal Steel Frame Welding
4:45 - Finished Steel Frame Product
5:06 - Flee Market Shopping
6:25 - Component Placement
8:56 - Painting The Frame
9:13 - Prepping The Z Mechanism
10:27 - Linear Rail Assembly
15:49 - Hotend Assembly
18:20 - Belt Drive Assembly
19:13 - Endstop Assembly
19:42 - The Controller
20:09 - Wiring & Cable Management
21:47 - The Power Supply & Octoprint
22:24 - Custom Firmware
25:15 - Calibration Process
26:09 - Quality of Life Mods
27:02 - Test Prints
29:23 - The Verdict

#3dprinting #diy #engineering

[TechBuilder]

I'm Back! :D Some of the cruddy components used were intentional. I just wanted to bring life to some of my old discarded 3D printing components. Holding a square with shorts, the machine is not designed to be a precision build, it was literally just a frugal project for the thrill of doing so. I'll update you all when I migrate to Klipper. Hopefully input shaping would make an impact on the next test prints.

[MustyBucket]

This reminds me so much of the starting days of 3d printing, when there were no kits or tools specific for 3d printers, so you had to go around the hardware shop to find what you needed and use old pc power supplies as power source....
And in the end if you printed a cube that looked more or less like a cube it was such a success

[jsmxwll]

the old saying i was taught as a kid learning to weld, "a grinder and paint make me the welder i ain't" i still use a lotta grinder and paint lol

[TechieNI]

I'll be honest and say this is one of the most interesting builds videos I have ever watched. Proper use of what you have instead of buying all new fancy things. Excellent work buddy.

[chrismichaelyoung]

Some notes about welding from a professional MIG welder;

Get comfortable. Don't be anxious or anything; welding requires a steady hand. Especially on thin steel like you're doing here. Sit down to weld until you get comfortable enough to stand and weld.

Get your face closer to the weld, so you can really see what's happening. Don't be scared of it. Yes, weld spatter will get on you. Yes, it burns. You get used to it. I usually weld with my face as close to the weld as I can, less than a foot (30 cm) away at most. You need to be able to see the weld puddle flowing to where you want it to go. The puddle will do what it wants and you must simply guide it in the direction you want it to go.

You need gloves. That will let you get closer to your project and brace yourself for smoother lines. Imagine trying to draw a perfectly smooth, straight line with a pencil on paper without touching the desk, while holding the pencil by the eraser with one hand. This is effectively how you're welding here. Use your off hand as a brace for your torch hand to pivot on, don't grab the torch with both hands. I usually rest my elbow or forearm on the bench. Also, what you're using as a thumb rest is just a hook to hang the torch by.

Torch height and angle is very important. This is what appears to have caused the excessive spatter and the majority of holes in your welds. Proper height and angle allows for correct heat distribution and wire feed for good penetration, assuming you're using flux-core wire. If you're not, then you need gas and height and angle are even more important so the weld puddle stays shielded by the gas. You want to stay between 5-15 degrees from perpendicular, and the wire should stick out around 3/8" (1 cm) from the nozzle. If you're using flux-core, you should "drag" the torch away from the weld, and double the stick out to 3/4" (2 cm). Also, flux-core wire produces slag that needs to be chipped away with a chipping hammer.

Very basic settings guide: If it's just popping and not making a consistent puddle, turn your wire feed speed up. If you're getting excess spatter with correct torch height and angle, turn your feed speed down. If you're making a weld that looks like a worm sitting on the surface of the metal, turn your heat up. If you're burning through too quickly, turn your heat down.

Of course, settings are very important. But you also have to match your travel speed to your settings. Too fast and you won't get good enough penetration. Too slow and you'll burn a hole right through. You want it to have a consistent "sizzling" sound, and the edges of the weld should be flush with the surrounding material. Also, make sure to match your wire to the type of welding you're doing. Pay attention to the diameter. You'll need different torch tips for different wire diameters. Tips and cups are consumables, and will need to be replaced often. Gloves and hood glass, too. I go through a glass a day, a pair of gloves a week, and tips every few days. Of course, I'm welding 10 hours a day.

