Mostly printed Humongous 3d printer CNC multitool

thingiverse

I've been struggling to get anything printed successfully because my 4 z-axis motors are only getting half the power they need. This results in skipping steps, making it impossible for the printer to raise the level. My solution to this problem is to add a Mechaduino board to each motor, which should resolve the issue. For those who might be wondering what a Mechaduino board is, it's essentially an encoder and motor controller that attaches to the back of any NEMA 17 or 23 stepper motor, turning it into a servo/stepper motor. I've included a link below for more information. Now, I just need to figure out how to connect it to my Ramps board, which I plan to do this weekend. I only recently discovered Mechaduino, and I wish I had known about it when I started, as it would have allowed me to use NEMA 23 motors for the Z axis and provide more power to the motors. This printer has a build volume of 38'' x 24'' x 28'' high. It's easily customizable to be made larger or smaller. The design inspiration came from the Mostly Printed CNC, which can be found on Thingiverse (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1671517). I modified the STL files using ThinkerCAD. I used 1'' OD rods made of cold-rolled DOM steel from an online metal supermarket for this build. For the control unit, I'm using a Ramps 1.4 board and had to utilize the E1 motor driver for the Z axis to provide more power. The bearings are identical to those used in the Mostly Printed CNC, and so are the bolts holding them in place. For parts, you can check out the following links: https://vicious1-com.myshopify.com/collections/parts/products/bearings-608-2rs and https://vicious1.com/blog/parts/. Here's a list of the motors I used: * 8 NEMA 17 stepper motors (4 with a gearbox, gear ratio 5 to 1.18) - available on eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/322128759561?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT) As for bolts: * 40 x 1.25'' x 5/16-18 * 16 x 2'' x 5/16-18 * 4 x 1.5'' x 5/16-18 * 16 x 3'' x 5/16-18 * 76 x 6x32x3/4'' * 16 x 6x32x1'' * 8 x 1.25'' x 5/16-18 * 36 x 3M-10 * 76 lock nuts 5/16-18 * 24 nuts 5/16-18 * 92 nuts 6x32 * 4 acme screws 3/4'' x 36'' - 6 * 12 acme nuts 3/4'' - 6 For the box, I used 3/4'' wood. The firmware I'm using is Marlin with the Ramps 1.4 board, and I had to use the E1 driver to power the Z axes for more power. To do this, you need to modify the Configuration_adv.h file by removing the // in front of "// #endif // Z_DUAL_STEPPER_DRIVERS".