Hi guys, been thinking about this for a couple weeks now but can’t seem to find anything online about anyone who has tried it.

I’m considering converting my printer into a voron. However, since I currently have a fully functioning printer, I wondered why I can’t print the extrusions rather than purchasing them? Of course they are larger than my printer’s volume, but there was this video posted here a while back about a great way to create strong permanent joints for parts just like this:

https://youtu.be/zI8OgRRF5d8

The way I would do this would be to model the extrusions as a solid piece and make cutouts in the areas that bolts are meant to be ran through.

Is this even within the realm of possibility, or is there a specific barrier that has prevented others from trying this? The obvious concern is stability/ rigidity, but if everything is printed at voron part standards or thicker with an infill pattern like gyroid, would the decrease in rigidity be too much for input shaping to compensate for?

Thanks for any ideas or input! If there aren’t any major road blocks or examples of this failing I think I’ll try it out once I’ve got the space for it.

  • jagoan@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Is it possible? Yes. And you’ve mentioned stability could be an issue. I’ll add that if you count your time and wasted plastics to test the thickness, infill, etc. I think it’ll cost more than just buying the extrusion.

    That said, if you already have core xy printer, you can start testing by replacing the frame with a printed parts. Starts with the vertical ones.

  • William@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    You can never get to “fully 3d printed” unless you can print metal, and even then the tolerances just aren’t there yet.

    But if you want a 3d printer that’s as 3d printed as it can get, why not look at things that were designed for it, like Rook or Mulbot or The 100?

    • papalonian@lemmy.worldOP
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      6 months ago

      That’s super cool, I’d never seen this project before. I like it, but the required build volume is slightly outside my printer’s capabilities, and the final build volume of 160x160 is a little too small for my use case. Maybe if they build a scalable version like the voron 2.4 it would be a contender