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Table of Contents
DIY high resolution 3D DLP printer (3D printer) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Step 2: Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Step 4: Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Step 6: Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Step 9: Z axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Step 10: Spindle nut housing and build platform support arms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Step 11: Build platform and research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Step 12: Resin basin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Step 13: The mirror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Step 14: Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Step 15: Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Step 16: Measure and set up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Step 17: The box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Step 18: 3d resins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Step 19: 3D printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Step 20: Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-high-resolution-3D-DLP-printer-3D-printer/
Affordable.
Open source
Compact.
High resolution.
Compatible with a wide range of materials.
Easy to use.
Fast
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-high-resolution-3D-DLP-printer-3D-printer/
Some resins also allow for curing with longer wavelengths but these are usually rare and expensive.
1) One of the things to consider is that in order to be able to print with a wide range of resins we would like as much UV in our light as possible. I will explain this in depth
when designing the basin, mirror and anti stick coating.
The other part is time of illumination and illumination intensity. The illumination intensity, or luminous flux is the amount of Photons per unit of time that is emitted by the
light source. The longer you illuminate the resin the deeper the light penetrates and the harder and thicker your printed layer gets. This is a very unique feature of stereo
lithography where the illumination time is another factor to consider as this determines the build layer thickness.
2) The light source must be of high intensity so the illumination time can be as short as possible allowing for a faster build.
3) An other thing to consider is that the light source needs to be very controllable in switching from illuminating the resin to not illuminating the resin.
In the principle of photo lithography, what gets illuminated polymerizes and what does not get illuminated stays liquid. This means that our resolution or minimum feature
size is determined by the minimum spot size.
3) The third parameter for our light source is that it must have the possibility to illuminate a spot that is as small as possible.
Googleing we found that there are two viable light sources/systems that will meet these demands. A blue/UV laser with nice optics to produce a small spot size and a
Galvo Head or A DLP projector. A Lasers are cool but to achieve a small accurate spot with a galvo system felt to us as going way over our heads. Since non of us has
any experience in setting up a laser, laser optics and a galvo system. And having the guys from Form 1 as an example (patent issues), maybe one day we would like to
offer the world a kit too. We decided to go for the DLP projector option.
Last but not least we only have 1000euro's to spend on a beamer. So there is a financial limit too. I realize this is not a small budget for a decent projector, but if the
project fails I can always watch a movie on it.
In the end we decided to use an Acer 7077365 Acer H6510BD DLP FHD 1080p, with 1920x1080pixels. Which we ordered at a local store .
Having the light source sorted we can now decide how to use our light source in our 3d printer:
Wait who ho ho stop, yes I know we are just designing a 3D printer but lets do a quick google on resins (photo curing resins). We found that these materials aint cheap.
So this cancels the top down approach option. In common stereo lithography the light source illuminates a pool of resin from above. As consecutive layers form the build
platform sinks down in to the vat of resin. This means your work piece can only be as high as your basin is deep. This also means that no matter what the size of your
build, you must always have a full vat of resin. Meaning that if you want your largest object that you can print to be the size of a shoe, you will need a constant volume of
about 3L of resin in your tank. At 80 Euros per litre, there are always 240euros sitting in the tank.
To us this is a bit much. So bottom up it will be.
There are two reasonable configurations when considering a bottom up 3D DLP printer. We can either project directly onto our build area or we can use a mirror to have
our projector at an angle in respect to our build area.
We chose to put our projector at a 90 deg angle and use a single surface mirror to project a crisp image on to our build surface.
This because we are aiming for a true desktop machine, something that really fits on our desktop and is as compact as possible.
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-high-resolution-3D-DLP-printer-3D-printer/
Step 2: Safety
Yes a whole page devoted to safety, be safe, take precautions, use your protection gear.
Please remember you have only one set of stereo vision sensors. Though you have two opposable thumbs I find this very handy and I bet you would prefer not to have to
replace one of these with a big toe. So please use all safety gear and be sensible about it.
Gear:
Safety goggles and or face shield
Disposable gloves
Sturdy leather gloves
Earplugs and or earmuffs
Sunglasses
Please wear your face shield or goggles and appropriate gloves when cutting, filing, grinding, working with solvents and chemicals.
When performing operations that produce sound, forget about loud sound, just any sound wear your earmuffs or earplugs.
