@saharshn

Devlog #14: Introducing VKTR

so as you can see i did forget to devlog
its alr tho i got some INSANE changes watch out

• Introducing VKTR: it is probably one of the coolest toolheads I have made. Packaging and form factor inspired by the A4T, and front plate styling inspired by the Stealthburner. Utilizes a Wristwatch v3 BMG extruder, and a Bambu Labs P1s Hotend for cost purposes. has two 4010 Blower fans for part cooling, 2510 Intake fan, and 3007 Exhaust fan.

The name is inspired by the vectoring i had to use for my ducting but somehow i accidentally put a K instead of a C but didnt notice??? still sounds cool asf tho

• The entire gantry is reworked to make this voron-compatible and to make this workable with voron toolheads. this allows me to not only use the toolheads I make, but rather the ones anyone in the voron community makes to work on this

• new V2 Frame with V2 Bed! 220220195 total volume, and now its considerable more stable and cleaner looking (with extra space for rgb!!!)

• as of right now, the entire motion system should be done!!! time for enclosure and elec spacing, and we can actually build this!!!

Devlog #13: Restructuring

I realized I’ve gone about this a completely wrong way. I’ve been overcomplicating this gantry wayy too much, and ended up making this so much more complicated and a LOT weaker than it could be.

As a result, I am re-doing the whole CoreXY Motion system!!!

So what I have accomplished:

• all new gantry based off of lie-flat Y rails and Voron-based CoreXY rigging (belt plate sandwich between toolhead and carriage)
• moved toolhead to be facing forward instead of backward, frees up alot of space but makes hot-swapping toolheads alot harder so I might have to temporarily drop it.
• made these cool asl idler blocks that look so aura
• dropped rail profile by ~29.3mm vertically
• made a lot stronger due to aluminum plate sandwich
• zero cantilever design

Devlog #12: Frame(work)
-so main thing is that ive been out of town for some time so im lwk just doing work whenever possible, so this is what im doing:

• motion-wise, the frame is almost done!!! its crazy how close i’m getting to being finished!!!
• midway through re-doing Z axis from linear rods to rails, mainly just due to ease of use.
• finished coreXY idler box! essentially this is just what holds 4 idlers and a single tensioned Nema17 motor for coreXY motion
• had to drop build size to 235235180mm due to issues with linear rails im buying
• i forgot if this was mentioned before but Z leadscrews!!!

ok ill prob write more once i get back but yeah thats maily what ive done

Devlog #11: ANOTHER new toolhead???

overall a very productive devlog!!!
so what I worked on:

• Introducing the DoubleDecker Toolhead, a larger, all-in-one toolhead with a direct drive extruder and bi-directional cooling done via double part cooling fans. Despite the many added features, it weiths around 240 grams, which is significantly less than the Voron Stealthburner (a reference for this toolhead). Alongside that, it uses an entirely surface-modeled duct, based off of multiple Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations.

• modified the sailfin even more to better suit my needs (better mounting solution, smaller packaging) and now fits very well into my packaging

• ik i said it alr but: the duct!!! it took me like 1-2 hours of surface modelling to get the geometries just right, but its definitely paid off (looks tuff asl, works well)

ok so thats p much it for my devlog, heres my bucket list:

• more gantry work
• frame (swap 3dp for extrusion???
  more corexy rigging work

ok byeee

Devlog # 10: Packaging Headache

so what i actually achieved:

• modified sailfin extruder with side mount for bowden setup
• i tried to make a direct drive toolhead (again smh) but this time actually compact and an all-rounder. The main limitation for me was the fact that the sailfin mounting holes just aren’t meant for a toolhead this small.

one cool thing about this toolhead is that despite the extra direct drive extruder, its still very light, sitting at around 180 grams total. heavier than my previous sub-90 toolheads but this should be better consistency-wise and work very well with filaments like TPU and TPA.

• more gantry and frame work!!!

in the next devlog, i’m gonna be reworking the mounting of the sailfin toolhead to fit into this better, but I’d say that this actually was a pretty locked in session.

Devlog #9: Triple it and give it to the next person

WOW. This is genuinely one of the best checkpoints im at. i did not expect to be able to get here lol

so what i did:
TWO new hotends!!!

