Hi, would you be up for passing on the BOM you drew up? It would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Sure, I’ve shared it on Google Sheets. The BOM is for v1.5. They recently came up with 1.5+ which improves the bed design to make it sturdier. That’s good because I’ve noticed that the mass of the bed and printed part moving back and forth (particularly for repeated short movements) causes vibration that affects the print. They no longer ship unassembled printers, so they don’t have a build manual for that version, but all of their 3d printable files for 1.5+ are on their site for download. Unfortunately there is a lot of new hardware with no specs (like the laser cut aluminum piece for the print bed). They may share it if asked on their forums.
Due to the limitations of a moving print bed (the vibration I mentioned), I am leaning towards building a different printer where the print bed either doesn’t move or only moves vertically (small layer height changes shouldn’t introduce much vibration). I’m intrigued by the CoreXY principle and may build one of those.
Yip that’s what I found with my small cheap one. Had to turn the printer speed down. So am looking for something more ridget. Going the other way you will still have the gantry weight to shift at speed. I’m also looking at trying to get away from two motors driving the same axis.
True about the gantry, but a print bed will have significantly more mass as size scales up than a gantry. It is especially true if a bowden setup is used. Yea, for z-axis, I have been thinking I would do something like this to drive it all off of one motor: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/h-bot-and-corexy-3d-printers/qQs10CV1hnM/EqD25p7tbswJ
I have 2 gMax printers. The gMax 1.5 and the gMax 1.5+. Both printers work very well. I use them everyday. The gMax 1.5+ worked right out of the box. I had to tune the bed alignment slightly but after 10 minutes I was easily printing very large models. My second day after unboxing the gMax 1.5+, I was 29 hours into a large model which finished much better than anticipated. Replacement parts are very affordable, accessible and modular. The software and electronics are opensource. This printer can be modded/built into any form of FDM 3d printer. The customer support is great. This is a great choice for any prosumer looking for a 3D printer.
varija
13
Hi, Thanks for BOM. I have some doubt on ACME rod.There you mentioned 1/4"-16.please let me know 1/4" is diameter?If yes it is equal to approximate 6 or 8mm rod.Also please explain 16.is it length of rod?
I contacted McMaster store. They are not shipping spare to India.So please suggest any other equal rod.
1/4" acme will be close to 6mm acme in diameter. 1/4" is 6.35mm. 20 is the number of turns per inch. You may find something similar in metric, but it won’t be exact. You will need to alter the marlin settings appropriately for whichever rod you get. You also will need to make sure that the nuts you use in the z axis will be captured properly in the printed parts. Check the dimensions of the ones you get against the 3d models. If they don’t match, you may need to alter the models some. I honestly don’t know why they chose to use imperial measurements. Metric can be found without too much difficulty here in the USA.
varija
15
Thanks for reply.Here I got some 8mm ACME rod with 3mmpich. I will try with this.
varija
16
Dear Sir,
Right now I am using I3 prusa DIY printer.I am planning to build Gmax1.5 from that old printer. also I can use every part like 4 stepper,Power,Extruder,Mother board Gt2560.etc
I am plannig30x30 T slot or 40 x 40 T slot. But i wont get ACME rod in India.So I am using normal rod and planning to add heat bed. Please tell me what are the changes required in frimwere for these all.
Thanks
varija
17
Dear Sir,
Right now I am using I3 prusa DIY printer.I am planning to build Gmax1.5 from that old printer. also I can use every part like 4 stepper,Power,Extruder,Mother board Gt2560.etc
I am plannig30x30 T slot or 40 x 40 T slot. But i wont get ACME rod in India.So I am using normal rod and planning to add heat bed. Please tell me what are the changes required in frimwere for these all.
Thanks
varija
18
Hi anybody know?
Right now I am using I3 prusa DIY printer.I am planning to build Gmax1.5 from that old printer. also I can use every part like 4 stepper,Power,Extruder,Mother board Gt2560.etc
I am plannig30x30 T slot or 40 x 40 T slot. But i wont get ACME rod in India.So I am using normal rod and planning to add heat bed. Please tell me what are the changes required in frimwere for these all.
Thanks
I have a gCreate GMAX and I use it daily. I had yet to try ABS on it, but for PLA, so goat so good. I use Aqua Net Extra Hold hair spray and I’ve had no issues. I do have the occasional mess ups from downloaded files but nothing on my printers end. I also have a Prusa i3 and I rarely use it anymore. Think I’m going to try ABS in the next week or so and attempt to get that figured out.
It’s definitely a good printer. I have been getting very good quality prints as long as I pay attention to my settings and know my printer. I do have a few modifications, but mostly to support an e3d Chimera hotend.
I have printed and assembled nearly all of the lower portion (where most of the complicated parts are) of a Curta calculator (if you’re interested in the progress, I post my updates on http://wudev.digitaltorque.com). Many of the parts are very small, and nearly all of them require tight tolerances to operate properly. The work has involved cutting both internal and external threads into printed parts. The gMax has handled this work which involves detailed prints both large and small very well.
That said, I am currently building a core-xy printer which will eliminate y-axis movement vibration since it won’t be moving a big print bed back and forth.
Excellent printer – it will get you far, but there is room to grow.
thats cool do you have any pics of your build?
I threw together a shared album. I couldn’t find any photos of the entire printer – I’ll take a couple and upload them tonight.
The extruder pictured is a direct drive extruder for an e3d Chimera hotend. I had to make a plate to mount it to which I did in OnShape and just now pushed to thingiverse.
About how much time did you have in the build? Would you do it again?
It’s hard to say how much time I put into the build – I purchased parts a little at a time and built it as I got parts. I would guess I put the whole printer together and calibrated it in the equivalent of 3 days of focused work.
My biggest annoyance with the gMax design is that an 18x18 print bed is a very large and heavy bed to be moving back and forth. When doing infill on small areas, the bed moves back and forth very quickly causing lots of vibration. Even if you stiffen up the y-axis (the 1.5+ does this), the bed itself is on springs to make leveling easier and prevent head crashes from doing as much damage. The springs will pick up the movements and translate it to vibration on the print bed.
My second printer is a combination between a D-Bot and a Triple C-Bot and because I can’t leave anything alone I have my own modifications as well. The print bed only moves vertically in small increments (your layer height). At speeds that would cause significantly reduced print quality on my gMax, I am getting very smooth prints on the new printer. Plus it has a heated bed. My biggest problem so far has been stringing from using a Bowden setup, but I’ll get that ironed out. Picture attached of a Marvin printed at 80mm/s with 0% infill at 0.1mm layer height printed on the new printer.
Edit: grr, my phone camera won’t focus on the Marvin very well so it’s hard to see just how good the quality is. Plus it’d be nice to see a comparison with one printed on my gMax with similar settings (minus the speed). I’ll see if I can remember to take those photos tonight with a better camera when I get home.
“My biggest annoyance with the gMax design is that an 18x18 print bed is a very large and heavy bed to be moving back and forth. When doing infill on small areas, the bed moves back and forth very quickly causing lots of vibration. Even if you stiffen up the y-axis (the 1.5+ does this), the bed itself is on springs to make leveling easier and prevent head crashes from doing as much damage. The springs will pick up the movements and translate it to vibration on the print bed.”
Interesting, is this typical of large bed printers where the bed moves in the X,Y or both as opposed to the extruder moving or is it something about there design.
It would be typical of large bed printers. Their design actually does a great job of mitigating it, but I’ve found that it’s always a factor.
