Upcycle your old Prusa into a laser cutter

Jon aka. Dr3vil used a parts form old Prusa Mendel and made a close chamber DIY laser cutter / engraver. He documented his project on Thingiverse.

Jon writes:

I wanted to add a laser cutter/engraver to my shop and decided it would make a good design challenge based on recycling a Prusa Mendel - Essentially a frame of 5/16” threaded rod and 8mm rod with LMU88 bearings. The CAD models had to be simple to print, make what you can, buy what you absolutely must, and source locally. Ultimately this project is a primer for building gen III of my 3D printer and a larger gen II laser of many watts. As such I’m sharing an ‘as-is’ , ‘it got me to operational’ dump of the project STL’s, sanding and part prep will be required.

Firmware is Marlin configured for CoreXY. It was helpful to set a dummy thermistor value as this allows using the print bead and hot-end outputs as switches from gcode (M104 S100 and M140 S100, send S0 to turn off). The fans and laser power supply are switched, as usual fan PWM modulates the laser through M106.

Gcode generation is either by Jtech Inkscape plugin or 305 Engineering’s raster generator. For engraving PCB’s I ended up modifying 305’s code, borrowing a page from Jtech. The first change was having laser off moves run at full speed, since acceleration is handled in firmware this shaves a lot of time off the job. The second change was to have a pause when turing the laser on or off as to allow the edges of the burn to be more defined, 200ms was enough. Finally adding pre and post geode safe the machine when done and get in position.

For files and instructions go to:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2120327

Keep in mind that it is a work in progress...

Titan modification for Prusa Mendel

If you think that your Prusa Mendel sucks you can upgrade it in various ways. Here is one possibility: the Titan developed by Justin Trisnamawan and Andy Chu.
It is not well documented and there are no details or designs for the frame available, but maybe they will come in the future. It looks good.

Wood framed Mendel detailed construction guide

Bram created this very detailed guide on how to DIY this Mendel with wooden A-frame. The total cost is some 350 euro.

Very detailed build guide, with code for controllers, files and drawings:

http://www.instructables.com/id/3D-Printer-2/?ALLSTEPS

project site in Dutch:

http://project.nerdz.nl/?cat=7

 

There are downloadable cutting drawings and guides 

Problems with Prusa Mendel design (or 5 reasons why Prusa Mendel Sucks by MadMaxx)

MadMaxx made this great video describing his experiences with Prusa Mendel. Because he described several problems and raised some questions he received a lot of negative comments on this video.
He did told me on twitter that he was intentionally controversial to start the debate which is important for open source community. Without discussion there is no progress and that is the point that some of his commentators do not understand. They just went into attack mode "HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT PROBLEMS!!!!!.




Problems he describes:

1. Hanging Z-axis
2. Two Z-axis motors
3. Lots of wire strain
4. Hard to maintain - easy to mess up 
5. X axis wobble

I don't't have lot of experience with Prusa Mendel, but I read or heard about most of those problems, but never tough of them as design issues. I just never connected the dots.
Many of those problems can be solved with upgrades and later Prusa Mendel designs made improvements to address those issues. And there is the Prusa I3 :-)

Update (11.1.2014.):

Josef Prusa responded to this video:

Hi man,
first, my name is pronounced "proosha".
As you said, its old model, no reason to bitch about it in 2013 you are three years too late ;-)
It is still built as there are thousands of ppl who can help you with it.

Hanging Z axis was made because it transfers less wobble to the print, now with tube couplings, its not needed. Your coupling slid out of the shafts either because they were oversized or you didnt tighten them. Sanding the motor shafts helps a lot too. Your cables broke as you didn't bolt them to the Y carriage or used poor cables. Two motor Z axis is much easier to maintain then the original mendel one, if you would built original mendel, you would know. That thing sucked to calibrate. The x axis wobble is true, but during prints it wasn't affecting the quality too much. ...
Anyway, keep up the good work.

Source:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQuUqd9ldUU

Let's talk abut problems. Criticism is free consulting.

Here are videos by Allen Jetter that describe how he improved his Prusa Mendel and changes / upgrades he made. He invested lot of work and time. It doesn't solve all problems mentioned above and raises some new issues, but it is good illustration on hove to move ahead.