• bolt-on hotend and carriage: essentially a carriage that ditches the heavy servo and toolchanger for a more secure screw-on changer. This means you’ll be able to push feeds and speeds higher on this, and is especially useful if you’re doing single material prints.
• Lightspeed hotend (get it? its light and its fast lol): if your chasing true performance this genuinely might be your best bet. it ditches the large eddy probe for a sub-90 gram carriage, meaning you’ll be able to push this to the limit. Also, the Center of Gravity is a lot closer to the gantry meaning more control.

Updated gantry:
so I fixed the main issue with the gantry, being pulleys in the center. If theyre in the center, it ends up being very weird belt geometry wise due to how CoreXY is rigged, and as a result, had to make the gentry idlers side-agonistic, meaning the belt path will stay perfectly parallel to the gantry.

updated clamp plates:
these clamp plates ACTUALLY WORK!!! ikr ts so cool

Devlog #8: A Big Mis-step

stuff i worked on that actually works:

• the coreXY idler rigging for the gantry is done! looks nice
• basic frame packaging work done, planning out space for extruders, docking station, electronics, and coreXY hardware.

so i realized wayyyy too late that for coreXY rigging i need to have the belt run parallel to the x axis 😭 i thought i could get away with angled belts but sadly i do have to redo the carriage clamps for belting

also I thought up of a newer and better system to add more modularity:

• the actual modular system is a set of 4 corner holes
• you can add any tool system you want after that, meaning if your chasing performance you can do a single fixed hotend, of if you need the extra ability multicolor adds you can install the toolchanging and docking system. as a result this means im going to have to install the probe on my toolhead but it isnt too big of a deal.

so yeah thats pretty much it for today!!!

Devlog #7: Unpowered Gantry and a smaller toolhead

so so far, all I’ve done is shorten the toolhead, and made a gantry structure wise. One main thing I need to do later is actually add corexy hardware but trust we’re getting there.

Alongside the gantry work, i shortened the toolhead by approx ~20mm and brought it significantly closer to the carriage to reduce the amount of forces on it as a result of it being so far. for both of these i do need to work on adding the coreXY rigging, but thats something i can work on later so im not too worried about it.

Devlog #6: what is a toolhead

so basically although this is somewhat of a smaller devlog time-wise, i got my whole toolhead plus swapping mechanism done!!!

so how it works:

• there is a SWYFT Micro servo in the actual carriage with a servo arm that latches onto the toolhead
• 3 low profile socket head cap screws act as pins to prevent any angular movements (one in each corner for 3/4 corners)

some cool nerd tech specs:

• toolhead projected to be approx ~ 90 g, lighter than most vorons
• uses BIQU Eddy Probe for quick Z-probing
• overall carriage weight projected to be under 140g

so yeah cant wait to do more!!! see yall next one

Devlog #5: An actually Productive Devlog???

So i re-did the whole extruder assemble and it looks so nice now!!!

• probably the smallest its gonna be
• has a blower fan for cooling the print layer (just like many modern bambus/vorons) WITH DUCTING!!!

not pictured:

• mounting hardware in the back onto aura carriage
• Bowden Pneumatic Push-to-connect M6 Fittings

so basically i re-did this to be as small and lightweight as possible, and as a result i got it to look SUPER cool, and looks so nice and almost like an actually good printer!!!

On the latch/toolchange mechanism:

this has gone past multiple modifications over the past hour. Initially, I thought it would be best to have a whole hub that uses clips to latch onto the carriage, but i ended up settling with just using a single servo arm to hold the latching and adding stability screws so it should (keyword: should) be precise enough to not add any slop.

ok first nice productive devlog in some time, time to get some rest!!!

DEVLOG #4: Am I going the wrong way???

So I spent some time today working on a toolhead, but realized I might be doing this wrong.

This is originally for a stock hotend setup that is larger so that it ends up being the same size as a larger direct drive hotend for more sensitive filaments such as TPU. But i realized, i might just be thinking about this the wrong way…

Instead of making a direct drive extruder thats larger and heavier, what if I just use a bowden extruder (like all my other extruders on this printer) thats a lot more sensitive and conservative performance wise for TPU instead of a direct drive extruder.

