Offgrid 3D Printing - DIY Mashup

[retro 4,048]

The extruder and LCD are done. The heated bed with nylok bed leveling mod is going together next.

 

 

 

[Bighanded 1,235]

the wife has this same model and she has really enjoyed it over the past couple years....it had an issue last year..Prusa paid shipping both ways and it was surprisingly fast on the turn around given they are over in Czech.

so far most of her work has basically been from pre-existing Thingi-verse files...she has done some minor modifications on some.

she also has a much more expensive unit that is a different tech   "SLA"  which basically dips the object in a bath of liquid...detail is higher on those prints and active venting is needed cause it really puts out the fumes.

but most of her fun stuff is just using the Prusa.

We have a room, what was originally a living room, dedicated to what we called the "winter wonderland"  it started as a Lionel layout..which quickly reduced the train track to allow for the wife to put more and more and more buildings and scenary.

she has a huge working carnival area, and throughout the layout, everything works, lights, etc. 

I used to use a different roadbed to have some moving cars in a section.

we have completely torn down the previous layout which was our second upgrade in the past 10 years...this one is much more complicated, including Lionel's EasyTrack roadways for operating cars and street cars and the single railway that will be left on here will be much more complicated in disapearing into tunnels, doing an under the platform turn around and back out in the open..so multi-layer mountain/tunnel deal is making my boardwork a lot more involved.

I have even built 2 box frames for small town where I have people figures walking on sidewalks....that took small robotics for gears, pullies, magnets etc and a good bit of trial and error and pulse train controller etc to get it all to work.

I am on a tangent, but the point is, she uses the Prusa to build parts, walls, drive-in movie theater speaker boxes, etc.

and yes, the drive-in actually has a working movie screen..took an old portable DVD movie unit that the kids used to carry on road trips, buried the base under the landscape so only the screen is above the ground. Remote switch to turn it on and it repeat plays the scene from "The Explorers" where the kids are flying their spaceship around the movie screen. She has the 3d print of that ship which was created from the Thunder Road carnival ride so it will be suspended in the rebuild on a twirl motor so it flies around the movie area as a salute to the movie.

 

it's a winter weather project for us, so the room is dark and a lot of benchwork is pending before we replace all the buildings...that won't happen now until Fall kicks back in.

[sled_22 845]

2 minutes ago, Bighanded said:

the wife has this same model and she has really enjoyed it over the past couple years....it had an issue last year..Prusa paid shipping both ways and it was surprisingly fast on the turn around given they are over in Czech.

so far most of her work has basically been from pre-existing Thingi-verse files...she has done some minor modifications on some.

she also has a much more expensive unit that is a different tech   "SLA"  which basically dips the object in a bath of liquid...detail is higher on those prints and active venting is needed cause it really puts out the fumes.

but most of her fun stuff is just using the Prusa.

We have a room, what was originally a living room, dedicated to what we called the "winter wonderland"  it started as a Lionel layout..which quickly reduced the train track to allow for the wife to put more and more and more buildings and scenary.

she has a huge working carnival area, and throughout the layout, everything works, lights, etc. 

I used to use a different roadbed to have some moving cars in a section.

we have completely torn down the previous layout which was our second upgrade in the past 10 years...this one is much more complicated, including Lionel's EasyTrack roadways for operating cars and street cars and the single railway that will be left on here will be much more complicated in disapearing into tunnels, doing an under the platform turn around and back out in the open..so multi-layer mountain/tunnel deal is making my boardwork a lot more involved.

I have even built 2 box frames for small town where I have people figures walking on sidewalks....that took small robotics for gears, pullies, magnets etc and a good bit of trial and error and pulse train controller etc to get it all to work.

I am on a tangent, but the point is, she uses the Prusa to build parts, walls, drive-in movie theater speaker boxes, etc.

and yes, the drive-in actually has a working movie screen..took an old portable DVD movie unit that the kids used to carry on road trips, buried the base under the landscape so only the screen is above the ground. Remote switch to turn it on and it repeat plays the scene from "The Explorers" where the kids are flying their spaceship around the movie screen. She has the 3d print of that ship which was created from the Thunder Road carnival ride so it will be suspended in the rebuild on a twirl motor so it flies around the movie area as a salute to the movie.

 

it's a winter weather project for us, so the room is dark and a lot of benchwork is pending before we replace all the buildings...that won't happen now until Fall kicks back in.

And you didn't post a picture of your wonderland? I would like to see that.

[Bighanded 1,235]

yep, I owe some pics...gotta dig out a different computer where I've got some pics and I think I still have a video where I strapped a gopro to the front of a Lionel for a ride-around.

 

 

[retro 4,048]

Cool! Can't wait to see pics!

[retro 4,048]

Alright, assembly of the printer is now complete. While mounting the heatbed on the Y-axis frame I added the Nylok Bed Leveling Mod. Chris Riley will demonstrate to y'all what that is all about here:

 

 

The Delta 240 watts SMPS power supply is mounted and I intend to use that stock power supply while performing the initial calibration steps, finely adjusting the Nylok Bed Leveling Mod and printing the 1st test print. Once I am satisfied with optimization & calibration I intend to remove the SMPS power supply from the printer frame and wire up my new 480 watt, 24 volts DC/DC converter, so that the printer will be solar-powered by my battery bank/controller/panels. The DC/DC converter will be mounted outside (on the side) of the network enclosure so that the solar-powered power supply will not be exposed to the warm interior of the enclosure.

 

Next up, gotta assemble the enclosure box, mount the two ventilation fans, mount a fan speed controller, mount the DC/DC converter, hang the LED lighting strips inside the top of the box and wire them all up for power.

 

Here are pics of the completed Prusa i3 MK3S+ kit ($796.68 shipped) with the smooth PEI coated magnetic spring steel print sheet that comes with the kit. Not pictured are the other two magnetic spring steel print sheets sold by Prusa that I bought separately from the kit; the powder coated Satin sheet, and the powder coated Textured sheet:

 

 

 

 

 

[Fishfiles 20,145]

@retro .... how's your #D printing going ?   ----   I hope you can view  this Facebook link , it is amazing , solar powered , robotic 3D printing machine building structures like houses !!! 

 

https://www.facebook.com/mashable/videos/10159160913714705

[retro 4,048]

I had to put this project aside for a bit.... got too many things to do right now. That solar powered robot printer is cool!

[Fishfiles 20,145]

THIS FULLY-FUNCTIONAL ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE WAS 3D PRINTED USING ALUMINUM POWDER