UConduit - H-bot

thingiverse

I volunteer in a local high school classroom teaching Mechatronics for two days every week. Before building this 3D printer, we had six printers in the classroom that cost us $350 each or more. We wanted to show our future engineers that it's possible to build a good 3D printer for under $200. The U-Conduit printer by iquizzle was an excellent candidate, and its construction provided a stable printer due to the O-ring design, which made the frame scalable in size. The H-bot style also gave us another type of 3D printer to experience. Our printer's dimensions were determined by the length of our available 8mm rods. The print area is: X 229 mm, Y 229 mm, Z 203 mm (9 inch x 9 inch x 8 inch). This project is called Remix because several items changed during its construction process. We modified some parts using the OpenSCAD drawings provided by the original designer, which made it easy to learn something new besides Solidworks or AutoDesk Inventor. We are currently using this printer in the classroom with Repetier Host V1.6.2 software and an Arduino Mega 2560 board using Marlin RC-7 firmware. Here's a list of changes we made: * We used SAE machine screws instead of metric nuts and bolts to reduce cost and increase availability. * We replaced the original extruder with a pipe-mounted Bowden-style extruder. * We added three-point bed leveling with mirrored glass holders. * We installed an 12864 LCD display. * We changed the extruder hot end, necessitating a redesign of the extruder and fan mounting. The new extruder is a Metal J-Head V6 Hot End. * We modified the Y-axis rod mounting to give the extruder more room and make it more stable. * We added a mechanically adjustable Z-offset switch mount. * We installed a pipe mount on the back of the printer for the 12-volt power supply. We're using this printer with software from Repetier Host V1.6.2, along with Arduino Mega 2560 and Marlin RC-7.