Finally, welding is a skill. It takes practice. It took me at least 100 hours to feel even somewhat comfortable doing what I'm doing. Practice on anything you can find to weld together. Start with welding on flat, then progress to vertical. Get comfortable; you should feel like you're sitting at a desk and doodling. Grind your metal before welding it. Weld straight lines on a scrap piece of metal. Practice different weld joints, starting with butt welds, then progress to laps and corners. You're doing great, for a beginner. My welds looked worse.

[maikewalzetto]

Wherever you graduated from, your professors did a wonderful job at imparting problem solving skills. Your speedrun build is spot on!

[slartibartfass]

Great architecture, build, budget, filming, editing and story telling. Just the righr amount of everything. Either you are a natural or you've out a ton of brain, sweat, budget and rime into this. Totally impressed!

[heidi]

I clicked on this thinking it would be click bait. But no, it's an excellent build that you've put together. It would be nice one day to build my own printer.

[Cbegnaud]

The best explanation of a scratch build i have ever seen.

[GarrettBShaw]

I absolutely love how you routed all of the wires underneath/behind the controller board and then had them come from the bottom and connect to the board.

It looks so clean! Very well done!

[isabelcuenca]

I had fun putting my first Voron 0 together but that frugal design constraint takes things to a new level! Nothing fascinates me more than utilizing spares remnants of the past, on to a modern motion system. Hands down, I would love to see more of these! Perhaps make a segment called "Cheap Thrills"! Might be the next McGyver series. Amazing work Angelo! 💯

[neverendingstudent]

This is a really impressive demonstration of working with constrained resources and still producing excellent results. Amazing sir.

[davidboop]

Oh man, all that welding and stuff that can fall on your feet and you're wearing sandals. You are a warrior

[ugur]

This is actually an amazing process that clearly shows how much design decisions and intricate details goes into our everyday 3D printers that we often complain about, and makes me really appriciate new companies like Bambu, that they turned this technology into almost proper appliances. Also I loved your commentary on top of every detail, thank you for this!

[skaltura]

Welding; Some tips here from a automotive fabbricobbler:

Get shielding gas and throw that core flux garbage in the bin.

Tap weld first each corner, i'd fabricate this by building the top and bottom squares first, just a spot weld on each corner, cross measure, machinist square to check it's square too, and you should be able to get within 0.1mm relatively easily with just tape measure -- errors show exponentially when cross referencing.

Add more spot welds, allow that corner to cool while spot welding the opposite, and go cross hatch opposites, regularly rechecking it remains square. REMEMBER; Smaller the issue, bigger the hammer! So if you are off by say 0.25mm you'll need a big hammer. Fortunately, small single handled steel mallets are only like 5$
Remember to well all 4 sides fully for maximal strength.

Cooling allow the stresses to give up, and as you add spot welds, it gets harder and harder to get off square, but more internal stresses will build if you go too fast.

After the 2 squares are done, then just the uprights, same process but this time after first or second spot welds on each corner i would probably add on top a 25kg or 2 sacks as weight to force it to be in place and allow me to weld it faster together. Otherwise the same procedure. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast; So without weights and time you can get it better squared.

**NOW ALTERNATIVE METHOD**
Print huge stiff corner brackets on 45 degree angle. Adjustable, no welding, no heat shrinkage / thermal expansion / thermal warp issues.
See how Slant3D has made their Mason printers.
Tho much less stiff, you need 10x thickness for PLA to be as stiff as steel. So for 1.5mm wall steel RHS, you need 15mm walls, or a minimum of 15mm fully solid plastic to match the stiffness.

[supadeluxe]

Your config set up document is exactly what I need to help me with my project. Thank you and great printer!

[chasealex]

as a mechatronics major..i am jealous of that store

[ooobs]

THAT’S INSANE, mad respect to your skill! You’ve redefined what it means to be a builder. Even without input shaper equipped yet, it’s almost as fast as my ratrig. I’m really excited for you to get hold of klipper.

[vansien]

I know you said this was your first foray into mig welding, just a word of caution for you, besides your inexperience with welding, the fact that the steel was galvanised would be another reason you had issues, but the big concern is that you tried to weld through the zinc instead of grinding it away before you weld. This is a big no-no in fabrication and should be avoided at all costs. You are young and most likely not had any issues because of it, but please, going forward, remove the shiney coating before welding .or better still, just don't do it.

[bearleemadeit]

I have had an almost identical design floating around in my head for almost a year now. Just don’t have a welder. You’re my hero!