{"id":459,"date":"2019-08-24T14:05:34","date_gmt":"2019-08-24T14:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/?page_id=459"},"modified":"2019-08-24T14:06:01","modified_gmt":"2019-08-24T14:06:01","slug":"mr-wallace","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/index.php\/other-hobbies-and-projects\/3d-printing-and-printers\/mr-wallace\/","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Wallace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2016 – Mr. Wallace Comes out of the Closet<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After building my Prusa I2 printer in late 2013 I had a real interest in 3D printers and had an urge to build another one. I also had a lot of spare parts around such as rods, linear bearings, nuts, etc as I over bought for the Prusa build. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nI was looking for some more height and at least on one X or Y axis and searching around I found the Wallace++ 8mm<\/a>\n design at and thought it was simple and expandable. \nIt looked like the Y axis would be easy enough to extend with just \nlonger rods and the Z could be made higher with the additional \nstabilizers found around online. \nI even bought some ebay special steppers, RAMPS and Arduino Mega to \ndrive the thing and printed the parts and some mods I found and put it \ntogether in mid 2014.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd then I lost interest… I ended up sticking it in the closet where it sat for more a couple years apparently. \nThe Wallace design is obviously very similar to the original Printrbot design and vice versus. \nI haven’t looked up which came first but parts can be interchanged in many areas.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nIn late 2016 after seeing other RobotRebels.org builders such as Jinx \nand Ossipee starting some new 3D printer builds and having taken a \ncouple weeks off work to reset my brain, \nI was interested in building something and the Wallace in the closet \ncame to mind so Mr. Wallace came out of the closet… literally. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally I couldn’t get the electronics to work and gave it up after losing interest. After a bit of messing around it was obvious the RAMPS board had issues so I ordered a new one since they were so cheap and sure enough the new one worked fine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The majority of the parts and the inspiration came from the Wallace ++ M8<\/a> remix of the original \nWallace by sponnet<\/a>.\n \nI did use 5\/16″ rod as I’m an “American” and we can’t go down to the \nlocal store and pickup 8mm stuff. \nI was not a fan of the bases used in that remix however and used the \nbases from another source which I can’t remember or find now. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted a bigger build bed so I extended the Y axis so a 200×300 heated bed would fit but it still needs to be a little longer to get the full 300mm motion. I should have extended the X axis as well so the full 200mm could be used there but all that is needed for that is longer smooth and threaded rod and it can be resolved. Yes, I know, this design is prone to be wobble up top but I extended the Z axis anyhow as I wanted taller print capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X Carriage Issues<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\nOne of the main issues that needed changing was the X carriage design. \nI liked the thin setup BUT as designed the carriage would not fit an E3D clone as the hotend is too close to the carriage. \nAfter a bit of searching I found Techno35’s<\/a> generic X carriage \nfor this flat X carriage design<\/a> and decided to roll my own extruder mount for my favorite geared extruder<\/a> by\n Wired1<\/a>. \nI do not use the gears from that extruder as I like these thin herring bone versions<\/a> instead. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I ended up with the design shown and as ugly as it is it works quite well. The X carriage DOES require at least three linear bearings to keep it tight but I went ahead and installed four to keep it balanced out to my eyeballs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another thing I didn’t like was the puny Y idler setup that used printed bearing supports and M3 screws. I simply upgraded that to use 5\/16″ bolts and 608 bearings and it’s much stronger. I liked Komb’s<\/a> Y motor mount better and by using it one can adjust Y belt tension by adjusting the bolts on the threaded rods instead of trying to do other end of bed adjusters. I have found out one should really pay attention to belt alignment on the pulleys as it will pull the 608 shells apart otherwise and make a nice little print failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Go Big or Go Home<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\nI figured I wanted to go tall so on literally the third print I figured \n“Go Big or Go Home” and since I was already home I went big. The print \nturned out rather well especially since I didn’t use the “vase” option \nor anything in Slic3r. Since there wasn’t a lot of infill the top layers\n didn’t wobble much and the print was quite usable<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Next I tried a tall print by printing the bulb for my Steam Punk ESP controller light project<\/a>\n and it printed nicely. Early on I had a filament underloop on the spool\n which created a dead layer or two but I just shortened the final output\n and kept the print as it came out. The circle print was cleaner since \nthere was much less rapid jerk movement up high.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Overall Impressions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\nOverall I’m happy with this little printer and glad he came out of the \ncloset and is making stuff. In fact, Mr. Wallace is already reproducing \n(you really didn’t think THAT way of him coming out of the closet did \nyou?) by making parts for another Wallace my son and I are going to \nbuild so he’ll have something to print things for his Mechanical \nEngineering Tech degree he is finishing up over the next year or so.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe printer is definitely not going to compete with the big box CoreXY \ndevices being built today or break any print speed or quality records \nbut for an old man coming out of the Closet it’s not doing too bad of a \njob.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plans for Improvements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\nI do think that the extruder needs to be swapped out for a bowden setup \nto lower the wobbles and to obtain better top layer prints and that is \nalready in the works.\nI’ve never worked with a bowden setup but found this mixed extruder<\/a> by yimamura<\/a> which was originally designed by schlottz<\/a> which is a very popular direct drive design.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n\nI mixed it up from there to lay it flat on top of an update top Z rod \nmount keeping it close to the filament stand but allowing enough flex in\n the bowden feed for full X and Z motion… I hope anyhow.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nIf I have issues with the direct drive setup or can’t figure out the \ncalibration I’ll fall back and use the existing extruder with a bowden \noutput adapter I designed that is basically just a J Head with a hole \nfor the bowden fitting. I can then redesign a top mount for it to use.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Closing Points<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\nIn closing would I recommend building this printer? Sure if you want \nsomething simple, cheap and effective. It’s not going to perform like \nthe CoreXY printers but it’s really cheap with the only cost being the \nRAMPS, Hotend, lead screws, connectors, rods, and bearings which are all\n dang cheap anymore. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe basic run down for cost is like this:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n