I say this because of my dear granpa, he is always telling me he does not need earmuffs because his disk grinder makes no loud noises. Sure you get it.
When staring at your Beamer light wear sunglasses.
I am not responsible for any of your injuries or damage you do to yourself or your surroundings, but I Will appreciate it if you are like me and try to set a good example.
Your kids are watching and will do as you do.
Thank you so much for using your safety gear!
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Image Notes
1. this measure is just for illustration purposes, your beamer my greatly differ.
Step 4: Design
We decided to make a back bone for the machine out of aluminium profiles that we had lying around.
A simple compact design. Staring with two horizontal profiles which will make contact with the table to provide a steady base, two risers with a horizontal beam make a
bridge over the beamer. To this bridge the building platform and Z-axis are attached.
We decided to use 2mm thick aluminium plate as a base to put the beamer on and an other 2mm thick sheet to hold the basin.
Because of the profiles we are using as the back bone, 45mm square aluminium profiles. We can really get away with this structure using no diagonal supports without
losing rigidity. These profiles are really massive and a bit of an overkill for this type of machine.
What you cant see in the rendering here are all the corner pieces we used to bolt together the frame. I will put in some pictures later in the build.
Because we are going to use light sensitive materials in the end we will cover the printer with a box to keep out any light and dust.
3D design made by Chanil Budel.
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File Downloads
Step 6: Platforms
On the back bone we mounted three aluminum plates that will support the beamer, mirror setup,and the build tray.
Materials:
2mm thick aluminium sheet about half a square meter.
M6x15mm hex socket kap screws 12pcs
M6 washers 12pcs
M6 T-nuts 12pcs
Tools
Allen wrench
Nibbeling shears and or jigsaw
Step tapered drill
Drill press
Waterproof fine tipped permanent marker
Ruler
Pencel out the parts on the aluminium sheet according to the designs. Cut out the outlines of the pieces. The next step is to drill all the holes. For the plate that will hold
the Basin drill a hole in each corner to make cutting out the large square easier. Drilling all the holes before taking out larger areas will make the drilling easier. Taking out
material weakens the structure a bit so drilling first gives you nice sturdy material to drill in.
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File Downloads
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File Downloads
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File Downloads
Step 9: Z axis
Our Z axis consists out of a dove tail slide, carriage, two leadscrew mounts, a motor mount, stepper motor, motor mount and a bunch of screws.
Materials:
10mm thick aluminum stock
20mm thick aluminum stock
3mm aluminum sheet
20mm round aluminum stock (or buy a shaft coupler)
15x50 brass stock
3mm brass sheet
M5x20 hex socket cap screws 4pcs
M6x6 grub screws 2pcs
Tools:
(CNC) mill or a friend who has one.
M5 tap set
M6 tap set
We made our linear slide from some materials we had laying around the shop so please feel free to alter the design and use different materials. I believe you could just as
wel 3D print the spindle supports, motor mount and probably even the shaft coupler and the carriage. But for accuracy you will want to mill out your main dove tail linear
guide.
You can use our plans to make the nessecary parts.
Image Notes
1. Linear slide
2. Brass sled
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File Downloads
Step 10: Spindle nut housing and build platform support arms
To bridge the gap between the build platform which will be in the center of the tank and the Z-axis we will need some more parts.
One part, the spindle nut housing to connect the sled (the thingy that slides over the linear guide). A smart connection system so we can easily remove the build platform
from the Z-axis. And some angular parts that will reach over the walls of the tank so we can place the build platform on the bottom of the tank when we start printing.
Now put all these parts together and presto (presto took us about two weeks) one Z-axis with sled, lead screw, bearings all complete.
Image Notes
1. we even put in a notch to be absolutely sure we will not come in to contact with the glass wall
File Downloads
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File Downloads
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Image Notes
1. Ordered via Amazon.com
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Image Notes
1. Weight in 5g of silicone resin
Image Notes
1. Add 0.5g of catalyst and stir thoroughly
2. Add 0.5g of catalyst and stir thoroughy
Image Notes
1. Put a clean glass window on a lint free cloth
Image Notes
1. Apply some scotchtape to the outer edges like so. make sure you cover the
outer 5mm of the glass
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Image Notes
1. Now apply a strip of tape to the front and back 5mm of the glass
Image Notes
1. Now this is not the same picture as the last. Very important add a second
piece of tape over the left and right tape. These two layers of tape will determine
the thickness of your coating. 2 layers of tape will give you a wet layer thickness
of about 80 microns.
