Printable View
I am adding 3D printing capability to my CNC SX3 Mill. There is plenty of information and products out there but I have yet to find any information on how to attach to the extruder/hot end to the mill. In my case I want to maintain the machine as a CNC Mill for most of the time and occasionally attach the extruder, etc. to do some 3D printing.
Any advice on how to do this or where such information exists?
Thanks
Which extruder are you going to use?
Bowden, Direct Drive?
To be honest I am not knowledgeable yet on on all the different types of extruders, hotends, etc. but I *think* I am leaning toward a direct drive as I don't believe weight is any issue nor is my Z travel since I have a full blown CNC mill.
My limited understanding of this whole subject is slowing improving but from what I have read thus far, it seems filament jamming is one of if not the most common problem. On the surface, it looks like a remote filament feed is going to have more issues in this regard.
So for the sake of discussion, if I go with a direct drive what are some of the methods people use to mount the extruder to the mill, especially in a way that is "temporary" as I need the mill function more than 3D printing.
Thanks
Do you have a picture of the machine of the front straight on? And is there a way to lock the spindle so it can't rotate? I'm thinking maybe a Wades extruder sitting on a small platform suspended from a collet chuck.. That would make it removable.
You can see what the mill looks like here:
Grizzly.com
The machine now has stepper motors instead of handwheels and the chip guard is long gone.
The top cylinder of the spindle doesn't spin so I think I will have to make some sort of circular clamp that has the platform you are talking about.
What about making a clamp to fit the spindle nose. Lock the spindle so it won't turn and mount it to the nose. The clamp can have the necessary mounting hole for the printer head, and you're good to go.
My current plan is to go with this extruder:
V3.1 Geared Stepper Extruder
and this hotend:
https://www.hotends.com/index.php?ro...&product_id=88
and use the hot end clamp plate to attatch an adapter to allow connection to the spindle. I am considering putting a 3/8" or 1/2" shaft off the top so the extruder mounts to the mill in a collet like any other tool would. I have had to put this project on the back burner for a while due to other priorities but will be getting back to it soon.
I'm working on the same for my router table, though I like the idea of this DualDrive Extruder (DIY) but using this hot end instead of his. Somewhere in the thread, he also provides mach3 screenset.
Thanks for the links, especially the mach3 screenset.
I forgot to say I also plan to add some cooling to the hot end. I am just learning about this 3D printer stuff but think having temperature feedback/control on the build plate as well as the hot end is important to keep constant temperatures. I plan to get one of these: gecs2ts1 | Converting a CNC Machine to a 3D Printer . There is also a mach3 add-on here for importing an STL file in slic3r and loading g-code into : Mach3 Addon | Converting a CNC Machine to a 3D Printer . A new version is in the works