Alongside this, I cant just use a standard extruder because it would end up causing the TPU to bind, meaning I’m going to have to design a custom spring loaded extruder. I might also use the same extruders for my other extruders due to how much better a spring loaded extruder is compared to a fixed extruder, despite the added complexity.

after a break, I decided it’d be better for me to just let go of the double hotend idea.

the main thing is that it just overcomplicates the idea wayyyy too much and ends up just being worse:

• the main ideology behind the double hotend tool was so that I can print supports with a larger .8mm nozzle, speeding up print times due to higher flow and taller layer heights.

• what I didnt realize was that if I did do this, it would be extremely messy with dual nozzles as theres a high chance the secondary nozzle would just hit the newly printed layers on a large enough part.

• Also, I wouldnt be able to take the taller layers to my advantage due to the fact that theres a .4mm nozzle that physically cant do those tall layer heights and it ends up becoming too messy, pretty much just handicapping the performance of the .8mm nozzle

• The new idea: just have a seperate high flow toolhead with a .8mm nozzle thats just as light as a single toolhead, which can take advantage of the higher print speed and the taller layer heights

• To replace the double hotend tool, I came up with the idea for another toolhead:

so basically my current toolheads use a bowden tube extruder, which essentially is having the actual extruder part of the toolhead somewhere on the printer frame, and it feeds filament from there into the hotend. It saves alot of weight, but ends up being worse for some filaments (like TPU) which bind very easily and cause issues with a bowden setup (which is why tpu doesnt work well on the AMS!).

The idea is having a heavier toolhead which has the main purpose of using a Direct Drive extrusion setup, using a Nema17 Stepper sitting on the actual toolhead, and unlike the bowden setup that “pushes” filament and causes binding, this “pulls” in filament and reduces binding risk. the extra weight means I wont be able to print as fast, but means that it’d be compatible with filaments sensitive to binding up such as TPU.

ik this is a yap session, sorry to the reviewers that have to read this in advance!!!

I have also attached my base level airflow diagram for the single nozzle setup because you guys deserve more data :)

The extra space for the outtake fan also acts as a ledge to mount the Nema17 Stepper motor for the direct drive toolhead (im trying to keep everything the same size to help uniformity when i make the toolchanger.)

(also disclaimer the ai response was edited i wish google gemini could be this blunt)

after some onshape work, I have a normal looking printbed! its inspired by the triple lead screw beds found on many coreXY printers, and based on an equilateral triangle for better triangulation for printbed leveling.

the idea of a modular 3d printer:
so I was bored and thought, “what if i could make a 3d printer that has dual hotends for faster printing and better supports, but then also a toolchanger so i can swap it to a lighter single hotend, or even potentially a router endmill? so my main goal from this devlog was to capture the planning I’ve done with choosing materials for the gantry, movement, and the extrusion system. only the electronigc to go and I can get CAD started!

OMG OMG OMG I ACTUALLY DID IT SDKFJDSKFDSKJF

Yeah im genuinely so surprised i actually did this lol im stunned

Basically what happened:

• printing legion came in today!!!!
• i forgot to print a part so i did a last minute sprint on a friends printer
• had to sand down most of the gears due to meshing issues cuz of tolerances (fried)
• i no-lifed the rest of the build, so many new parts came in so it took like 3 whole hours but atleast its finished now 👍
• fixed setpoints for code
• made last minute belt tensioner cuz 3dp belt stretch
• actually tested it!!! AND OMG IT WORKED FIRST TRY
• dry-lubed it (even tho most plastics are somewhat self-lubricating)
• recorded a video in only like 6 takes
• DID A PHOTOSHOOT

I am genuinely surprised i stayed sane after this. I remember starting at like 11 AM and then realized I finished at 7 PM, like I dont even know how I stayed through this long. It was a wild ride, but definitely a fun one.

TOTAL TIME: 8 HOURS

Today was a bit more chill build-wise, but now I had to deal with electrical work and how I can power and control this.

