I wouldn't know right now, but the Alligator board looks very promising. By the time I feel that I want a new board there will be newer and better control boards out. But that one has stood out for me. Granted, this is my first 3d printer so it will be a while before I feel like the control board is limiting my prints. That will be me for a long time.
I'm planning to add octoprint and lighting, however given this is my first printer when will be the question.
We need the dxfs for that. And some re-design will probably also be necessary. Btw, @E3D, what software environment did you use to design the BigBox? Cheers, U.
They've been working in 123D. I'm gonna try and keep mine stock for as long as I can manage Maybe some RGB leds for status monitoring.
Some like me like to have visual access or physical access to work on the printer. I personally will just use a thing sheet of clear acrillic to make removable panels to make the printer easier to work on.
How thick of aluminum do you guys think the frame needs to be, I have a friend with a cnc capabel of milling thinish sheets.
I think I'd rather pay a little extra in freight and have solid sides. Then with a top, it would be easy to add a heater for a heated build chamber. I can't imagine doing that for the cost of the freight.
Generally for a heated enclosure you want control over the ambient temperature. Usually a heated bed in an enclosure supplies enough radiant heat for ABS (~50C depending on the outside air) but some materials like even hotter, ~80C, which is hard to do without a secondary controlled heater
I don't recall which controller board this is using. Does it not have an output for chamber heat control?
They use the good RUMBA board. With an properly closed heat chamber you can easily reach temperatures from 50 to 55 °C which is quite good for warp-free ABS printing, but for really large parts with a lot of infill you probably want to go higher to up to 70 °C inside temperature. So for whatever temps you want to achieve you want your stepper motors to be actively cooled. Although they are specified to withstand heat peaks of up to 80 °C their max ambient temp is only 50 °C. If you do long and demanding prints at those temps your steppers are very likely to lose steps or even fail completely.
Yeh that's kinda my plan too...stopped short of the dual for now but maybe later, though I am more interested in using it for wash away supports than dual colour
I plan to print everything for the single head and use that for difficult prints if the second head gets in the way. Especially since the new carraige is easier to disassemble.
I would also be interested in an aluminum frame, although, if I am going to be shelling out for an Al frame, I would want it to be one solid piece with bend edges instead of six pieces bolted together. Now I am curious as to how much that would cost
In cost/benefit terms I'm not convinced it's going to make the printer any better (other than looking good)
that's what im looking into getting done, we have the capability to do it where I live. should be neat to see if I can convince my buddies to do it for me.