We are putting together an open source DLP 3d printer. The idea is based off of http://www.indiegogo.com/veloso3dprinter?c=home

Seeing as most of these projects are not open source I thought it would be a good idea to try and tackle it. First meeting will be 4/17/12 @ 7pm @ HF.

This looks like a simple project but because of the high tolerance the build is more complicated. We will need to break this project into several parts. If you can't make it and want to be in this project, pm me here or on google+.

I'm in, and I finally found the original resin I was excited about. A quart is $40, which should be about a kilo of material. I think that's about double the best prices for ABS from China.

http://bucktownpolymers.com/polymer00.html
PS100-UV-Quart

I think this stuff, MakerSlide, would be a spectacular frame and motion platform, and it's cheap.
https://www.inventables.com/technologies/makerslide

Here's a some resources for open source DLP 3D printing.
http://3dlprint.blogspot.com/p/other-3d-printers.html

The King Daddy Yahoo, group for 3D printers
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/diy_3d_printing_and_fabrication/

This is a UK vendor selling resin for, < $20, per Kg, that's cheaper than ABS, even with shipping I'd think.
http://www.suscomp.com/resins.htm

and last but not least, you can make your own resin.
Check out the level of detail they get for the parts they make it's pretty crazy.

As you may have guessed, I'm all over helping with a group build. It's a 1 axis CNC, for which we have a stepper, a stepper driver, can use MakerSlide for the motion and whatever we want for the frame. That leaves getting some resin, a projector, and a Pyrex dish. I don't think it will be terribly expensive, I'd guess less that the cupcake, perhaps $400 to build the first working system.

Pete

HappyK, this is a beautiful concept. I really like the idea of that much precision. I'll help when I am available. Give me a task and I will let you know if I can tackle it.

Thanks

Is the the same software for the control system.

I think Orion accidentally a word

from the FAQ on the blog:

Q: How much cost the resins?
A: The resin cost is quite high at this moment because of the volume, over 350 per litter. We truly believe that this can go down once the volume increases, this means we need big number of people using the technology to have good price for the resin. I hope this happens as soon we bring a low cost printer to the market.

This is the perpetual problem with 3D printing. All the hi-def stuff uses super expensive liquid resins.

Boltz,

Not sure what blog you are referencing, yes historically the polymers were expensive, but my first post in this thread has several links to cheaper, near ABS for extruder prices, see Bucktown Polymers.

http://bucktownpolymers.com/ps100-uv.html

On another note, here's an update on software, it sounds like support for DLP projector printers is being added into Pronterface, and there are new builds for Windows and Mac as well.

https://github.com/kliment/Printrun

Pete

I clicked on the indiegogo link and the first link below the video took me to Junior Veloso's blog, where he shows those impressive prints, and that's where I found the quote about the expensive resin, in one of his FAQ's.

If you can get prints like that from $40 a quart resin that have some useful structural strength, that would definitely qualify as awesome.

What level of precision is necessary in the build?

-Jim Hart

It's basically a one axis (Z) cnc. It needs to be rigid and have a precise lead screw so you can move in tiny increments. A short ebay linear slide would be great, I think MakerSlide would work fine too. The folks here are doing muck smaller Z increments then we would likely do, and their setup doesn't look too heavily engineered, though I don't know how the manual Z screw setup work exactly, it's probably very rigid and precise.

See step 4 and 5 here.

https://www.nano-cemms.illinois.edu/mat ... nting_full

Oh, also NYC resistor bought the BuckTown polymer, I think would be a good start, they haven't used it yet.

http://www.nycresistor.com/2012/04/06/u ... -printing/

But the BuckTown polymer is made by the guy who created this thread. So his examples should give an idea of the detail. He would not be an unbiased reviewer though.He printed these, presumable with his polymer, I think a 1000th of mm is finer than I'd ever need.
80mm Toy Car Bodies, 10um layers (actual prints, not renderings)



Pete

Great application for a harmonic drive. They can give you 100:1 reduction in a compact package with zero backlash. With that many incremental moves settling time could be a big factor in overall speed.

-Jim Hart