Basically, the main concern was that how I can power the brushed DC motor as I dont have a FTC control hub on me 😔

Sooooo i came up with a few solutions and tested it:

• battery pack: this was what i spent the most time working on. Basically just stacking a bunch of double A batteries to have a strong enough power supply to move the motor. Its a 12V motor but 6v should work, so i just stacked 4 double A’s and prayed it worked (AAAAAAAA battery hehe) but it did not work 💀

-after 2 hours or so of actually experimenting with power solutions I landed on using 120V AC to 9V DC power brick and connecting that to the motor via jumper wires, and that actually worked really well. 9V meant that it wasnt as powerful as it could have been with 12V, but it was good enough as a proof of concept (i was wayyyy too lazy to keep trying that 😭)

For the servo, this was sooo much easier and was a lot less complex. I had a raspberry pi pico on me and i was able to throw a few lines together to make a quick script that oscillates between two setpoints. The servo is supposed to be powered by a 4.8-7.2 v power supply which is more than the pico’s 3.3v, so I just used the passthru 5v from the USB. this was sooooo much easier than the motor it was actually insane 😭

And for build:
I got my WCP Bearing in!!! Yay!!!!!
I actually got a good bit of my project done lol it was crazy i was locked in
Structure-wise stuff is actually done now, just waiting on printing legion and then illl be ready for the greatest build sprint oat
TOTAL TIME SPENT: 5 HOURS

Ok todays atleast better since I dont have to tap, but now have to actually make this.

For what its worth, tapping actually made the process soo much easier like I genuinely flew through build it was sooo nice and smooth

But still, I somehow ran into an issue.

Most of my parts were printed with printing legion, and that only comes in on friday, meaning Im only going to be able to assemble half of it. Its not horrible, but makes friday so much harder on me 😭esp with recording the video and everything

But other than that, its starting to come out pretty nicely!!!

TOTAL TIME SPENT: 4 hours

So basically i got a motor from my friend to use for this cuz i originally didnt have the money for it, but the problem is that the gearbox on it was HALF SIEZED 😭genuinely took me like 30 mins of prying just to set it free 💀atleast the rest of the disassembly was chill tho took like 1 hour max

After that I had to do something I kinda dreaded: Tapping…

So basically whats happening is that since this was meant to be made out of aluminum, it needed holes to be tapped, but since I wasnt able to use my CNC, I had to print this out of PETG-CF.

Aaand as a result, i now have to tap plastic 💀

The two main things im worried about is:
A. ive never tapped plastic before and am worried the layers might delaminate and separate
B. i have ZERO tapping tools other than just a tapping bit meaning im gonna have to do it by hand entirely 😭

Since im tapping using my hands, this took SO LONG it was actually insane it took me SIX AND A HALF HOURS its wraps for me

TOTAL TIME SPENT: 7.5 hours

So today I got my grant, meaning now i actually have to build this!!!

Only problem is… i forgot to include shipping and taxes lmaooo 170 dollard with of parts now cost 200 bucks lol

AANNDDD i forgot that i actually needed the parts quick cuz im actually trying to submit this for super hardware builder lol

What I did:

• went back into cad and saw where i could remove the need for distinct screws since mcmaster screws have MOQs of like 50/100 etc
  I had to remove a bunch of socket head screws cuz somehow they costed more than button heads? Lol
  Removed 12mm M4 socket head screws cuz 14mm countersunks could do and alr am buying those
  Removed 5mm socket heads and 8mm countersunk cuz 8mm button(which im alr buying) could still work
  Dropped 20mm m4 socket heads cuz im alr buying 25mm and that could work

On the topic od Mcmaster, I drovethere and did a will call so that iu didnt have to pay shipping so boom money saved

• gobilda shipping costs like 70 bucks otherwise it takes a week 😔
  • got an equivalent pulley and bore reducer off of mcmaster
  • i have to 3d print all my shafts 💀might be wraps
  • all my beams have to be 3d printed and HAND TAPPED yo i might be cooked

But luckily other than that its going good :D wcp bearing doesnt cost too much but with corgi express shipping it was only 20 bucks and its 2-day!!!

Also my 3d printer wasnt working so I had to outsource to printing legion but its allg should come by friday

At the end of the day, i was able to order everything so im happy about that! Cant wait to start build!

TIME SPENT: 3 Hours 30 Minutes