lost pla casting

[cfellows]

Chuck that Tantillus printer looks like a very neat design. Can ypu post a few more photos of it? I am confused by the drive at the top corner- The rod is beinging driven by the stepper motor, but it seems to be the linear bearing supporting the upper carriage. I found the Tantillus web site but its not much help on the base mechanics.

How is the outer case made- it looks like nice rounded corners, but I would expect sharp square corners if its laser cut.

These photos got me thinking- I wonder if you could take one of the plastic milk crates and make it the case for such a printer?

Hey Ron,

The original Tantillus had a plastic case that was printed on (another) 3D printer, in sections, that were then interlocked together. Each section is small enough that it could be printed on a another tantillus which has a 100mm x 100mm x 100mm build envelope. The outside dimensions of the case are 8" wide x 8" long x 12" high.

There are a number of variants of the Tantillus which use laser cut acrylic panels or plywood panels. There are also some variants made from extruded aluminum beams and printed plastic joints and bearing carriers.

Here is a thread with a number of pictures of my Tantillus from when I was restoring and modifying it:

http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?279,241379

And here are a few threads in the same forum for some variants of the Tantillus, including one I started but haven't finished. On some of these topics, you have to click on the picture to open it and view it

http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?279,253753

http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?279,190661

http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?279,299107

The outside rods that support linear bearings also turn to provide motion to the opposing axis. The rods on each side are connected with fishing line wrapped about 10 times to act as a belt. Seems crude but works amazingly well and is a whole lot cheaper than timing belts and pulleys. The rods around the outside are 5/16" drill rod and the linear bearings they support are solid, either bronze bushes, printed plastic bushings or, in my case, turned UHMW. The two crossed rods in the middle are hardened 8mm rods, since they support 8mm linear ball bearings in the print head. These do not rotate.

Happy to answer any other questions. By they way, if you have access to a 3D printer, there are lots of free printer files for the parts to the Tantillus as well as other 3D printers.

Chuck