New Printer

Design Goals

Summary

When designing my new 3D printer there were a few key goals I had in mind. Some of these goals were different to my last printer and some were just carried through from my last design. My new goals were to make the printer silent, good value and clean. Some goals that were inherited from the last design included high accuracy, reliability, and ease of use.

I basically copied everything from the last printer that worked well and changed whatever did not.

Silent

Silence was the key goal for my new printer. My previous printer was about as loud as a 3D printer could be. The bearings rattled, steppers whined, and fans buzzed. This limited my effective printing time to hours where I was not going to be bothered by the noise. I could not print while studying or sleeping. The new design had to be quiet enough to study and sleep through. This would expand my printing production significantly.

Accuracy

Accuracy was another key requirement. The accuracy had to match that of a Prusa printer or similar production printer. My previous printer did not even produce prints that were square.  Large rectangular prints would come out looking more like a parallelogram. Since I offered 3D printing to people on Gumtree, I needed to be able to guarantee a degree of accuracy.

Value for money

My old printer was designed to be extremely strong and powerful. After having realised that this did not result in prints that were any better than other printers, I changed my mindset. This new printer was going to be more optimised. I would not pay for parts that would not improve print quality or meet design criteria.

Reliable and Easy to Use

My previous printer was easy to use and it worked nearly all the time. My new printer would inherit a lot of the same features. My goal was to minimise the amount of effort that needed to go into printing a part. This would make my small printing business more enjoyable.

Clean

My old printer was not the best-looking machine. Since I was making a new one, I decided I may as well make it look half decent. I wanted to machine to have a clean design, similar to a Prusa Mk3.