koent

this is the original question: ______________ Hello guys, new to the forums, just signed up because there seems to be a lot of knowledge here. I am completely new to 3d printers, meaning I have no personal hands on experience with them. All I know about them is a result of the research I performed so far and people I talked with who do have some experience. My plan is to build a 3d printer myself, using the popular RAMPS board with a megaduino. I am a mechanic with acces to all sorts of machinery (lathe, mill, welder etc.) and industrial type bearings, threaded rods and all other nescassery parts to build the hardware. The printer I intend to build will be a carthesian type, a rather large one (600x350x350mm). Since this is my first printer I would like to ask your opinion on a few questions that have arose so far. What I don't understand yet is that a cooling fan to cool the part down is usually recommended for improved print quality, but I also see people achieving better results when they put their printer in a heated chamber. Isn't this a little contradictory? (one heating the part up while the other one is cooling it down) Or am I missing something. (probably, lol) Would a combination of the two be any good? The focus here is big parts but surface finish will be important nonetheless. Also, since my printing bed will be a pretty heavy unit, I intend to use a counterweight suspended by a cable, rolling over a pulley, or, alternatively, use a pneumatic cylinder and regulate the presure to help it lift the bed. Anyone have any experience with either of these solutions? I might not use them after all since I will first have to measure the required torque to lift the bed, if my motor's torque is sufficient I won't be using neither. Thanks in advance for the help

as it turns out I was able to post this topic. I will include my original question in this reply then and see if a moderator can perhaps make a topic out of it for me in the correct category: original topic: ______________________________________________ Hello guys, new to the forums, just signed up because there seems to be a lot of knowledge here. I am completely new to 3d printers, meaning I have no personal hands on experience with them. All I know about them is a result of the research I performed so far and people I talked with who do have some experience. My plan is to build a 3d printer myself, using the popular RAMPS board with a megaduino. I am a mechanic with acces to all sorts of machinery (lathe, mill, welder etc.) and industrial type bearings, threaded rods and all other nescassery parts to build the hardware. The printer I intend to build will be a carthesian type, a rather large one (600x350x350mm). Since this is my first printer I would like to ask your opinion on a few questions that have arose so far. What I don't understand yet is that a cooling fan to cool the part down is usually recommended for improved print quality, but I also see people achieving better results when they put their printer in a heated chamber. Isn't this a little contradictory? (one heating the part up while the other one is cooling it down) Or am I missing something. (probably, lol) Would a combination of the two be any good? The focus here is big parts but surface finish will be important nonetheless. Also, since my printing bed will be a pretty heavy unit, I intend to use a counterweight suspended by a cable, rolling over a pulley, or, alternatively, use a pneumatic cylinder and regulate the presure to help it lift the bed. Anyone have any experience with either of these solutions? I might not use them after all since I will first have to measure the required torque to lift the bed, if my motor's torque is sufficient I won't be using neither. Thanks in advance for the help

Hello, I've been trying to ask a question on the forums for a while now but every time I finished writing my question and I want to post the topic, I keep getting the message that I'm violating the house rules for some reason. Sorry if I posted this in the wrong category, don't know where else to put it. Thanks