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Large DIY 3D Printer With All Lead Screw

Large DIY 3D Printer Build: All Lead Screw 3D Printer With Fixed Bed / Moving Gantry

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Large DIY 3D Printer Build: All Lead Screw 3D Printer With Fixed Bed / Moving Gantry

DIY Large Scale 3D Printer With All Lead Screws

Fixed Bed / Moving Gantry

The Workhorse Printer is a large format 3d printer some friends and I have been working on for the past three years. The large 3d printer is a modular machine platform that uses lead screw driven motion with a fixed bed / moving gantry. 

  • Fixed Bed / Moving Gantry
  • X and Y-Axis Lead Screw

While most 3d printers use belt driven motion in the x and y axis to increase print speed but loses quality when more weight is applied to the gantry or carriage. The lead screw used on the Workhorse has a high helix pitch with multiple threads to allow increased print speeds while maintaining the quality provided from lead screw and ball screw motion. We designed the machine for applications that require more weight to the gantry or carriage such as materials such as clay, chocolate, plastic pellet extrusion. The increase weight that is moved 

around which without decreased quality or reduced print speeds.

Google Drive Documentation 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YLz6RJX2dNR7XJ4LiZ_rjCxjC-D690S_?usp=sharing

Lead Screw vs Belt Driven Motion

While most 3d printers use belt driven motion in the x and y axis to increase print speed but loses quality when more weight is applied to the gantry or carriage. The lead screw used on the Workhorse has a high helix pitch with multiple threads to allow increased print speeds while maintaining the quality provided from lead screw and ball screw motion. We designed the machine for applications that require more weight to the gantry or carriage such as materials such as clay, chocolate, plastic pellet extrusion. The increase weight that is moved  around which without decreased quality or reduced print speeds.

Large Build Area

Large Scale 3D Printing
  • Print size millimeters (xyz): 650 x 350 x 350 mm
  • Print size inches (xyz): 25.6 x 13.7 x 13.7 inches

Fixed Bed

While most large format printers use a moving bed that moves along the Z-Axis, the Workhorse’s fixed bed and moving gantry design is more ideal for the large scale 3d printing process.

Nema 23 Stepper Motors

In order to drive the lead screw we had to use Nema 23's instead of the typical Nema 17 stepper motors found on most 3d printers and machine custom motor mounts.

Carriage & Gantry Design

WorkHorse X-Carriage
WorkHorse X-Carriage

Duet Wifi and Duet 3 Mainboard

Hackaday 3d Printer Project Lists

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Gantry Assembly

Mic6 Aluminum Build Plate

WorkHorse 3D Printer Heated Bed
WorkHorse 3D Printer Heated Bed

Carriage Assembly

Lead Screw 3D Printer
Igus Lead Screw

Duet3D Firmware

We now recommend the Duet 3 Mainboard 6HC electronics by Duet3D. Build & Firmware Updates

Workhorse Specifications

  • Technology: FFF FDM
  • Type: Material extrusion
  • Open-Source Year: 2018
  • Assembly or DIY Kit
  • Mechanical arrangement: Cartesian-XYZ-Head
  • Manufacturer country: USA

Materials

  • Filament diameter:1.75 mm, 3mm
  • Compatible with 3rd party filaments? Yes an open material system
  • Printable material(s):ABS, CPE, HIPS, Nylon, PETG, PLA

x-zip-compressed - 11.99 MB - 03/10/2021 at 21:14

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step - 16.29 MB - 03/10/2021 at 21:13

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f3z - 7.27 MB - 03/10/2021 at 21:13

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  • 2 × Gantry Plates
  • 1 × Nema 23 Motor Mount
  • 7 × MGN12 Linear Rails
  • 3 × Nema 23 Stepper Motors
  • 4 × Nema 17 Stepper Motors

  • Upgraded Z-Axis Stepper Motor Mounts

    Shane Hooper05/23/2022 at 03:36 0 comments

  • X-Carriage Design

    Shane Hooper10/05/2021 at 07:06 0 comments

    WorkHorse 3D Printer X-Carriage Design

    The Workhorse Gantry and Carriage design is a heavy-duty solution for lead screw/ball screw motion. I have a newer design that's a little lighter but I haven't tested it out yet.

    X-Carriage Assembly

    X and Y-Carriages use 4 M3x6mm Screws

    • X-Carriage (X-Axis) 2pcs
    • Y-Carriage (Y-Axis) 1pc
    • M3x6mm Screws 12pcs (4 for each Carriage)

    The x-axis carriage screws down to the 2040 Y-axis extrusion and rail. *Note* The y-axis 2040 extrusion must have hand tapped M5 threaded holes.

    X-Carriage Design Diagram

    Linear Rails

    The Workhorse Printer uses MGN12H linear rails with a 20mm x 20mm Hole Pattern.

    Igus Lead Screw Drive Mechanism

  • Y-Carriage Design Update

    Shane Hooper02/27/2021 at 03:04 0 comments

    • Reduced the weight and footprint of the Y-Axis Carriage.
    • Experimenting with Igus anti backlash lead screw nuts.
    • Trying out different direct drive extruder designs

    I'm considering making the X and Y-axis C-Carriage designs from solid rectangular bar instead 2" x 4" aluminum tubing. There will be a increase in wasted and machine time but the over all weight and footprint will decrease. The more compact design will allow faster printing speeds due to reduced deflection within the system.

View all 3 project logs

  • 1
    Step 1
  • 2
    Frame
  • 3
    Heated Bed

View all 5 instructions

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Discussions

Peabody1929 wrote 05/23/2022 at 15:19 point

Duration of a 3D print is determined by how fast the exturder can move.  How fast does the extruder move in this design?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Starhawk wrote 04/28/2021 at 00:17 point

Hey -- in the Project Details, the paragraph that starts "While most 3d printers [...]" is duplicated, and the first copy has a line break in the wrong place at one spot. Just FYI ;)

I hate typso like that... they suck!

  Are you sure? yes | no

Starhawk wrote 04/28/2021 at 00:18 point

(Yes I did that on purpose. I'm a wise*** like that!)

  Are you sure? yes | no

Shane Hooper wrote 02/22/2021 at 01:09 point

Thanks Starhawk!

  Are you sure? yes | no

Starhawk wrote 02/21/2021 at 08:39 point

+Like and +Follow!

Also, check your Chat / Private Messages / "DM"s / etc ;)

  Are you sure? yes | no

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