How to Build a Laser 3D Printer !

in #build7 years ago

Here is how to make a Stereolithography 3D Printer. It is still a bit of a work in progress but so far it is working pretty well. This is mainly an experiment which started as a Delta Robot Stereolithography Printer but ended as a more traditional Cartesian Stereolithography Printer.
Stereolithography (SL or SLA from Stereolithography Apparatus) is an additive manufacturing process using a vat of liquid UV-curable photopolymer "resin" and a UV laser to build parts one layer at a time. On each layer, the laser beam traces a cross-section pattern of the part onto the surface of the liquid resin. Exposure to the UV laser light cures, solidifies the pattern traced on the resin and adheres it to the layer below.

I have wanted a 3D Printer for a while now and there are some very reasonably priced kits available like the Makerbot, Ultimaker and the RepRap project. I could have just bought a kit and started printing things but at the time I had not seen great resolution or print quality from those. I started looking around at the other 3D printing technologies and found SLA made some amazing quality prints, so I decided to try making my own. Since I started this a while back those projects have come a long way and they can make some beautiful prints now. There are also people working on a UV resin and DLP projector 3D printer which is showing promise.

I decided to enter this in the Epilog Challenge Contest because I could really use a laser cutter :-) I also have some ideas how to redesign this project, for creation on a laser cutter. I wouldn't mind making kits for people if I had one.

Something to keep in mind is the current cost of commercially available UV/Visible resins. 1 Liter is about $65 (http://www.buy3dink.com/) so compared to ABS or PLA for the plastic extrusion printers it is about 4 - 5 times more as far as I can tell. There are other types of resin that are cheaper but I do not know how well they will work.

Since I wasn't really sure if this was going to be a viable method of creating 3D objects, this was a fairly cheap and quickly designed project. I have a small Taig CNC Mill for cutting metal so the custom parts are made of scrap aluminum I had laying around. You can probably use wood and maybe even hand cut the parts if you are careful.

Step 1: Materials, Tools and Safety

This is a list of the parts I used.

General Parts
3 - 16" x 171/2" x 3/4" Plywood for the back and sides of the case
2 - 16" x 16" x 3/4" Plywood for the top and bottom of the case
24 - #6 x 3" wood screws and washers
4 - Rubber Stoppers 1 7/8" x 1 3/4"
4 - 1/4-20 x 2 1/2" Bolts
8 - 1/4-20 Nuts and washers
1 - 4" x 4" x 1/4" Black Acetal sheet (Delrin)
1 - 1 Liter Beaker

Linear Rail and Blocks from Automation Overstock
4 - AG Linear Rail 15mm x 200mm
2 - 15mm Bearing Block, 2 Bolt Flange
2 - 15mm Bearing Block, 4 Bolt Flange

Electronics Parts from Sparkfun and others
6 - microswitches with roller
3 - ROB-09238 Stepper Motors
3 - EasyDriver Stepper Drivers (Pololu drivers should work too)
3 - Polarized Connectors 4-Pin housing
3 - Polarized Connectors 4-Pin Header
2 - 6 pin female headers
2 - DC Barrel Jack Adapters - Female
1 - Sanguino (Arduino Mega would work too with code modifications)
1 - 5V FTDI USB Cable
1 - Omron G5V-1 Relay
1 - LD33V 3.3V Voltage Regulator
2 - 9V 500ma or higher Power Supplies (could use one but they are cheap)
1 - 12V - 24V 2000ma or higher Power Supply (for Stepper Motors)
1 - TIP120 Transistor
1 - 1K Resistor
1 - Protection Diode such as 1N4148
2 - 2 pin screw terminals
Various Male and female .1" headers, wire and protoboard big enough to fit everything

Leadscrew from McMaster-Carr
1 - 1018 Carbon Steel Precision Acme Threaded Rod, 1/4"-16 Size, 3' Length

Leadnuts from DumpsterCNC
3 - Acme 1/4"-16 (1 Start) Leadnuts Square flange 4 hole
3 - Acme 1/4"-16 (1 Start) Couplers 5mm Bore

Laser parts from Aixiz
1 - Aixiz blue laser glass lens
1 - Aixiz 405nm violet laser 20mW
1 - Iris Diaphragm, Zero Aperture, 21mm Outer Diameter from Edmund Optics

The UV/Visible light cure resin from Ellsworth Adhesives
1 - liter Dymax 3099 Ultra Light-Weld Adhesive
or
1 - liter Loctite 3105 Light Cure Adhesive

Tools Needed
Drill and various bits
Drill Press
JigSaw
4-40 tap
Access to a CNC Mill
Gorilla glue or similar
Long clamps
Hacksaw
Files

Safety
Laser Safety Goggles such as these. They must protect against 405nm light to be effective.
Well ventilated area, don't inhale the vapors from the resin or those produced when curing.

FOR FULL ARTICLE GO TO : http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Laser-3D-Printer-Stereolithography-at-Ho/

Sort:  

Will this printer work really? Anyway thanks for sharing. Followed you & upvoted. Kindly follow me back. check out my new video . https://steemit.com/dtube/@kumar.malhotra/8aiiqmbs

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.27
TRX 0.20
JST 0.039
BTC 97468.81
ETH 3593.60
USDT 1.00
SBD 3.89