Mendel90 with lasercut MDF frame and acrylic enclosure

This looks cool. Maybe I'll find a laser cutter (which is not the easiest task in rural Croatia) in the future and try to build it. I wonder what are the heat retention impacts on print quality ...

From project description:

A modified version of the Mendel90 which uses a lasercut melamine coated MDF frame (same fixing idea as the graber i3 frame). It allows an acrylic enclosure to be fitted. 

Main changes:
Frame re-designed, Z axis changed to laser cut parts.
Some plastic parts modified (not many)
Acrylic enclosure added
Wiring simplified - all motors have detachable plugs, endstops are push fit. this allows for a wiring loom to be used.
RAMPS electronics as standard with the Panelolu2 controller.

All the detail is available on our blog:
http://blog.think3dprint3d.com/2013/09/mendel90-laser-cut-ready-to-print.html
The assembly process in more detail in in this post:http://blog.think3dprint3d.com/2013/10/mendel90-lasercut-overview.html
The commissioning and calibration in outline is here:
http://blog.think3dprint3d.com/2013/10/mendel90-lasercut-calibration.html
The printer is designed from the start to take multiple bowden extruders as an alternative to a single direct drive extruder. Updates will follow!

Files available at:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:169615

Project by: http://www.thingiverse.com/Think3dPrint3d/designs

Meet the Blacksmith - open source 3d printer derived from Prusa i2

Blacksmith is a DIY 3d printer derived from i2 Prusa Mendel. Power module, wires and electronics are in the bottom frame. It looks mighty and sturdy.

Project home page, build instructions and files:
http://splod67.com/blacksmith.html


Not to be confused with same name polar 3d printer:
http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2013/09/blacksmith-printr-rotary-3d-printer.html

Laser cutting with Prusa Mendel i2

Via:
http://www.youtube.com/user/prusajr?feature=watch


Update:
As many readers noticed: USE EYE PROTECTION! LASERS ARE VERY DANGEROUS FOR YOUR EYES! ...

Update 2:
I was just thinking that this is part of a larger trend of DIY desktop 3d printers becoming multifunctional machines that do more then just print. They could mill, route, cut, scan ... It could spawn whole new range of machines, true small scale desktop factories ...

Update 3:

More videos and guides fro RepRap-s with lasers: http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2013/09/more-diy-reprap-laser-cutters-and.html


Update 4:

Here is a post with information on hot to start your 3d printer upgrade into laser cutter / engraver:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2013/11/how-to-upgrade-your-3d-printer-into.html

OhmEye gives introduction to 3d printing and RepRap Prusa Mendel

Perfect introduction to 3d printing an RepRap Prusa Mendel project by OhmEye. Great for parents, girlfriends, noobs and other novices to the field.

RepRap Tricolour Mendel is out!

RepRapPro has their Tricolour Mendel out. It is designed to work with three colours or three different plastics at the same time. They also plan future usage of electrically-conducting plastics, magnetic plastics and soluble support materials. Great to see that the technology is advancing. Hopefully first reviews of the working machine in real world applications will be out soon. It is priced around 1000 USD.

Specs:

• Build volume: 210x190x140mm
• Overall size: 500x460x410mm
• Printing materials: ABS, PLA, 1.75mm diameter thermoplastic.
• Build surface: PCB-heated bed to reduce complexity of assembly and to ensure parts do not warp. Computer interface: USB
• X-carriage: Three Z-adjustable deposition heads.
• Accuracy: 0.1mm
• Resolution: 0.0125mm
• Building speed: 1,800 mm/min
• Moving speed: 12,000 mm/min
• Deposition rate: 33 cm3 / hr
• Motion: Linear ball bearings on X and Y axes, Igus low friction bushings on Z axis.
• Pre-soldered electronics with built-in microSD card slot for standalone printing.
• enhanced widely-used Marlin firmware allowes the addition of a slave controller board to drive the extra extruders.
• Arduino-compatible Melzi electronics for both the master and slave controllers.

http://reprappro.com/Tricolour_Mendel

Multi colored RepRap Mendel printing

Here is a video by THE Adrian Bowyer showing multi headed Mendel printing in three colors and challenges when CAD modelling it.


RepRapPro Multi-material Printing from Adrian Bowyer on Vimeo.

http://reprappro.com/Special_Blog?cmd=post&id=12