Image Notes
1. Apply your silicone on the front edge of the glass partially over the tape
Image Notes
1. place your second sheet of glass with the straightest edge down on the front
tape. Slide de glass forwards until it is making contact with the resin over the
entire length of the tape.
Now with as little force as possible slide the glass plate up to cover the bottom
glass plate with an homogeneous layer of resin.
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Image Notes
1. Now free it from the table. I did this by unsticking the tape from the table and
cutting of the large tape flaps. Now put it in the oven all taped, lint free cloth and
all
Image Notes
1. 60 minutes at 80deg C will do the trick
Image Notes
1. Now comes an other tricky part. This build is full of them. Cut the coating on
the inside of the tape with a scalpel on all four sides. Once you have cut the film
you can very carefully remove the tape.
Image Notes
1. All done. The good thing is that you can hardly see the coating. It is supposed
to be free of defects, homogeneous and ultra transparent. Does not make nice
pictures but will work great in the printer.
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Image Notes
1. Aluminium fram with glass walls installed. We found it works best to fill the
milled slot with silicone and then press the glass walls in there and fill up the
corners with silicone sealant.
2. I put some tape on the corners to keep the thing from falling in on it's self
while the silicone was curing.
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Image Notes
1. Clean your window thoroughly with ethanol or IPA (IsoPropAnol)
Image Notes
1. Apply a generous amount of silicone around the edge
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Image Notes
1. place the microscope slides at the corners like so
Image Notes
1. Gently press down the glass plates. make sure you contain the smudges to
the outer edge
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Image Notes
1. Very carefully whipe away any excess silicone, without moving the glass
window sideways
Image Notes
1. Remove the microscope slides after about an hour. The silicone will have
begun to set but should still be soft. You can now put some extra silicone in the
corners to make absolutely sure you have no leakages
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Image Notes
1. This is one of the parts we are most proud of. The modular design, not only
can you take of the basin as one module. You can easily take of the bottom
window as a separate module. Just in case your coating wears out or gets
damaged.
2. Just slide an exacto knife in between and cut through the silicone
Image Notes
1. Scrape clean and you are ready for a new window. (or a recoated old window)
File Downloads
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bought a normal mirror. (Good that I got to make two, yes I really made that mistake)
Image Notes
1. Fresh single surface silver mirror installed
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Image Notes
1. on the last row connect the Opto end switch. from top to bottom; green, black,
red
2. Connect the motor leads
from left to right; red, blue, green, black
3. we used a big ugly chunk of aluminum here. glued on with thermal paste and
reinforced with some hot melt glue.
Image Notes
1. original heatsink
2. uber block of aluminium heatsink
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Image Notes
1. callipers and micro gauge
Image Notes
1. Finger
2. Opto end switch
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Image Notes
1. Finger
2. Opto end switch
3. tree heatsink
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Image Notes
1. Cutting out the hole for the door
Image Notes
1. It fits snugly over the printer
Image Notes
1. Pieces for the light trap
Image Notes
1. measure where the fan will be
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Image Notes
1. assembling the light trap
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Image Notes
1. Paint the inside of the light trap black
Image Notes
1. All light trap parts painted black on the inside.
Image Notes
1. cut away any excess glue
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Image Notes
1. Glueing together the parts of the box.
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Image Notes
1. I added some slots to accommodate any cables coming out of the box
2. Hole to let out the hot air from the beamer
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Image Notes
1. Give it all a coat of paint. I again was reminded how much paint goes into chip
board.
Image Notes
1. All painted white and dry
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Image Notes
1. Glue in the light trap and the fan, make sure you attach some long leads to
the fan.
Image Notes
1. Cut out a square of red acrylic to fit over the hole in the door
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Image Notes
1. measure a size of acrylic to fit over the hole in the door
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Image Notes
1. Hotmelt glue the window in to place.
Image Notes
1. All done
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Image Notes
1. materials from Spot A materials
Image Notes
1. I chose this vase with organic shapes because it is a bit special to me. Here is why,It is so small, delicate and intricate that this object can be made by no other
means than 3D printing and with this level of accuracy with no other method than 3D dlp printing. So being able to make this proves to me the advancements we
have made in production technology. It is AWESOME!!
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